Before Ezekiel Elliott, before Emmitt Smith, even before Tony Dorsett, there was Don Perkins.
The first great Cowboys running back has passed away at the age of 84.
His place as one of the franchise’s earliest stars was secured before there was even officially a team to play for. Though the Colts selected him in the ninth round of the 1960 NFL draft and the New York Titans took him early in the AFL draft, the Cowboys’ original owners had already signed Perkins on the sly to a personal services contract out of the University of New Mexico.
He sat out the Cowboys’ inaugural season with a broken foot suffered in training camp, delaying his rookie season until 1961.
Perkins made it worth the wait. He was named Rookie of the Year, compiling 815 rushing yards and four touchdowns in 14 games.
He played seven more years (all in Dallas) and was named to six Pro Bowls in total. He was an All-Pro three times. He never finished a season with a per-rush average lower than 3.9 yards.
While Perkins specialized in grinding out an extra yard or two on most carries, he admittedly struggled with longer distances. Coach Tom Landry’s infamous “Landry Mile” in training camp, for example, was always a sore spot between coach and player.
“Tom’s criteria was six minutes for the backs,” Perkins would recall decades later. “I had never run a mile in my entire life. I failed miserably. It’s been 50 years now, but I still remember walking and crawling most of the final two laps… I never came close to running that mile in six minutes. Bob Hayes and Bob Lilly never did either, so at least I was in good company.”
But his shorter runs on gameday sure added up. Perkins logged exactly 1,500 rushing attempts and amassed 6,217 rushing yards over his eight seasons before retiring in 1968.
At the time, he was fifth on the NFL’s all-time leading rusher list.
During his final season, Perkins was also instrumental in ushering in the desegregation of Cowboys players. At his…
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