The 1972 Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders

After the 1971 season, Tex Schramm and Dee Brock discussed the idea of expanding on the tradition of sideline cheerleaders into a glamorous, choreographed squad of accomplished dancers. Dee set off to recruit one of the top dancers in America, Texie Waterman. Over one hundred ladies were auditioned and only seven were chosen. their summer was spent in preparation of replacing cheers and chants with grand jetes and pirouettes.^[1]

New uniforms were also commissioned by Paula Van Wagoner. The opportunity came through Lester Melnick who happened to be golfing buddies with Tex Schramm and Paula's boss. The design of the uniform had to allow for movement, have a country theme and be sexy in good taste. Two uniforms were unveiled at the meeting. One was a fringe and a belt that was worn over a body suit. The other was the current style of uniform consisting of a tied off blouse, vest, hot pants and gogo boots.

The Dallas Cowboys introduced their “new” Cheerleaders at Texas Stadium wearing new star spangled uniforms and debuting an innovative and exciting new form of game day action. For the first time ever, anywhere, jazz dancing was blended with beauty and brought to a football field…and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders were born.^[2]

This is the inaugural season for the newly redesigned Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. What set this apart from the earlier version of the Cheerleaders was that they adopted the age requirement of 18 years or older. Due to the sales of alcohol, it was considered more appropriate not to have high school aged girls performing at the stadium.

The Cowboys played a 14 game season of which half were home games. They ended with a 10–4 record which earned them a 2nd place in the NFC Division. They won their playoff against the 49ers but lost the NFC Championship to the Redskins.^[3]