Remembering the first Eagles-Cowboys meeting in 1960

Going into the 1960 NFL season, there were high hopes for the Eagles. But no sooner had the season begun than they were beaten by the Cleveland Browns at Franklin Field and found themselves in an unexpected war against the expansion Dallas Cowboys at the Cotton Bowl. It was the first of what on Sunday night will be the 100th meeting between the teams, the beginning of a rivalry that has crackled with intensity for generations.

Up against a Dallas team that would go winless that year, the Eagles edged the Cowboys, 27-25, in a game that featured eight interceptions and two blocked extra points. It was played on a hot Friday evening before an announced attendance of 18,500. But the crowd on hand was far less than that, according to Gil Brandt, the Cowboys' onetime director of player personnel. Brandt said the game had been held in conjunction with the Texas State Fair, and the hope had been to sell tickets to fans who had come in for the event from across the state. Even the "Buy 1 $5 Ticket, Get 5 Kids in for Free" promotion flopped.

The big stars that night for the Eagles were running back Billy Ray Barnes and defensive back/running back Bobby Freeman.

Barnes rushed for two fourth-quarter touchdowns - one for 10 yards and one for 23 yards.

And Freeman blocked two extra points.

"The Cowboys were an expansion team, so we just thought we were going to go down there and wipe them out," Barnes said. "We had just taken a whipping by the Browns the week before, and we were in a mood to take it out on somebody. But they caught us by surprise."

The temperature was around 100 degrees during the day, and was still 85 degrees or so by kickoff, according to Brandt. End Pete Retzlaff remembers being surprised that "the playing surface was very rough."

"Grass had grown up over the divots, so it was beautiful until you had to walk out on it," he said. But just as uneven was the play of the two quarterbacks. Both Eagles quarterback Norm Van Brocklin and Cowboys quarterback Eddie LaBaron threw the ball away.

Van Brocklin had three interceptions.

LaBaron had five.

"Good gracious," said Eagles defensive tackle Eddie Khayat. "But we always knew Van Brocklin could win a ballgame for us, the interceptions notwithstanding. With him in there, the offense played better, the defense played better. He was a leader."

LaBaron chuckled and said he only "dimly remembered" throwing those interceptions. "We were a new team and had not come together yet," he said. "In fact, we were the only expansion team ever assembled without a college draft. We played some close games that year and got a little better each year after."

Two field goals by Bobby Walston and a 17-yard touchdown pass from Van Brocklin to flanker Tommy McDonald gave the Eagles a 13-6 halftime lead. The Cowboys narrowed that lead to one when LaBaron connected on a 75-yard touchdown pass to Frank Clarke. Freeman blocked the extra point. Barnes then gave the Eagles a 20-12 lead with a 10-yard touchdown run, but LaBaron answered it with a 1-yard touchdown run. But again Freeman blocked the extra point. When Barnes scored his second touchdown to give the Eagles a 27-18 lead, LaBaron connected with Gene Babb on a 27-yard touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter to trim the lead to two.

The Cowboys then tried an onsides kick that failed.

"My old friend Maxie Baughan recovered it for the Eagles, and that was it," said Brandt, who now writes for NFL.com. "The Eagles were a very fine team. Actually, we looked at a two-point loss to them as a moral victory."

Barnes said the five interceptions showed how strong the Eagles defense would be that year. "Every time someone mentions 1960, I bring up that defense we had," he said. "From the 20-yard line to the 20-yard line, they would give up some yardage. But then they would get tough, and boy, they had a lot of interceptions that year."

Football writer Ray Didinger characterized the Eagles' defense that year as "opportunistic." Co-author with Robert S. Lyons of "The Eagles Encyclopedia," Didinger said the defense "always came up with the big play." Although that Eagles-Cowboys game in 1960 was not televised back to Philadelphia, Didinger remembers seeing footage of it years later at NFL Films.

"All there was was one camera in the press box, no ground level stuff," said Didinger, a former Daily News writer who now works at Comcast SportsNet. "The lighting was very spotty. There were shadows in the end zone. And when the camera panned up to the scoreboard, all you could see were section after section of empty seats."

As a boy in 1960, Didinger remembered thinking the Eagles had a chance at a great season. But as he listened to the radio broadcast of that Eagles-Cowboys game from the Cotton Bowl, he began to have some doubts: The Browns had beaten the Eagles in the season opener and now an expansion team was playing them down to the wire. Little did he or anyone else know that it was just the beginning, both of a storied rivalry and the journey to what would become the Eagles' last championship. *