The year was 1965. The name was Ralph “Rotten” Neely. The teams involved were the Houston Oilers of the American Football League (AFL) and the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL).
Neely was drafted in the second round in 1965 by both the AFL Houston Oilers and the NFL Baltimore Colts. The Colts, however, soon traded his rights to the Cowboys. Thing was, Neely had already accepted the contract offered by the Oilers. After he secretly began negotiating with the Cowboys, he returned the check to Houston.
Simple, right? It was not that easy as both teams would find. Litigation ensued over the rights to Neely since technically Houston still owned his rights. The Ralph Neely case was underway. After a lengthy court battle, Dallas had to forfeit both draft picks and cash to the Houston team, but Dallas got Neely.
One of the terms of the agreement between the teams was that Dallas agreed to play Houston every year in a preseason game beginning in 1966, better known around these parts as the “Governor’s Cup.” And with that folks, a rivalry was born.
The root of that rivalry lies in the birth of the two Texas icons. The Cowboys were born in 1960 in the womb of the well-established and dominant NFL. The Oilers were also born in 1960 but unto the new rival AFL, which many, if not all, pundits deemed inferior to the NFL. In 1970, the two rival leagues merged under the banner of the NFL.
Fast forward to 2002. After years of heartbreak and turmoil, the Houston Oilers moved to Nashville and became the Tennessee Oilers before ultimately being renamed the Tennessee Titans. From 1997 to 2001, the proud football town of Houston did not have an NFL team. That all changed with the arrival of the new Houston Texans in time for the 2002 season. The city of Houston held a vote for which team they wanted to play to kick off their inaugural season.
Their decision? The Dallas Cowboys of course. The result? A young victorious Houston Texans team with a final score of Houston Texans 19 and Dallas Cowboys 10. On this brisk September 2002 night in the city of Houston, a rivalry was reborn with a vengeance.
We arrive in the year 2014. Coming into this season, the Texans and Cowboys had squared off in seven preseason contests with Houston holding a 4-3 advantage. The Dallas Cowboys held a 2-1 advantage in the regular season, the last of which was played in Houston in 2010.
The fourth regular season meeting between the two teams occurred Oct. 5, 2014. Though it took a mere field goal in overtime, the Cowboys escaped with a narrow 20-17 victory to extend the regular season match-up between the two.
Why all the fuss?
Simple really. State bragging rights and that little trophy called the Governor’s Cup. Although, outside of the city of Houston, I cannot say the rivalry is truly a two-sided affair. Dallas fans who live in Houston banter back and forth, feeding the rivalry simply because they live in Houston and thus have Texans fans to deal with on a daily basis.
However, when you travel outside of Houston city limits, the rivalry becomes almost non-existent. Cowboys fans often view the rivalry as more of an in-state indifference as opposed to a bitter hatred toward the Houston team. Outside of Houston, Dallas fans will often ignore the Texans entirely, not due to disdain, but rather an overwhelming absence of emotion when it comes to the other Texas team.
Native Houstonians on the other hand, no matter where in the country they reside, have always seen the Cowboys and their fans as evil vermin, which need to be taken out to the pasture and shot.
Why you ask? Because success breeds intense hatred and the Dallas bunch absolutely love to bring up past successes and their glory years. The proud Houston fans do not take kindly to this constant boasting and thus, we arrive back at the evil rodents, which need to be shot. The back and forth argument goes like this: Cowboys fans constantly bring up their five Super Bowl wins, and Houston fans constantly state the fact that the last of those Super Bowls came nearly 20 years ago. Both sides are right but the argument never ends.
As you can probably guess by now, it is the Texans fans, who keep this rivalry intense and fueled with bitter resentment, especially within the city of Houston. Personally, I have always thought it was more a rivalry between the two cities than the teams themselves, but that is another story for another day. The rivalry was born in 1965 with Ralph Neely and it continues today largely aided by the fans. After all, this is Texas and we love our football.
I don’t know why all the fuss. Here is Paul Harvey’s “Now you know the rest of the story” Ralph Neely was my second cousin. My father who is Robert Neely was Ralph’s first cousin… One time my father was visiting Ralph in Farmington, NM (or Flagstaff, Az), and on the fireplace mantel is the Orginal Governors Cup. So, Ralph tells the story about being drafted by the Oilers and signing with the Cowpokes, the in-court battles, and in the court-issued documents, there was mention that the two teams had to play each other. “So, after the game, I thought welp all this crap is over me so I took it and here it is now”.