Sitting within the wood endzone bleachers on the northwest finish of the Cotton Bowl, we’d confidently make one prediction earlier than Cowboys video games within the Nineteen Sixties: “The primary play is a handoff to Perkins.”
As a rule, I really feel like we had been right. Coach Tom Landry beloved Don Perkins, who died Thursday on the age of 84, and why wouldn’t he? Perkins performed simply eight years for Dallas throughout that decade because the group got here of age and reached its first two NFL championship video games, and he made the Professional Bowl six occasions.
He had no breakaway pace, however did a whole lot of darting and dipping by way of holes in a method that Tony Dorsett would reproduce at excessive pace a decade later. Should you had been requested to call the primary Cowboy voted AP All-Professional in 1962, you may guess Bob Lilly or Don Meredith. However the right reply is Perkins, who rushed for 945 yards in 14 video games for a dropping group (5-8-1) that season.
Close to the tip of the 2020 season, Ezekiel Elliott moved into third on Dallas’ all-time dashing listing, dropping Perkins and his 6,217 yards to fourth. However when he retired early from the sport following the 1968 season — he was solely 30 — Perkins ranked fifth on the league’s profession listing.
Perkins was drafted by the Baltimore Colts, however the Cowboys had signed him to a private companies contract (it was a special period) and finally traded a ninth-round choose to get Perkins’ rights. It was a fairly good commerce. Perkins completed third in Rookie of the Yr voting in 1961 behind the formidable pair of Chicago tight finish Mike Ditka and Minnesota quarterback Fran Tarkenton.
Whereas Meredith and Bob Hayes would convey the electrical energy to the Dallas offense because it rose to prominence within the Jap Convention, Perkins and finally Dan Reeves equipped the regular beat of the operating sport. Perkins by no means completed exterior the highest 10 in dashing throughout his eight seasons. Sadly, he’s the fifth member of the Cowboys’ offense from the 1967 Ice Bowl sport to die this yr together with Reeves and linemen Ralph Neely, Rayfield Wright and Malcolm Walker.
The Cowboys have gone by way of many incarnations of their 62 seasons, however the star on the helmet has served as its enduring function. It was the Doomsday Protection on one facet and a high-scoring offense on the opposite that established the which means behind that star. When Perkins retired, solely Lilly had matched his six Professional Bowls representing what that blue star was quickly changing into as a beloved image.
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