Jerry Jones has owned the Dallas Cowboys for 37 years now, making him the longest-tenured owner in franchise history.
Clint Murchison, who founded the franchise back in 1960, owned the club for its first 24 seasons before his failing health forced him to sell the team.
Bum Bright’s brief owner bridged the gap between Murchison and Jones. Bright’s tenure as owner was ill-fated from the beginning as he simply didn’t have the head for it.
He had also bought a team based on its legacy, but was aging and on the downside of its glory days.
Needless to say, Bright ranks third among the Cowboys’ history of owners.
So, who ranks as the better owner between Murchison and Jones? How do we even begin to determine the answer?
The Case For Murchison
Murchison literally built the franchise from scratch back in 1960. He literally had to resort to blackmail to get the unanimous approval of the NFL owners in one case.
He didn’t even get the official approval from the NFL until after the 1960 draft had been conducted.
What he did do was hire three very talented men to help him build an iconic team, even though it took a few years to manifest itself.
That patience, especially in the first five years, paid off. With Tom Landry as Head Coach, Tex Schramm as General Manager, and Gil Brandt’s innovative scouting, Murchison built a winner.
He also oversaw the building of the NFL’s most iconic stadium. Lambeau Field may be more storied, but Texas Stadium was recognized instantly around the world.
Murchison’s biggest accomplishment was understanding his role as owner.
Sign the checks, stay out of the way, and enjoy the championships.
The Case For Jones
After Bright’s lackluster management, the Cowboys needed a full overhaul. Bringing the organization back from the dumpster will always be Jones’ top accomplishment.
He did that by initially following the path laid down by Murchison and mimicked in the NBA by Los Angeles Lakers’ owner, Jerry Buss.
Sign the checks, get out of the way, and get handed the shiny trophy at the end of the season.
Where Jones fails most is letting his ego start writing checks that his abilities couldn’t cash. By running off Jimmy Johnson after back-to-back titles, Jones sabotaged his own organization.
Still, he has made the Cowboys one of the most valuable in sports and other teams are copying the palatial settings of AT&T Stadium when building their own stadiums.
The Final Verdict
Jones has overseen three Super Bowl wins in three appearances and a three-out-of-four run in NFC Championship games.
But all of those happened almost 30 years ago. The fact is, it was because of the team Johnson had built, not Jones.
His 29-season run of futility confirms who deserves the credit for the 1990s dynasty.
Murchison oversaw a franchise that won two Super Bowls in five appearances. The three losses were by a combined total of just 11 points.
The Cowboys played in 10 of the first 14 NFC Championship games after the 1970 NFL-AFL merger, winning five of them.
Dallas made the playoffs 18 out of 20 years between 1966-1985, finishing with a winning record in all 20 of those seasons.
Murchison built a powerhouse franchise that lasted for decades. Jones had a nice five-year run, but has not had any postseason success of note since 1995.
Murchison is clearly the best of the three Cowboys owners of all time.
another cowboy writer talking nothing but trash about cowboys – you could be a eagle or washington journalist -can we ever get some positive vibes on cowboys. find something good to write about. remember last week when a writer said jerry waits to renew contracts till the last minute so he can make as much interest as possible and then turns around and says it cost them millions by waiting to extend contracts – that makes no sense at all. if you ever lose your writing expertise i bet you could work for cnn. thanks for all your garbage
First off, Jerry didn’t run Jimmy off, it was a mutual agreement, and even if it wasn’t, Jimmy already said he planned on leaving anyways, he had it marked in his calendar when he was gonna leave and everything, and it was just a couple months difference between when he planned on leaving and when he actually did leave!! So any way you look at it, Jimmy was leaving!! So get your facts straight!!
Secondly, you said murchison knew what his job was and it was to write the checks and stay out of the way, and then you say he was the one who built the team that won the 2 Super Bowls and the other teams with all the winning records!! That’s bull crap…. How did he build the team when he was supposedly staying out of the way!! It’s cause he didn’t build the team!! That’s what his GM was there for!! So that part is wrong too!!
And 3rd, Jimmy wasn’t the only one who had something to do with building the team he had!! Jerry had to approve of any move made since he is the GM too, and Jerry even went after players that was his idea to get too…. Charles Haley being the biggest one!! So it wasn’t just Jimmy that put together those Super Bowl teams!!
And 4th, Jimmy only has 2 Super Bowl rings, while Jerry has 3!! So Jerry had another Super Bowl win after Jimmy left!! And you and everybody else can say it was because of the team that Jimmy put together before he left, but first of all, like I said above, Jimmy didn’t put that team together by himself, Jerry was involved in building the team too!! So Jerry can take credit for how good that team was, and secondly, Jerry signed other players to the team for that 3rd Super Bowl, and the biggest player he signed to help win that Super Bowl was Deion Sanders!! He had to sign other players to because the 49ers kept taking our players cause they wanted to copy us, so Jerry had to sign players to take the place of the players the 49ers took from us!! So that 3rd Super Bowl had very little to do with Jimmy!! While Jerry had a lot to do with all 3 they won while he’s been owner!!
Another thing is, Jerry made the Dallas Cowboys the most valuable team in sports, and made them the most popular team in the NFL!! Sure, a lot of people were fans of the Cowboys since we were formed, but the fan base hasn’t been anything close to what it has been since Jerry took over!!
And lastly, you can blame us going 29 years without any post season success on Jerry all you want, but any smart and real Cowboys fan knows that Jerry isn’t the problem…. The problem is Stephen Jones!! The only bad thing Jerry did was to allow his ignorant son to have so much control over the team!! After Jerry signed Sanders, Stephen got mad about it and he even slammed Jerry up against the wall and about hit Jerry cause he was so mad that Jerry signed Deion Sanders, (and the only reason he was so mad is because Jerry gave Deion such a big contract and Stephen thought it would make the other players on the team mad) but Jerry pushed Stephen aside and told him to get out of his way cause his team has a Super Bowl to win, and that’s exactly what happened!! And later they talked to the other players and asked them if they were mad about Deion getting such a big contract, and every player said hell no, they were happy Deion was on our team!! But because of that situation, Stephen ended up getting more control over the team and that’s why we haven’t had the success we used to have!! It’s not Jerry’s fault, it’s Stephen!!
But with all that being said, even though Murchison was the owner while his GM and scouting department put together a bunch of good teams, and won 2 Super Bowls, I still have to put Jerry at number one because he was actually involved in building his Super Bowl teams, and he has 3 Super Bowl rings, not just 2!! And he is the one that built the Cowboys into the most valuable franchise in all of sports!! Not to mention the fact that he’s owned the team longer than the other 2 put together!! So I think Jerry is number one, then Murchison, and then Bum Bright