The Texas Governor's Cup, or Cowboys–Texans rivalry or Battle of Texas, also formerly known as the Oilers–Texans rivalry or Cowboys–Oilers rivalry, is the trophy awarded to the winner of the football game between the two

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL) teams in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, currently the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. T ...

and the

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. The team plays its home games at N ...

. The rivalry began during the inaugural 1960 season of the

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

, featuring the Dallas Texans and

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston, Texas, from its founding in 1960 Houston Oilers season, 1960 to 1996 Houston Oilers season, 1996. The Houston Oilers began play as a charter member of the Ame ...

. Over the course of three seasons, both teams won three games each. They faced each other in the 1962 AFL Championship Game, where the Dallas Texans triumphed in double overtime. After that season, the Dallas Texans relocated to

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

, rebranding as the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. Established in 1959 ...

in the 1963 season. The Houston Oilers did not encounter another Dallas team until the

AFL–NFL merger The AFL–NFL merger was the merger of the two major professional American football leagues in the United States at the time: the National Football League (NFL) and the American Football League (AFL). It paved the way for the combined league, wh ...

, which placed the Oilers and

in the same league but in different conferences, leading to their first matchup in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

. Throughout eight matchups, the Cowboys posted a 5–3 record against the Oilers, until the Oilers relocated to

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

, in the 1997 season and rebranded as the

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. They play the ...

. In the 2002 season, the NFL awarded a new franchise to Houston, resulting in the establishment of the

. The inaugural game for the Houston Texans was played against the Cowboys, which they won. This development sparked the current Texas rivalry between the Cowboys and Texans, with the Cowboys holding a 4–3 record through seven meetings. Dallas leads the overall series, 13–9.

History

Since the first meeting between the Cowboys and Texans in 2002, the two teams have met in the regular season every four years, when all four

NFC East The National Football Conference – Eastern Division or NFC East is one of the four Division (sport), divisions of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). It has four members: the Dallas Cowboys, New Yo ...

teams play all four

AFC South The American Football Conference – Southern Division or AFC South is one of the four Division (sport), divisions of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). It was created before the 2002 NFL season, 200 ...

teams and every eight years at each team's home stadium, plus in 2024 when both teams won their divisions, and meet relatively often (by NFL standards) in the preseason; from 2002 until 2008 and again from 2013 to 2021 (except 2017 and 2020, which were canceled), the Cowboys and Texans have been scheduled to play each other in the preseason whenever they are not scheduled to meet in the regular season. In 2010, the teams played both a pre-season and regular season game while in 2009, 2011, and 2012 they did not meet at all. The 2017 preseason game, scheduled to be played in Houston, was canceled due to

Hurricane Harvey Hurricane Harvey was a devastating tropical cyclone that made landfall in Texas and Louisiana in August 2017, causing catastrophic flooding and more than 100 deaths. It is tied with 2005's Hurricane Katrina as the costliest tropical cy ...

. In 2018, the teams played both a pre-season and regular season game once again, marking the first time that this instance of two games in one year had happened since 2010. The two cities of

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

and

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

have a rivalry that goes way back before the team's founding. Until 2010, both were the two largest cities in Texas, with Dallas being known for having wealthy elites of the Texas oil and gas industry in the early 20th century, while Houston was known for being a

working-class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

city with the lower-tier workers working in making oil pipelines during the Texas boom. In 2010

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

– yet to ever have an NFL team – overtook Dallas to become Texas' second largest populated city. The US Census of 2020 has Houston with 2.3 million persons, the largest populated city in Texas, followed by San Antonio with 1.5 million people, then Dallas as Texas third largest city, with 1.4 million residents. The Houston and Dallas metropolitan areas remain far larger than San Antonio's, moreover, the Cowboys have not played in Dallas proper since . In 1960, the NFL established the

, mainly as an effort to cut off the

(AFL)'s Dallas Texans: the cutoff effort was only a partial success, as the Texans relocated to become the

in 1963, but the AFL itself would thrive and eventually merge into the NFL in 1970. The AFL would be the first league to place a professional team in Houston, and though the

and the Texans were in opposite divisions, they quickly became rivals: this culminated in the double-overtime

1962 American Football League Championship Game The 1962 AFL Championship Game was played on December 23 at Jeppesen Stadium in Houston, Texas. The Western Division's Dallas Texans (11–3) defeated the host Houston Oilers of the Eastern Division (also 11–3) by a score of 20–17 after tw ...

that the Texans won to prevent an Oilers threepeat in the Texans' last game under that identity. In 1965, the AFL's Houston Oilers and NFL's Dallas Cowboys both drafted

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

tackle Ralph Neely. The Oilers sued the Cowboys over Neely's services. In the settlement of the case, the Oilers received three Cowboys draft picks in addition to a cash settlement. The Cowboys also agreed to play five preseason games, three in Houston, against the Oilers. Thus began the Governor's Cup series, a Texas tradition created by franchise free agency. In 1992 the Cowboys and Oilers met twice in the preseason. The first game took place in Tokyo as part of the NFL's American Bowl series, and the second meeting in Dallas for the Governor's Cup. The 1994 Governor's Cup was not actually played in Texas but in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

Estadio Azteca Estadio Azteca () (officially known as Estadio Banorte for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium located in Coyoacán, Mexico City. It is the official home of football team Club América, as well as the Mexico national team. The stadium ...

as part of the American Bowl series. As a result of Estadio Azteca's unusually large seating capacity, a league record 112,246 fans watched the Oilers shut out the Cowboys, 6–0 on August 15, 1994. The Governor's Cup went into recess after the Oilers relocated to Nashville, Tennessee at the end of the 1996 season (being rebranded as the Tennessee Titans): this left the Cowboys as the only NFL team in Texas until the Texans entered the NFL as an expansion team in 2002. The only other professional football league to feature teams from Dallas and Houston at the same time is the 2020 incarnation of the XFL, which established the

Dallas Renegades The Arlington Renegades are a professional American football team based in Arlington, Texas. The Renegades compete in the United Football League (2024), United Football League (UFL) as a member of the XFL Conference. The team was founded as the D ...

and Houston Roughnecks. In 2023, both teams won their respective divisions, resulting in a 2024 meeting due to the rotation of the fifth interconference game first played in 2021 pairing each NFC East team in a 2024 home game against the AFC South team with the same division placement in 2023.

