Nov. 21, 1965
Cotton Bowl |
Playing before the first sellout crowd in club history (a Cotton Bowl-record 76,251) the young Cowboys were in great position to upset the defending NFL champions: first down on the Cleveland 1 with 4:34 left.
With the Browns' biggest linemen jamming the middle, Don Meredith chose not to hand the ball to gutsy fullback Don Perkins, who gained 86 yards to Cleveland legend Jim Brown's 99 despite a badly bruised rib. Instead Meredith threw a bullet pass at Frank Clarke, jammed among three Browns behind the goalpost.
The ball was tipped by a Brown and fell lazily into the hands of astonished linebacker Vince Costello.
The Dallas Morning News' Gary Cartwright began his story, "Outlined against a gray November sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. You know them: Pestilence, Death, Famine and Meredith."
