The

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Ja ...

Dallas Texans season was the inaugural season of

Lamar Hunt Lamar Hunt (August 2, 1932 – December 13, 2006) was an American businessman most notable for his promotion of American football, soccer, and tennis in the United States. He was the principal founder of the American Football League (AFL) and ...

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...

franchise based in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

. Head coach Hank Stram led the team to an 8–6 record and second place in the AFL's Western Conference.Kansas City Chiefs History 1960s
''KCChiefs.com'' For the Texans' inaugural season, team owner Lamar Hunt pursued both legendary

University of Oklahoma , mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State" , type = Public research university , established = , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.7billion (2021) , pr ...

coach

Bud Wilkinson Charles Burnham "Bud" Wilkinson (April 23, 1916 – February 9, 1994) was an American football player, coach, broadcaster, and politician. He served as the head football coach at the University of Oklahoma from 1947 to 1963, compiling a record of ...

and

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisio ...

defensive assistant

Tom Landry Thomas Wade Landry (September 11, 1924 – February 12, 2000) was an American professional football player and coach. He was the first head coach of the Dallas Cowboys in the National Football League (NFL), a position he held for 29 seasons. Dur ...

to lead his Texans franchise. Wilkinson opted to stay at Oklahoma, while Landry was destined to coach the NFL's expansion franchise in Dallas. Hunt settled on a relatively unknown assistant coach from the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...

, Hank Stram. "One of the biggest reasons I hired Hank was that he really wanted the job", Hunt explained. "It turned out to be a very lucky selection on my part."Kansas City Chiefs History AFL Origins"
The Texans set up offices in the Mercantile National Bank Building, while Jerry Foss headquartered the AFL offices out of Dallas, as well. Reserved seats were $4, general admission $2, and high school students paid $0.90 that initial season. Don Rossi served as the team's

General Manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

until November when he was succeeded by

Jack Steadman Jack W. Steadman (September 14, 1928 – July 5, 2015) was an American football executive who served as chairman, vice president, president and general manager for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League. Steadman retired as vice c ...

. The Texans conducted their inaugural training camp at the New Mexico Military Institute in

Roswell, New Mexico Roswell () is a city in, and the seat of, Chaves County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Chaves County forms the entirety of the Roswell micropolitan area. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 48,422, making it the fifth-largest city ...

. The club embarked on a whirlwind pre-season barnstorming tour that featured road games in Oakland,

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region wit ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Abilene, and

Little Rock ( The "Little Rock") , government_type = Council-manager , leader_title = Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_party = D , leader_title2 = Council , leader_name2 ...

. An announced crowd of 51,000 at the Cotton Bowl witnessed a 24–3 victory against

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 ...

on September 2 as the club concluded a perfect 6–0 preseason record. The Texans had a strong home-state identity with

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Am ...

Cotton Davidson from Baylor,

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...

Sherrill Headrick Sherrill Headrick (March 13, 1937 – September 10, 2008) was an American professional football player. Early life Headrick grew up in Fort Worth, Texas where he was an All-District fullback at North Side High School. He played college footbal ...

from TCU, and

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Th ...

Abner Haynes from

North Texas North Texas (also commonly called North Central Texas) is a term used primarily by residents of Dallas, Fort Worth, and surrounding areas to describe much of the north central portion of the U.S. state of Texas. Residents of the Dallas–Fort Wo ...

. Haynes led the league with 875 rushing yards and nine TDs, as well as combined net yards (2,100) and punt return average (15.4). The Texans also had a flashy, high-scoring club that finished the year at 8–6 as three close losses kept the squad from challenging for the division title. The Texans averaged 24,500 for their home games, the highest average in the league. The Texans would earn their first win in franchise history in week 2 over the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Ra ...

, who would eventually become the team's biggest rival.

1960 AFL Draft

In the inaugural

American Football League Draft The American Football League (AFL, 1960–1969) stocked its teams in two ways: # Signing free agents (players whose contracts in other professional football leagues had expired, or who had no professional experience). # Signing players from t ...

, the Texans chose the following players to fill-up their squad: *Jack Atcheson, E, Western Illinois *George Boone, T, Kentucky *

Chris Burford Christopher William Burford III (born January 31, 1938) is a former American football wide receiver. Burford was a football captain at Stanford, leading the NCAA in receptions with 61 in 1959. The following year, he was a first round draft pic ...

, E, Stanford *Earl Ray Butler, T, North Carolina *Gail Cogdill, E, Washington State *James Crotty, HB, Notre Dame *Gary Ferguson, T, SMU *Tom Glynn, C, Boston College *Gene Gossage, T, Northwestern *Jim Heineke, T, Wisconsin *William Jerry, G/T, South Carolina *John Kapele, T, BYU *Louis Kelley, FB, New Mexico State *Gilmer Lewis, T/G, Oklahoma *John Malmberg, T/G, Knox College *Arvle Martin, C, TCU *Don Meredith, QB, SMU *Tom Moore, HB, Vanderbilt *Ola Murchison, E, COP *Bob Nelson, C, Wisconsin *Jim Norton, E, Idaho *Warren Rabb, QB, LSU *Howard Ringwood, HB, BYU * Johnny Robinson, HB, LSU *John Saunders, FB, South Carolina *Glenn Shaw, FB, Kentucky *Gordon Speer, HB, Rice *Jack Stone, G, Oregon *Marvin Terrell, G, Mississippi *Emery Turner, G, Purdue *Joe Vader, E, Kansas State *Carroll Zaruba, HB, Nebraska *Grady Alderman, G/T, Detroit *Herman Alexander, T/G, Findlay (OH) *Taz Anderson, HB, Georgia Tech *Jim Beaver, T/G, Florida *Bill Beck, T/G, Gustavus Adolphus *Gary Campbell, HB, Whittier *Vernon Cole, QB, North Texas State *Toby Deese, T/G, Georgia Tech *Carl Dumbald, T/G, West Virginia *Charles Elizey, C, Mississippi State *Tom Gates, HB, San Bernardino * Austin (Goose) Gonsoulin, HB, Baylor *Clark Holden, HB, USC *Dewitt Hoopes, T/G, Northwestern *Don Leebern, T/G, Georgia *Bill Thompson, C, Georgia *Billy Tranum, E, Arkansas *Jim Vickers, E, Georgia *Larry Ward, E, Lamar Tech *Paul Winslow, HB, North Carolina College *Doug Pat Brown, T/G, Fresno State

Regular season

The Texans finished their inaugural season 8–6, with three wins coming by shutout.

Standings

Schedule

Postseason

The Texans did not participate in the AFL Championship by finishing the season in second place of the Western Conference.

References

External links

1960 Dallas Texans season on Database Football
{{DEFAULTSORT:1960 Dallas Texans Season Kansas City Chiefs seasons Dallas Texans 1960 in sports in Texas