Wards of the League

The Untold Story of the First NFL Team in Dallas

by Mike Cobern

Published by: TCU Press

242 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in

Hardcover
9780875658841
Published: September 2024

$34.95

BUY

Description
Authors
Praise

Wards of the League is a long-lost tale from pro football’s buried past. Very few people even know that the 1952 Dallas Texans ever existed and played in the National Football League. Before the Dallas Cowboys became America's Team, these Texans were nobody’s team. The NFL’s first venture into the football-crazed hotbed known as the Lone Star State began with enthusiasm but ended in a doomed collapse before the season was even over. The Texans’ rapid rise and fall are chronicled in this book for the first time. The story of the failed team in a place that now boasts of having the most valuable sports franchise in the world today is truly a tale of being in the right place but at the wrong time.

Mike Cobern grew up in the Dallas area and at an early age fell in love with the Cowboys. One of his first memories is watching Super Bowl V as his Cowboys fell to the Baltimore Colts, ironically the same team the Dallas Texans became. With his first book, he wanted to chronicle something that had never been covered before, and this goal was fulfilled in this history of the NFL’s last failed franchise. Today, along with his wife, he still resides in Dallas and remains a football fan and avid historian.

I was extremely excited to [read] the story of this forgotten piece of NFL history. Mike Cobern tells the real account of what happened with this franchise, its warts and all. This book is a must read for any fan of the game.
--Gil Brandt, Pro Football Hall of Fame

I remember the 1952 Dallas Texans, but only vaguely. Mike Cobern has written a cogent and intriguing history of this misbegotten team. I recommend it.
--Verne Lundquist, CBS Sports

The last great untold NFL story, my family's failed attempt to bring professional football to Dallas in 1952, finally gets the treatment it deserves in Mike Cobern's capable hands. This comprehensively researched account of an almost-unbelievable story that's both tragic and comic is required reading for any football fan.
--Rhett Miller, lead singer of the Old 97’s and grandson of Giles E. Miller

Many years before the Dallas Cowboys, my father brought the first NFL team to Dallas. It was a real adventure, and I got to live through it as a child. Knowing people loved high school and college football, he figured a pro team in the Cotton Bowl would be a natural winner. The Dallas Texans came, but the crowds did not. Mike Cobern has gone through the family history of the team to reveal the inside story.
--Ed Miller, son of franchise owner Giles E. Miller