Menu

Return To The Top: 1992 Dallas Cowboys & Alabama Football

1992 was a year where there’s no clear-cut city that had a dominant year in sports. Pittsburgh certainly makes a good case for itself. Mario Lemieux led the Penguins to the Stanley Cup. Jim Leyland and Barry Bonds took the Pirates into the National League Championship Series for the second year in a row. And first-year head coach Bill Cowher put the Steelers back on the map as the top seed in the AFC playoffs before flaming out against Buffalo.

GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS
Start reading today. 


The great city of Pittsburgh would indeed make a good choice. But we can do better, with just a little geographic creativity.
Let’s go down south into SEC country, in the state of Alabama. The Crimson Tide won their first national championship in 13 years, as Gene Stallings produced the program’s first crown since Bear Bryant retired.
Now, who would be the NFL choice here in this state that has no professional sports? You might say New Orleans, or you might jump over the Gulf of Mexico into Florida and say Tampa Bay or even Miami.
All are possible. But given the history of those franchises, and the fact that one more tradition-rich is also in the south, isn’t it reasonable to speculate that a large chunk of the Alabama fan base roots for the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday? I won’t cop to being an expert—I’ve never even been in Alabama, much less have my finger on the state’s professional sports pulse, but it seems like reasonable conjecture.
And those Dallas Cowboys also won a championship in 1992, and did it with a similar storyline to Alabama football. The Cowboys had not won a Super Bowl without Tom Landry, it had been 1977 since they won a championship, 1978 since they played for one and 1982 since they even reached the NFC Championship Game. That’s the same timeframe (within a year) that it been for Alabama, and ’82 was Bryant’s last year.
The Dallas Cowboys and Alabama football each returned to the top in 1992 and made it an extra special year for that element of the Crimson Tide fan base that puts on a Cowboy hat come Sunday afternoon.
Read more about the 1992 Dallas Cowboys
Read more about 1992 Alabama football

logosnb

SportsNotebook Featured Products

View Our Complete Catalog

Shop our Catalog

The Sports Notebook Newsletter

TheSportsNotebook.com is home to an extensive archive of sports history articles along with blog posts on contemporary sports.

Shop Our Digital Catalog

History of the Final Four

NCAA Basketball

NCAA Basketball

Super Bowl Past

NFL

NFL

History of the Final Four

NCAA Basketball

NCAA Basketball

Super Bowl Past

NFL

NFL

History of the Final Four

NCAA Basketball

NCAA Basketball

Super Bowl Past

NFL

NFL

SportsNoteBook Articles

1989 Montreal Canadiens: A Return To The Finals

The 1989 Montreal Canadiens were three years removed from winning the Stanley Cup. Over those ensuing seasons, they had gone out in the second round of the playoffs each time. Pat Burns took over as head coach for ’89, and Montreal made a run all the way to the Finals. Tough defense—the stingiest in the […]

2005 Miami Heat: Setting The Stage For Greatness

The Miami Heat were a franchise back on the ascent in 2005. After a string of playoff seasons under Pat Riley (1996-2001), the Heat had slipped in 2002-03. Riley moved up to the front office, Stan Van Gundy became the head coach and Miami got in position to draft Dwayne Wade out of Marquette. In […]

1996 Minnesota Vikings: A Return To The Playoffs

After making the playoffs their first three seasons under Dennis Green, the Minnesota Vikings slipped to .500 in 1995. In 1996, they only modestly improved—but it was enough to get back into the playoffs and start another streak of postseason trips. The franchise was going through some tumult at quarterback. They had acquired the veteran […]

1996 Philadelphia Eagles: Beyond Adversity & Into The Playoffs

The Philadelphia Eagles came into 1996 building off a season where they won 10 games and advanced to the Divisional Round of the playoffs. That 1995 run was in the first year under head coach Ray Rhodes, who took over a team that had been around .500 the previous couple of seasons. In 1996, even […]