Sports Illustrated The Dallas Cowboys: 50 Years of Football Hardcover – August 24, 2010

Review: "Dallas Cowboys: 50 Years of Football", edited by David Bauer Sports Illustrated The Dallas Cowboys: 50 Years of Football Bauer, David (ed). Dallas Cowboys: 50 Years of Football. New York: Sports Illustrated Books. 2010 192p, illus. 29.95 (list) ISBN 978-1-60320-114-8My first impression when opening this book was "it's big, very big". Not by page count, but by page size (11 x 12 inches). It is easily larger than the other Cowboy histories issued so far this year by Aron, Housewright and Miller. My second impression: the photographs are stunning. Coming from Sports Illustrated I would've expected no less.This book follows the successful format established by "The Football Book" (2005; revised 2009) and "The College Football Book" (2008): lavish illustrations accompanying excellent contemporary game articles. This is the first team-specific edition published by SI and it is a worthy addition to the canon. It deserves a spot on the bookshelf of every Dallas Cowboys fan.The book is organized by decade, with more articles devoted to the championship decades of the 70s and 90s. Given the top-flight reporting and photography that SI is known for, it is easy to love this gorgeous volume and hard to find anything to criticize about it. Still . . .The most obvious question that came to my mind was: what does Mark Cuban in a towel have to do with the Cowboys (photograph on page 166)? Or a 70s-era Southwest Airlines airlines stewardess dressed in hotpants (page 60), or Ann Richards and her shotgun (page 134)? And others too numerous to mention. I suppose in the minds of SI's East Coast editors, these are examples of Texas' popular "culture", and the Cowboys are the most widely known example of Texas culture. And that's fine, except nowhere in the book does anyone explain this. These "cultural" shots are thrown in without explanation and with no obvious tie to the Cowboys, other than the fact that all are from (or represent) Texas. The reader is left to puzzle this out for him (or her) self. It would have been nice if the jacket blurb had at least mentioned why these otherwise unrelated pictures were thrown in (pictures which most likely were never shot by SI photographers, let alone published in its pages).OK, so how about the pictures that ARE about the Cowboys? As expected, most are stunning. But at least two of them have erroneous captions. On p41 Cowboys QB Eddie LeBaron has saddled a DL identified as Ed Hussman -- but that's not Hussman. According to Cowboys superfan and memorabilia expert Stephen Liskey, the DL is actually Joe Nicely. Later, on p67, a leaping Tom Landry is identified as being in Super Bowl X. But the Cowboy players in the picture are missing the Bicentennial shoulder patch worn by members of both teams. So Tom must've been leaping about something other than the Steel Curtain (hats off to fellow fan Marty Ogelvie for pointing this out).The articles, while well-written, cannot hope to cover the entire history of this storied franchise, and they don't attempt to. Although it results in uneven coverage of the team's history, these snap-shots in time will give today's fans a valuable and unvarnished glance at how the Cowboys were viewed at the time.These very minor criticisms don't diminish from an otherwise superb book.© Copyright Fred Goodwin, Aug 20, [email protected]

This book was a gift. The condition of the book was excellent. My 13 year old grandson is a Dallas fan and loved the book and learned about the history of the team! We couldn’t be more pleased.

This has the perfect amount of verbiage to accompany the perfect amount of photos, providing detailed historical-through-current data on the Dallas Cowboys. I grew up watching them so many memories are tied with sharing TV time with my dad, and so many of the pictures and stories brought back so many moments that I will treasure forever. You simply cannot be disappointed with this one, and I highly recommend it to all true Dallas Cowboy fans.

Bought it for a Cowboy fan as a Christmas gift. Did not read it myself but looking through it it looks like your usual coffee table book. Consequently I can not speak to the quality of the information it holds. Looked good to me from glancing at it.

I bought this book as a gift for my friend who is a die-hard Cowboys fan and was blown away by everything about this book. Being a Vikings fan, I really had no interest in a book about the Cowboys, but started skimming through the pages anyway. Well, I couldn't put it down! It was a wonderful walk through time via awesome photos and narrative. I would HIGHLY recommend this book for any football fan.

Used book in excellent condition. Bought as a gift. Book has lot if pictures and history.

This was a gift purchase so I don't have a review for the item itself. It was a very nice looking book and I thought it was a good value for a large hard cover book. It did ship quickly and arrived well before Christmas so the seller earns a 5-star review based on those things.

The book was in great condition the price was fair and it came quickly. It's all good.I'm not a sports fan so this is for my Son in Law. I'm sure that he'll love it.

omaggio di sports illustrated alla franchigia texana che, nel 2010 ha festeggiato i 50 anni. la squadra più amata, e odiata, d'america viene celebrata con questo volume di grande formato di 192 pagine illustrate in carta lucida patinata.i libri di SI sono principalmente fotografici, e qui c'è il meglio di 50 anni di foto spettacolari con protagonisti i cowboys.nel 1960 hanno visto la luce anche i jets e i raiders, ma stranamente non sono stati ricordati da SI.....comunque un volume che soddisfa gli amanti della nfl.

An in depth history of America's team and an incite into why you either love them or hate them. Some tremendous personalities and incredible athletes have played for this storied franchise and this book does justice to them all

Am a big Cowboy fan and some very interesting facts about them great photos and articles and history of league too

great book very informative