If you are a fan of the NFC East, your endearment is for two things to happen weekly during the National Football League (NFL) season: a) your team to win, and b) every other club in the division to lose. The New York Giants vs. the Philadelphia Eagles is certainly a dogfight. If the game is at Philadelphia, the fighting is in the stands just as much as on the playing field. Just as exceptional a match-up are the Dallas Cowboys against the Washington Redskins, another fierce rivalry. But few folks realize that the Redskins are the reason why the Dallas Cowboys are a team, and that the Redskins were once slated to relocate and become the Dallas Redskins. Inside this saga, Washington’s fight song “Hail to the Redskins” was once owned by the Cowboys themselves and used as a bargaining chip.
Dallas Redskins: Looking Back at the Near Relocation
In 1958, two Texas oilmen named John and Clint Murchison, Jr. desired an NFL team. These men were so wealthy they owned a private island in the Bahamas. At the same time they wanted to base the club in their hometown of Dallas. Their attempts to buy the 1952 Dallas Texans failed and later they tried to purchase the San Francisco 49ers. They heard that the longtime owner of the Redskins, George Preston Marshall, might be interested in selling his franchise if the right deal came his way.
The negotiations for the Murchisons to purchase the Redskins went quite well. Marshall needed funds for his laundry operations across Maryland and didn’t want to necessarily sell his franchise, but was willing to sell to help his main source of income. An agreement was drawn up to finalize the deal for $600,000 with the provision that Marshall would manage the team for five years even though the club would relocate to Dallas.
On the day that Clint arrived at the attorney’s office of Marshall to sign the agreement, upon close inspection, the terms of the deal had been changed. Marshall now had inked a 10-year management clause as one of the contract’s unauthorized deviations. The Murchisons were proud and honest Texas millionaires. This angered Clint – who then nixed the entire sale.
So, the Redskins remained in Washington and Dallas still did not have professional football. However, a twist to this saga is on the horizon.
“Hail to the Redskins” is Born
The pro game was not as popular as college football back then but Marshall wanted a college feel to Redskins home games. Several aspects included cheerleaders and music – specifically a marching band. By 1938, a full marching band called the “Wigwam Band” had been assembled.
Colleges had fight songs and Marshall wanted his club to have one. He commissioned the band leader, Barnee Breeskin, to compose an appropriate fight song that the team could embrace and call its own – just like the colleges – in which the fans could engage into a sing-along. Interesting enough, Breeskin’s melody was similar to the Christian anthem “Jesus Loves Me” with more of a southern angle laid in. Marshall’s wife Corinne Griffith then contributed the lyrics. The song was labeled “Hail to the Redskins.”
The fight song became the very essence of each and every Redskins home game. Marshall had orchestrated very ostentatious pre-game and halftime shows with his new song as the cornerstone. The band wore headdresses and Indian garb such as buckskins. A full chorus line accompanied the band with elaborate dancing Indian princesses. Just as today’s Super Bowl halftime routine are not to be missed, such were the festivities at a Redskins halftime show.
Dallas Enters the NFL
In the late 1950s, several rich businessmen wanted to own an NFL team. Each one was told the same thing: the league was not entertaining the idea of expansion and if you want in, purchase an existing team. Period.
One of these men was a 26-year old oilman from Dallas named Lamar Hunt. He thought he was going to buy the Chicago Cardinals then relocate the club to Texas only to be rebuffed regarding a sale. He was offered a 20% ownership, but the club was not going to relocate.
With expansion off the table, Hunt decided to start his own league to begin in 1960 – the American Football League (AFL). Hunt’s new team would be located in Dallas and fellow AFL founder Bud Adams would have a franchise in Houston. The two men found other wealthy owners in Denver and Minneapolis and decided initially upon a six-team league.
While the new AFL built steam, the owners of the NFL attempted to strike down their new competitors with in-house deals. Hunt was offered an expansion team in Dallas as was Adams for a new team in Houston. The NFL didn’t believe Denver was large enough for a team, but offered their owner a percentage in the Los Angeles Rams and the Minneapolis group was offered their own expansion club.