Season-by-season results

Oilers vs. Dallas Texans

, - ,

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 * Janu ...

, Tie 1–1 , style=", Oilers
20–10 , style=", Texans
24–0 , Tie
1–1 , Inaugural season for both franchises and the

(AFL). , - , - ,

1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...

, Tie 1–1 , style=", Oilers
38–7 , style=", Texans
26–21 , Tie
2–2 , In Houston, Houston recorded their largest victory against Dallas with a 31–point differential and scored their most points in a game against Dallas. , - ,

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

, Tie 1–1 , style=", Texans
31–7 , style=", Oilers
14–6 , Tie
3–3 , , - style="background:#f2f2f2; font-weight:bold;" ,

, style=", , style=", Texans
20–17(2OT) , , style=", Texans
4–3 , First postseason matchup.
Final matchup between Dallas and Houston in the AFL, as the Texans relocated to

the following season and renamed themselves to the

.
Oilers would not face another Dallas team until the

1970 NFL season The 1970 NFL season was the 51st regular season of the National Football League, and the first after the consummation of the AFL–NFL merger. The merged league realigned into two conferences: all ten of the 1969 American Football League season ...

, when the

united the Oilers and the

within the same league. , - , - , Regular season , Tie 3–3 , style=", Oilers 2–1 , style=", Texans 2–1 , , - , Postseason , style=", Texans 1–0 , style=", Texans 1–0 , , , - , Regular and postseason , style=", Texans 4–3 , Tie 2–2 , style=", Texans 2–1 , , -

Cowboys vs. Oilers

, - , , style=", Cowboys
52–10 , Cotton Bowl , style=", Cowboys
1–0 , As a result of the

, the Oilers joined the

(NFL) with the Cowboys but both are placed in different conferences.
Oilers face a

-based team for the first time since the 1962 season and the first meeting in the NFL between a Dallas and Houston team.
Dallas record their largest victory against Houston with a 42–point differential and score their most points in a game against Houston. , - , , style=", Cowboys
10–0 ,

Astrodome The NRG Astrodome, formerly and also known as the Houston Astrodome or simply the Astrodome, was the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium, located in Houston, Texas, United States. It seated around 50,000 fans, with a record atte ...

, style=", Cowboys
2–0 , , - , , style=", Oilers
30–24 ,

Texas Stadium Texas Stadium was an American football stadium located in Irving, Texas, a suburb west of Dallas. Opened on October 24, 1971, it was known for its distinctive hole in the roof, the result of abandoned plans to construct a retractable roof. Th ...

, style=", Cowboys
2–1 , , - , , style=", Cowboys
37–7 , Astrodome , style=", Cowboys
3–1 , , - , , style=", Cowboys
17–10 , Astrodome , style=", Cowboys
4–1 , , - , , style=", Oilers
25–17 , Texas Stadium , style=", Cowboys
4–2 , Game was played on

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Germany. It is also observed in the Australian territory ...

. , - , , style=", , Astrodome , style=", Cowboys
4–3 , , - , , style=", Cowboys
20–17 , Texas Stadium , style=", Cowboys
5–3 , Final meeting between the Cowboys and Oilers, as the Oilers would relocate to

in the 1997 season. The Cowboys would not face another

-based team until the 2002 season, in which the

were added as an expansion team. , - , Regular season , style=", Cowboys 5–3 , Tie 2–2 , style=", Cowboys 3–1 , , -

Cowboys vs. Houston Texans

, - , , style=", Texans
19–10 , Reliant Stadium , style=", Texans
1–0 , Houston Texans join the NFL as an expansion team. They are placed in the

American Football Conference The American Football Conference (AFC) is one of the two conferences of the National Football League (NFL), the highest level of professional American football in the United States. The AFC and its counterpart, the National Football Conference ...

(AFC).
Texans' inaugural game as an NFL franchise. , - , , style=", Cowboys
34–6 ,

, Tie
1–1 , , - , , style=", Cowboys
27–13 , Reliant Stadium , style=", Cowboys
2–1 , , - , , style=", ,

AT&T Stadium AT&T Stadium is a retractable roof stadium in Arlington, Texas, United States. It serves as the home of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL), and was completed on May 27, 2009. It is also the home of the Cotton Bowl Classic ...

, style=", Cowboys
3–1 , , - , , style=", ,

NRG Stadium NRG Stadium (previously known as Reliant Stadium) is a multi-purpose stadium in Houston, Texas, United States. Construction was completed in 2002, at a cost of $352 million and has a seating capacity of 72,220. It was the first NFL facility to h ...

, style=", Cowboys
3–2 , , - , , style=", Cowboys
27–23 , AT&T Stadium , style=", Cowboys
4–2 , , - , , style=", Texans
34–10 , AT&T Stadium , style=", Cowboys
4–3 , The Texans record their first road game win against the Cowboys.
Houston's first road win against the Cowboys since the 1988 season. , - , Regular season , style=", Cowboys 4–3 , style=", Cowboys 3–1 , style=", Texans 2–1 , , -

References