Dallas Cowboys History: 1966 Season

Schedule

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Record	Attendance
1	September 11, 1966	Bye
2	September 18, 1966	New York Giants	W, 52–7	1–0–0	60,010
3	September 25, 1966	Minnesota Vikings	W, 28–17	2–0–0	64,116
4	October 2, 1966	at Atlanta Falcons	W, 47–14	3–0–0	56,990
5	October 9, 1966	Philadelphia Eagles	W, 56–7	4–0–0	69,372
6	October 16, 1966	at St. Louis Cardinals	T, 10–10	4–0–1	50,673
7	October 23, 1966	at Cleveland Browns	L, 30–21	4–1–1	84,721
8	October 30, 1966	Pittsburgh Steelers	W, 52–21	5–1–1	58,453
9	November 6, 1966	at Philadelphia Eagles	L, 24–23	5–2–1	60,658
10	November 13, 1966	at Washington Redskins	W, 31–30	6–2–1	50,927
11	November 20, 1966	at Pittsburgh Steelers	W, 20–7	7–2–1	42,185
12	November 24, 1966	Cleveland Browns	W, 26–14	8–2–1	80,259
13	December 4, 1966	St. Louis Cardinals	W, 31–17	9–2–1	76,965
14	December 11, 1966	Washington Redskins	L, 34–31	9–3–1	64,198
15	December 18, 1966	at New York Giants	W, 17–7	10–3–1	62,735

A bye week was necessary in 1966, as the league expanded to an odd-number (15) of teams (Atlanta); one team was idle each week.

Season recap

With the growth in popularity of televised NFL games, the league began looking for a second team in addition to the Detroit Lions, to host an annual Thanksgiving Day game. Every team turned down the offer, except for the Dallas Cowboys. General Manager Tex Schramm recognized this as an opportunity for the franchise to increase its popularity and establish its own Thanksgiving Day game tradition.

In 1966, the Cowboys who had been founded six years earlier, adopted the practice of hosting Thanksgiving games. It is widely rumored that the Cowboys sought a guarantee that they would regularly host Thanksgiving games as a condition of their very first one (since games on days other than Sunday were uncommon at the time and thus high attendance was not a certainty). Since then, the two "traditional" Thanksgiving Day pro football games have been in Detroit and Dallas.