These actions were to disable the new league before it gained any footing or support. But Hunt, Adams, and the Denver owner, Bob Howsam, said no thank you and pressed forward.
When it finally sank in with the powers of the NFL that this new league was legit and going to proceed as a rival league, it was suddenly announced from the NFL Expansion Committee that the league was indeed going to expand after all. In fact, into two cities right away – Dallas and Houston.
The idea of Houston was soon dropped because of stadium issues, and so the NFL changed the second expansion franchise to Minneapolis. The NFL then stated that other cities were under consideration for expansion clubs.
With the Dallas NFL franchise, the league wanted that team to start right away for the 1960 season to coincide and compete with the AFL’s maiden season. The NFL hurriedly named the team “the Steers” even though there wasn’t a coach, any players, equipment, colors, logos, and, more importantly, an actual owner.
With the Minneapolis expansion team, the NFL decided to insert them beginning in 1961.
The NFL contacted Clint Murchison, Jr. about taking the Dallas franchise, to which he said yes. He renamed the team “the Rangers” because the longtime local AAA minor league baseball team of the same name were about to relocate. There was only one obstacle left – the NFL owners had to vote on the proposition of the expansion Dallas and Minneapolis franchises.
Marshall and Murchison were not feuding, but Marshall never forgot that the Texas oilman had voided the sale of his beloved Redskins when he needed the money the most. And now, here was Clint Jr. once again entering his world as a possible equal owner.
The NFL bylaws required an unanimous vote for any new team to become a reality.
Marshall made it well-known that he was not going to vote for an expansion team in Dallas and even threatened legal proceedings that he claimed infringed on his southern territory. At the time, Washington was the southern-most club and claimed all of the South as its fan base.
The two men still had bad blood since the sale of the Redskins fell through. Marshall’s objections, other than the territorial rights, was that the league was only producing new teams in order to squash the newly-formed AFL and not to improve conditions within the league.
League representatives countered that the timing was circumstantial and that the two new teams added were simply free enterprise.
“Hail to the Cowboys?”
During this same time period, Marshall was in a disagreement with his band leader Breeskin.
Marshall expected the fight song to be owned by the franchise, to which Breeskin claimed ownership as its composer and felt it had financial merit.
An opportunity was presented by Breeskin to Murchison’s attorney to buy the rights to the “Hail to the Redskins” fight song – to which Murchison paid $2,500 for the song’s rights. Even though the Dallas entry into the NFL was not “officially” a franchise, the Dallas Rangers (and Murchison) now owned the Redskins fight song.
Leading up to the expansion vote, every owner was in favor of the two new teams with the exception of Marshall. He made it clear that he was still steamed about how the sale of his Redskins did not come to fruition and blamed Murchison, whom he called “obnoxious.” His reasoning to the other owners, however, was that he did not want any other teams in the South (i.e. Dallas and later Houston) and was afraid of losing fan loyalty.
Marshall made it clear he was going to vote “no” on expansion. This meant that expansion into Dallas plus Minneapolis would be canceled.
Murchison then played his hand. He made it known to Marshall that he now owned the rights to “Hail to the Redskins.” Marshall not only loved the song, but his wife had written the lyrics.
Then Murchison offered a deal: concede the rights to the fight song in exchange for Marshall’s “yes” vote on expansion.
An agreement was struck in Marshall’s hotel room during the winter owner’s meetings. And the price for the new Dallas franchise? The same $600,000 he had agreed to buy the Redskins two years earlier. When the AAA baseball Rangers decided to remain in the area, Murchison later renamed his new club “the Cowboys.”
Besides, “Hail to the Cowboys” just wouldn’t have the same ring.
Did You Know?
Several of the lyrics to “Hail to the Redskins” have been changed over the years. At the time, Washington was the southern-most NFL franchise just south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Within the lyrics, the song goes “Fight for old D.C.!” The original lyrics were “Fight for old Dixie!” Another portion of the song today goes “Beat ‘em, swamp ‘em, touchdown! Let the points soar!” The words were cleaned up in the 1960s, as they were originally “Scalp ‘em, swamp ‘em, we will take ‘em big score!”
Main Photo:
Embed from Getty Images
