Today we are joined by David Fleming, Peabody-nominated correspondent for Meadowlark Media, longtime ESPN senior writer, and author of A Big Mess in Texas: The Miraculous, Disastrous 1952 Dallas Texans and The Craziest Untold Story in NFL History (St. Martin’s Press, 2025). In our conversation, we discussed the origins of the infamous (but also surprisingly un-famous) Dallas Texans, the club’s disastrous rise and fall, and why the NFL’s first franchise in Texas failed.
In A Big Mess in Texas, Fleming skilfully recovers the characters, hijinks and scandals, losses and one wonderful win that engulfed and eventually finished the Dallas Texans over ten months in 1952. It was the last NFL franchise to fail. His tale includes notable NFL personalities including Bert Bell, Jimmy Phelan, Gino Marchetti, Buddy Young, and Art Donovan.
He argues that the Texans, mostly remembered for being a famous flop, also deserve a place in NFL history for being pioneers. They were the first team NFL team in the south, the first football team to integrate and Texas, and their management and ownership included men and women. The rump of the team became the beginnings of the super successful Baltimore Colts team of the 1950s. Perhaps most importantly, while they were never America’s team, they set the stage for the emergence of the Dallas Cowboys in 1960, who borrowed liberally from the aesthetics and the antics of the Texans.
Fleming’s compelling account, deeply researched, and genuinely rollicking narrative will be of broad interest to people fascinated by American sports, football, and the NFL.
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