text: 1960: Winless first year The Cowboys began play in 1960, and played their home games a few miles east of Downtown Dallas at the Cotton Bowl.  For their first three seasons, they shared this stadium with the Dallas Texans (now the Kansas City Chiefs franchise), who began play in the American Football League that same year.  The 1960 Cowboys finished their inaugural campaign 0-11-1 with a roster largely made up of sub-par players (many well past their prime).
  1961–1964: Gradual improvement
  The following year, the Cowboys made their first college draft selection, taking TCU Horned Frogs defensive tackle Bob Lilly with the 13th pick in the draft (although the Cowboys finished with the league's worst record in 1960, the first overall selection in the 1961 draft was given to the expansion team Minnesota Vikings). The 1961 season also saw the Cowboys pick up their first victory in franchise history, a win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first game of the season.  The Cowboys had played the Steelers in their first ever regular season game only the year before.  The Cowboys finished their second campaign with an overall 4–9–1 record.
  In 1962, Dallas improved slightly, going 5–8–1.
  After the season, the Cowboys became the sole professional football franchise in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, as the AFL's Dallas Texans, despite winning the 1962 AFL championship by a score of 20–17 in double overtime, moved to Kansas City and became the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs eventually joined the NFL as part of the 1970 AFL–NFL merger.