Customer Reviews:
 Cowboys Essential January 13, 2009
Joanne E. Ryan (USA)
A must for any true Cowboy fan! It is brought out often in many conversations.
 Easy read -- covers the essentials of Cowboys history (Sep 3, 2008) September 3, 2008
Fred Goodwin (San Antonio, TX)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Review: Cowboys Essential by Frank Luksa
Luksa, Frank. Cowboys Essential: Everything You Need to Know to be a Real Fan, Chicago: Triumph Books. 2006. HB, 180p, illus. list: 19.95, ISBN: 978-1-57243-861-3
Like the title says, this book covers just about everything the true Cowboy fan needs to know about America's Team, like (for example) how that nickname came about (no, it wasn't coined by the late GM Tex Schramm). This is Luksa's latest book about the Cowboys (Time Enough to Win, In Control, Hail Mary), but his first that isn't a player biography.
The book begins with the founding of the franchise, and the start of the rivalry between the Cowboys and Redskins. It ends with the arrival of WR Terrell Owens.
In between, Luksa covers everything from the career of Mr. Cowboy, DT Bob Lilly, the "man in the funny hat", longtime coach Tom Landry, rivalries with the Redskins, Packers, Steelers, and `Niners, the trade for Tony Dorsett, how the Cowboys became "America's Team", the retirement of "Captain America" QB Roger Staubach, their fall from grace, the arrival of Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson, the team of the `90s, and decline into mediocrity in the latter `90s and early 2000s.
It's a lot of ground to cover in 180 pages, but Luksa does so in a conversational style that is very easy to read. Unlike so many sports reporters-turned-author, Luksa does not overdo his use of metaphor and simile. He sticks to the facts, but weaves them in such a way that his chapters read more like locker-room stories (without the R-rated language).
It is hard to fault this book, but as a long-time fan, I got the feeling, especially in the first 23 chapters (the Schramm-Landry era), that I had heard all of these stories before. With so many books having been written about the Cowboys, it is hard to find fresh material to write about. So while it is true that I knew most of these stories by heart, it was also fun to read them again.
Even the last nine chapters (which cover the Jones era) basically repeat stories that most Cowboys fans will be familiar with. But new fans, those who were not around during the Landry or Jimmy Johnson eras, will appreciate this compilation of facts, personalities and stories. The book ends with the all-time Cowboys roster as of 2005.
An interesting feature of the book is the use of trivia facts and questions every few pages. It would have been nice if the answer section repeated the question, rather than making you turn back to see what the question was.
A bigger fault is that Luksa gives no references or citations. It's possible Luksa can recall every fact in his book directly from memory, but it's more likely that he drew from other sources like newspaper articles, books, magazines, interviews, etc. Without a bibliography, its hard to know the sources for his facts.
That minor issue aside, I recommend this book to both new and longtime Cowboy fans.
© Copyright Sept. 3, 2008 by Fred Goodwin, americas_team@hotmail.com
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