| | 1968 Cartwright, Gary. The Hundred Yard War. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. 1st (?) novel about pro football in Dallas; its about the Dallas Troopers (a team much like the Cowboys) with a QB named Riley Sylver (modeled on Don Meredith); Cartwright is a reporter who covered the Cowboys in the 60s. |
| | 1973 Gent, Peter. North Dallas Forty. NY: William Morrow. Best known fictional work loosely based on the Cowboys; Gent is an ex-Cowboys receiver. |
| | 1975 Harris, Thomas. Black Sunday. NY: Putnams. An international terrorist organization vows revenge against the American people-a death plan without parallel. The diabolical scheme develops with breakneck speed, all of the explosive elements racing the clock to a shattering climax at the Super Bowl. Movie version features footage of the Cowboys and Steelers in SB 10. |
| | 1978 Gent, Peter. Texas Celebrity Turkey Trot. NY: William Morrow. Story of Mabry Jenkins, a thirty year old defensive back for a professional football team that is cut. |
| | 1981 Potter, Jerry Allen. If I Should Die Before I Wake. NY: Fawcett |
| | 1983 Carnell, Lois. Beyond the Flight of Birds. Harlequin. When an architect wins the bid to design one of Dallas's newest skyscrapers, she didn't know that by submitting her plans with just her initials, she had crossed paths with Dirckson Vaughan, ex-Dallas Cowboy and current real estate investor. |
| | 1983 Gent, Peter. The Franchise. NY: Villard Books. Although this book revolves around the front office and star quarterback of an expansion football team, there really is very little football going on. Instead, we are presented with some of the seedy side of a professional sports team with everything from point shaving to murder. |
| | 1984 Toomay, Pat. On Any Given Sunday. NY: Donald Fine. This is a novel about pro football; in it you can discover the essence, the truth, of the warzone the players inhabit that can only be invoked by Pat Toomay, a man who was there. |
| | 1986 Kuskin, Karla. The Dallas Titans Get Ready for Bed. NY: Harper Collins. Offers a look at locker-room and at-home winding-down routines of a team of football players after an exciting game. |
| | (There is a 1986 novel by John Works called Thank You, Queen Isabella. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press. This book is *NOT* about the Cowboys! Some search engines may say otherwise, but don't waste your money!) |
| | 1989 Brooks, Elston. The Man Who Ruined Football. NY: Atheneum. Although the timing is ironic, the book is NOT about Jerry Jones' takeover of the Cowboys; its about Vic Waller, a middle-aged insurance man, who begins a second career with the Dallas cowboys as a place-kicker who never misses. |
| | 1989 Gent, Peter. North Dallas After Forty. NY: Villard Books. Sequel to North Dallas Forty. It's the 20th anniversary of North Dallas's first championship and the entire team is returning to the site of their greatest glory. |
| | 1991 Gray, A.W. The Man Offside. NY: Dutton. After serving time for selling drugs, former Dallas Cowboy Rick Bannion is released only to find himself right back in the middle of another drug deal. |
| | 1993 Ripley, W.L. Dreamsicle. Little Brown & Co. Having reported the existence of a marijuana field to the local sheriff, Wyatt Storme (former star receiver for the Dallas Cowboys) involves himself in local affairs when someone then murders the sheriff. |
| | 1994 Gent, Peter. The Conquering Heroes. NY: Donald Fine. 5th novel by the prolific Gent; even though it is about college basketball, I include it for completeness' sake, because the author (a former basketball star at Mich. St.) is an ex-Cowboy |
| | 1994 Ripley, W.L. Storme Front. Henry Holt & Co. Wyatt Storme, ex-Dallas Cowboys superstar, and sometime vigilante, along with his immoderate bounty-hunter buddy, gets involved in the search for contraband wargun merchants in Colorado--some of whom may be high-level state employees. |
| | 1996 Buckley, James. The Lost Cowboy Ghost (NFL Adventures). Scholastic Paperbacks. Mystery tale that includes Troy, Emmitt and Deion. There is a ghost at a camp and the Cowboys help to fight it off. |
| | 1996 Ripley, W.L. Electric Country Roulette. Henry Holt & Co. Ex-Dallas Cowboy Wyatt Storme is drawn into a stew of corruption and greed that includes a country-music star, police, politicians and Mafia muscle trying to make the little Ozark town of North Branson, Mo., more famous than neighboring country-music mecca Branson. |
| | 1996 Sampson, Michael. The Football That Won . . .. New York: Holt. Poem about a fictional Dallas/KC Super Bowl (the Cowboys win). Besides the familiar blimp, fans will recognize the Super Bowl trophy, the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, and the fact that the Cowboys' coach bears an uncanny resemblance to Jimmy Johnson. |
| | 1998 Alter, Judy. Haley Goes to Camp. Arlington, TX: Summit Group. First in a series about a young girl wanting to be a Junior Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader. [I don't belive this book was ever published; some search engines list the title as Haley Goes to Camp: The Junior Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Collection, authored by Charlotte Anderson; I've never found a copy of this book in ten years of searching] |
| | 2004 Shannon, Ray. Firecracker. Putnam. Following a wild Las Vegas weekend with Dallas Cowboys TE Raygene Price, public relations executive Reece Germaine finds herself pregnant and holding a long shot Super Bowl bet. |
| | 2007 Brown, Amanda and Janice Weber. School of Fortune. Woman leaves Dallas Cowboy QB Lance Henderson at the altar. |
| | 2007 Brown, Sandra. Play Dirty. Simon & Schuster. In this provocative thriller, ex-Dallas Cowboys QB Griff Burkett is released from prison, only to find himself hounded by the very detective who got him locked up in the first place. |
| | 2007 Suttle, Rick. Suicide Peak. Authorhouse. Murder mystery about a fictional former-DCC, Debbie Preston. |
| | Copyright © 2008, Fred Goodwin. All rights reserved. Revised October 17, 2008 |