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THE OFFICIAL COWBOYS FAN SITE OF WWW.ANIRBANROY.ORG

Cowboy Coaches
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    The Cowboys have had 7 extraordinary head coaches since our team was brought into the NFL in 1960.  Tom Landry was the franchise's only coach from the beginning to the 1989 season.  Jimmy Johnson helped guide the Cowboys to greatness in the 90s and won 2 Superbowls while doing so.  Barry Switzer picked up where Jimmy Johnson left off and won the 5th Vince Lombardy throphy for the Cowboys.  Bill Parcells was hired in the early 2000s to rebuild a team that had fallen from greatness, and he took the Cowboys to the playoffs in his first season.  Today, Wade Phillips leads a new offense introduced by former QB Jason Garrett and a quicker 3-4 Defense.

TOM LANDRY
1960-1988 Season
Tom Landry was the only coach the Cowboys ever had for the longest tenure in NFL history.   He was there from the first snap during the 1960 season till Jerry Jones bought the team.   Landry finished his career with a 270-178-6 record.   But that doesn't come close to telling the whole story.  The Cowboys won the division 12 times during Landry's era.  Moreover, he led the Cowboys to 2 Superbowl victories and 5 NFC Championships.  He had a streak of 20 consecutive winning seasons also.  Landry won Coach of the Year in 1966.
 
Tom Landry had developed a high-powered offense with Cowboy greats like QB Roger Staubach, but his flex defense and prevent defense lead the way for the team to excel during the 1970s, when we had the "Doomsday Defense." 
 
Tom was born on September 11, 1924 in Mission, Texas.   He had no prior coaching experience before joining the Cowboys, but he had NFL playing experience.

JIMMY JOHNSON
1989-1993 Season
When Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys in 1989, he thought it was time for a coaching change in Big D.  He brought in University of Miami Head Coach, Jimmy Johnson to lead our stoic franchise.  Although Johnson started off 1-15, he bounced back to 7-9 his second season, which earned him Coach Of The Year honors.  In 1992 and 1993, he won back to back Superbowls with the Cowboys!  He finished his career in Dallas with a 51-37 record, and he was known for creating quite possibly the greatest NFL team of all time with stars like QB Troy Aikman, RB Emmitt Smith, DT Leon Lett, and OG Erik Williams among others.  
 
Johnson's head coaching experience included positions with the University of Miami, where he won a National Championship in 1987, and also with Oklahoma State. 

Johnson served as the head coach for the Miami Dolphins after leaving the Cowboys, but today he is an analyst for the Fox Sports Network.


BARRY SWITZER
1994-1997 Season
Barry Switzer is often not given the credit he deserves.  Granted, he took over a very talented team from Jimmy Johsnon, Switzer lead the Cowboys to our third Superbowl win in four years.  The liberal media constantly gave Switzer a hard time, and they thought he was not competent or disciplined enough to coach "America's Team," yet he proved them wrong.  Switzer finished with a 45-26 record with the team.  I remember when he hoisted the Vince Lombardy throphy in 1995 and he told Jerry that "we did it!"  I almost came to tears as I watched this great coach take our team to another NFL Championship and prove the liberal biast media wrong!
 
Barry was head coach at the University of Oklahoma prior to joining the Cowboys..
 
Barry Switzer was born in Arkansas on October 5, 1937.   Switzer resigned in 1997 after the Cowboys had some disappointing seasons.

CHAN GAILEY
1997-1998 Season
Chan Gailey came to the Cowboys as Head Coach from the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he was the Offensive Coordinator.  He was brought in to revamp an offense that still had a lot of talent, but it needed a new game plan since it was becoming too predictable.  Chan Gailey's tenure in Dallas only lasted two years.  He had a regular season record of 18-14.  One of his successes was to lead the Cowboys to become the first team in NFC East to win all divisional games.  He was the first Cowboys head coach to not win a Superbowl.
 
It took Jerry Jones 34 days to select him as Head Coach after talks with UCLA's Terry Donahue broke up.  
 
Chan was a Head Coach at Troy State University also in Michigan. 

Gailey was born January 5, 1952 in Gainesville, Ga.

DAVE CAMPO
1999-2002 Season
Cowboys Defensive Coordinator Dave Campo took over as Head Coach after Chan Gailey was fired.  Campo has been with the team since 1989, and he started off as the Secondary Coach.  In 1995, he became the Defensive Coordinator, and he was known for being a defensive mastermind.  Unfortunately, Campo did not perform too well as Head Coach.  Our offense could not perform under him.  After QB Troy Aikman left, he had a string of no-name QBs such as Quincy Carter, Anthony Wright, and Chad Hutchinson.  None of them were able to stand out under Campo.  We had several 5-11 seasons under him, and Jerry Jones realized it was time to make a change and bring in a real coach.  His NFL record was 15-33, making him the only Cowboys Head Coach to leave with a losing record.

        He was born July 18, 1947.

BILL PARCELLS
2003-2006 Season

         
Bill Parcells needs little introduction.  He is one of the greatest NFL Head Coaches in the history of the game.  He took the New York to 2 Superbowl titles before              turning around franchises in New England and New York (Jets).  Moreover, he took New England to the Superbowl also.  He took the Jets to the AFC Title Game             also.  The Cowboys are the first team he took to the playoffs in his first season.  He took a 5-11 team to the first round of the Playoffs in his first year with the team             and had a 10-6 record.  He was Coach of the Year twice.  He took the Cowboys to the playoffs in his final year with the Cowboys too.

        Bill was born August 22, 1941 in Englewood, NJ.

WADE PHILLIPS

2007 Season - Present

      
   Wade Phillips is a native Texan who became the team's head coach in 2007.  He was the Defensive Coordinator with the San Diego Chargers the previous season.               Overall, he has over 30 years of NFL coaching experience, and he has 5 years head coaching experience with the Buffalo Bills and Denver Broncos.  His overall                  record as a head coach before joining the Cowboys was 45-35.  Wade is a master of the 3-4 Defense.  He helped San Diego make it to the Playoffs last season.

          He was born June 21, 1947 in Orange, TX.


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Last Updated:  August 20, 2007 5:33 PM
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