Cotton Bowl Days: Growing Up with Dallas and the Cowboys in the 1960s

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.

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.

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.