The Dallas Cowboys’ season-long 50th anniversary celebration will kick off in earnest on Thursday night when the team welcomes the Oakland Raiders to Cowboys Stadium for a preseason game, and a pair of franchise legends are honored.
Quarterback Eddie LeBaron and defensive end Jethro Pugh will serve as honorary captains for the team, and will be recognized for their contributions in the team’s first year, and first decade, in existence.
Pugh, an 11th round pick in 1965, served as a starting defensive tackle for 12 seasons with the team, winning two Super Bowls, in 1971 and, in his final season, 1977. LeBaron took the first offensive snap in the history of the franchise, and would go on to play three seasons with the team; but his role in the Dallas-Washington rivalry went down as a salient point in the Cowboys' illustrious history.
LeBaron was the Redskins’ prized quarterback when Dallas joined the league in 1960. However, ‘Skins owner George Preston Marshall, by some wild stroke of misfortune, failed to put LeBaron on the restricted list for the expansion draft in that year.
Of course, the Cowboys nabbed him, Marshall was incensed and the rest is hateful history. That is, LeBaron was a hell of a quarterback; but in the context of the ‘Boys-‘Skins rivalry, he was Helen of Troy.
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