Gil Brandt, overshadowed by coach Tom Landry and general manager Tex Schramm as part of the trio that built the Dallas Cowboys into “America’s Team” in the 1970s, has died.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame said Brandt died Thursday morning. No cause of death was given, but Brandt had been in declining health in recent years.
“You can’t tell the story about the success of the Dallas Cowboys and their two-decade run of winning seasons from the mid-1960s to mid-1980s without mentioning Gil Brandt,” Hall of Fame president Jim Porter said. “I think we all got credit,” Brandt told The Associated Press before his induction. “And I think Tex rightfully so got more credit than Tom and myself. Because he was really a very media-savvy person. When somebody from Sports Illustrated called, they didn’t talk to Tom, they didn’t talk to me. They talked to Tex.”
Brandt said late Raiders owner Al Davis tried to hire him before the 1989 draft by telling him he had heard Jones was going to fire him after the draft. Brandt didn’t believe it, and though Davis turned out to be right, Brandt said he probably wouldn’t have done it anyway because Dallas had become home for the Wisconsin native.
Brandt enjoyed telling the story of Vince Lombardi chiding the Cowboys by asking if their computer had broken down while Dallas held up the 1964 draft waiting for medical information on Mel Renfro. The Cowboys drafted the future Hall of Fame defensive back in the second round. There were plenty of future stars among high draft picks from bigger schools, such as TCU’s Bob Lilly, the first draft choice for the Cowboys in 1961, and Alabama linebacker Lee Roy Jordan, their top selection two years later.
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