Cotton Bowl Days : Growing up with Dallas and the Cowboys in the 1960s [Hardcover]

John Eisenberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 8, 1997

A lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan and sports columnist for the Baltimore Sun presents a warm, nostalgic look at growing up with his favorite men, profiling the then-young team's players, their city, and the Cotton Bowl. 17,500 first printing."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Long before the Cowboys proclaimed themselves America's team, they were just another group of expansion cast-offs and NFL wannabes struggling through one miserable season after another. The city of Dallas was also struggling through those years, trying desperately to emerge from a darkness associated with the Kennedy assassination. What the Cowboys offered back then, even in defeat, was a magnet for civic pride. John Eisenberg is just four years older than the team, and Cotton Bowl Days is a tale of growing up--a boy's and a team's; they are that intertwined. The book's strength lies in Eisenberg's willingness to honestly confront history--his own, his city's, and the Cowboys'. Interviews with several players add vivid texture to strong reportage and a graceful pen. What ultimately emerges is a portrait of an era filled with mixed blessings, a team that could both rouse a town and ignore its own racism, and a man disposed to confront his boyhood in quest of truth rather than nostalgia.

From Library Journal

Not so long before their first Super Bowl, the Cowboys were a struggling expansion team with a new coach who were competing with another Dallas team for fan favor. Sportswriter Eisenberg (The Longest Shot: Lil E. Tee and the Kentucky Derby, LJ 3/15/96), who grew up with the team as part of a family rooting section in their aging stadium, draws on his own memories and those of coach Landry and his players to recall their progress to the first championship and a new stadium in 1972. Scores of books have been written about the team, among them Tom Landry's An Autobiography (Zondervan, 1990). Still, this warm memoir is good for most sports shelves.?Morey Berger, St. Joseph's Hosp. Lib., Tucson, Ariz.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First edition (September 8, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684831201
• ISBN-13: 978-0684831206
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,803,639 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Eisenberg grew up with books in his hands - his first summer job was at his mother's bookstore in his hometown of Dallas, Texas. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, he wrote for newspapers for almost three decades, mostly as a sports columnist at The Baltimore Sun covering major events such as the Super Bowl, Final Four, World Series, Kentucky Derby, and soccer's World Cup while also paying attention to his hometown teams - the Baltimore Ravens, Baltimore Orioles, and Maryland Terrapins. Along the way he wrote 3,000 columns and won more than 20 awards, including several first-places in the prestigious Associated Press Sports Editors contest.

He also has written for Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian Magazine, and Details, and before working in Baltimore. spent five years with the Dallas Times Herald.

No matter if he is writing about a famous football coach, a heartbroken jockey, or a pitcher who wins 20 games, John is known for unearthing original stories and bringing them to life with his clear-eyed analysis and lively narrative style. His book topics have included the start of Vince Lombardi's dynasty in Green Bay, the history of the Baltimore Orioles, his experience as a young fan of the Dallas Cowboys in the 1960s, the tragic breakdown of the horse Barbaro, and an outrageous North-South horse race that captivated the nation in 1823.

John lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, May 29, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Cotton Bowl Days: Growing Up with Dallas and the Cowboys in the 1960s (Paperback)

Hard as it is for me, Mr. Cowboy-hater, to admit it, this was an absolute joy to read. Much of the book comes across as Eisenberg's autobiography, but his writing skill and journalist's eye combine to provide a wonderful insight into the Cowboys-and the NFL-of the 1960s, as well as what it was like to be a fan.

For those who mourn the passing of pro football's greatest decade, and weep over what the game has now become, this is an easy book to warm to, one of the best I have ever read.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Time Well Spent!, December 24, 1999

By 

wormlerm (El Paso, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cotton Bowl Days : Growing up with Dallas and the Cowboys in the 1960s (Hardcover)

Cotton Bowl Days is an account of the early days of the Dallas Cowboys and of one family's love affair with the gridiron giants. As a lifelong Cowboy fan, this book provided information about their pre-America's Team days when they struggled with civil war(against cross-town rival the Texans) and with a lackluster response from fans (free tickets, no sellout).

This outstanding novel is jam-packed with in-depth interviews from the players themselves which prove that John Eisenberg did his fair share of investigating and didn't just sit down one day and decide to write a book. Whether a die-hard fan or simply a book lover, Cotton Bowl Days will be a time well spent for you as it was for me.

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read, May 29, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Cotton Bowl Days: Growing Up with Dallas and the Cowboys in the 1960s (Paperback)

I was never a Dallas Cowboys fan. I'm too young to remember the 1960s and the Cowboys playing in the Cotton Bowl. The superior, upper-crust image they took on after moving to the posh and expensive Texas Stadium in 1971 is what brought on the America's Team moniker, and which has caused so many fans to hate the Cowboys. But I wish I'd been around in the '60s because the 'Boys of those years were a team of real men, a blue-collar, hard-scrabble, hard-luck team.

Eisenberg does an excellent job detailing the formation and early years of the Dallas Cowboys. I especially found interesting the three-year inner-city battle against the AFL's Texans, as well as the impact of JFK's assassination to the psyche of the city. His interviews with former players and fans also gives a good feel of what the team and the fans experienced.

Eisenberg does focus a bit too much on his own personal and family experiences, in my opinion, which hurts the flow and continuity of the story, but that's the only knock I have against the book. It's definitely recommended reading for fans of football during the Golden Age of pro football when players and fans could relate to each other so much better than today.