Tom Landry: Thomas Wade Landry, American football player and coach. The he is a football legend due to his successes with the Dallas Cowboys football team. The Dallas Cowboys 20 consecutive winning seasons was just one of Landry's accomplishments.
Tom Landry son of a mechanic and volunteer fireman was born in Mission, Texas. Tom attended the University of Texas in Austin but join the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II after just one semester in college. Tom Landry earned his commission as a second lieutenant and his wings at the Lubbock Army Airfield in Texas and was assigned to the 493rd bomber group in England. He completed 30 missions and survived a crash landing during his combat tour from November 1944 to April 1945.
After the war Tom Landry return to and played football on the Texas Longhorns team as fullback and defensive back. Tom earned a bachelor's degree in 1949 and in 1952 he also earned a bachelor's of science degree in industrial engineering from the University of Houston. He was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilan fraternity at the University of Texas.
Tom played defensive back for the New York Yankees in 1949 in the AAFC, but in 1950 he moved over to the New York Giants. He was selected as an All Pro in 1954. He played through the 1955 season. During the 1954 and 1955 season Landry acted as an assistant coach-player and ended his playing career with 32 interceptions in 80 games.
The 1956 brought changed to Landry's career. He became the defensive coordinator for the New York Giants of a set Vince Lombardi who was the offensive coordinator at the time. The combination of Tom Landry and Vince Lombardi led to the New York Giants appearing three times in the NFL championship games within four years. The Giants beat Chicago in 1956 but lost to the Colts in 1958 and 1959.
Tom Landry became the first head coach of the Dallas cowboys in 1960 and remained there as head coach for 29 years 1960 to 1988. It was a rough start for the cowboys and Landry. Their record for the first season was 0-11-1 and for the next four years they had five or less wins. Despite this record the cowboys owner made what would later turn out to be a wise move and signed Tom Landry to a 10 year contract extension. In 1956 the Cowboys record improved to 7-7 and then in 1966 they have a surprise in store for the NFL by posting 10 wins and making the NFL championship. Even with the lost to Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers the NFL was put on notice that the Cowboys and Landry we're here to stay. This was proven between 1966 to 1985 by a 20 season winning record.
During his tenure as head coach for the Dallas Cowboys he won two Super Bowl titles won in 1972 and another in 1978. Other compass minds to his credit five NFC titles, 13 division titles and racking up a record of 270-178-6. This record made him the third most winning NFL coach. His 20 career playoff victories were the most of any NFL coach in history. In 1966 Landry receive the NFL coach of the year and in 1975 he received the NFC coach of the year.
While Tom Landry served as the Giants defensive coordinator he invented the popular 4-3 defense. The name 4-3 defense came from the four down linemen and three linebackers, middle, left, right. Previously a lineman was positioned over the center but Tom Landry had his men stand up and back 2 yards. Landry also invented and popularized the use of keys. Which was analyzing the tendencies of the offense to determine what they might do.
Landry became concerned with Lombardi's run to daylight offense after being hired by the Cowboys his answer to this offense was to refine the 4-3 defense by moving two of the four linemen off the line by 1 yard. This change was called " The Flex Defense" because it change the position of the linemen to counter what the offense might do. The Flex Defense was also a kind of zone defense against the run, and that each defender was given a gap area and was instructed to stay in that area until they knew where the play was going.
Some say that after Tom Landry invented The Flex Defense he invented the offense to counter it. This entailed the shotgun formation and the man in motion. All of this was not new, the way Landry use the pre shift, Weil andry use the linemen to block the view of the defense thus cutting down the time they had to recognize the play. Other teams later use the shifting but few use the up and down techniques for the linemen as Landry.
Landry was dismissed by Jerry Jones when he took over ownership of the Cowboys in 1989. This quote says it better than I," the unceremonious this missile of Landry by Jones was totally lacking in class and respect. Too many this is still a sore spot for Cowboys fans such as I but we still love the Cowboys and enjoy the games especially the ones that Jones stays off the sidelines. Tom landry was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990 less than two years after his last football game, and was also inducted to the Ring of Honor at Texas stadium in 1993. Landry refuse to sever all first by Jones to
The Ring of Honor before finally accepting.
Tom Landry died of leukemia on February 12 2000 in Dallas Texas.