Jimmy Johnson’s Best Dallas Cowboys Wins on His Way to the Ring of Honor

It’s taken far too long, but the day has finally come: Jimmy Johnson’s name will enter the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor during a halftime ceremony on Saturday when the team takes on the Detroit Lions at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

There were many reasons to question whether this moment would ever arrive for the former head coach who helped the team win a pair of Super Bowl titles in the early ’90s, chief among them the massive ego of team owner Jerry Jones. Jones and Johnson famously broke up in 1994 after the ‘Boys had won their second consecutive Super Bowl.

The war of egos between the two college buddies proved to be bigger than the team. ESPN recently wrote that at an NFL meeting in early 1994, Jones and Johnson got into an argument, with Jones telling reporters afterwards: “There are 500 coaches who could have won the Super Bowl with our team.”

The ESPN article notes that the remark got back to Johnson, and days later Johnson was the former head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

Johnson went on to have a few decent years coaching the Miami Dolphins, but he never came close to replicating the success he had in Texas. Jones, however, would again lift the Lombardi Trophy when the Cowboys defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1996. In a turn that surely hardened Jones’ heart towards Johnson as the majority of fans and media seemed to give more credit for that third championship in four seasons to the former coach who had built the winning roster and not to the owner who was still there holding the trophy.

It’s official pic.twitter.com/SQUKHW2Ar7

— Clarence Hill Jr (@clarencehilljr) November 19, 2023

Over the past 20 years, six Johnson-coached Cowboys have been inducted into the Ring of Honor, as have a few other individuals who contributed to the team outside of Johnson’s era. With each passing induction, especially since 2020 when Johnson was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the chatter surrounding the question of Johnson’s Ring of Honor status has grown louder.

In recent years, Jones has made puzzling, bumbling public statements suggesting he was open to admitting Johnson into the ring, while reminding anyone who might be unaware that he and only he would decide the time for it. In a move that was somehow surprising and expected all at once, Jones finally announced in November that his old teammate on the University of Arkansas football team would be honored with the other Cowboy greats.

Before the newest member of the Ring of Honor sees his name alongside Troy Aikman, Roger Staubach and Tom Landry, let’s take a look at some of Jimmy Johnson’s most impressive wins with the Dallas Cowboys.

The Herschel Walker Trade

We know, this isn’t a game that was won, but bear with us. We are bringing this up first for two reasons: It was a giant, headline-making transaction that paid dividends few thought possible, and it occurred before Johnson had even won a game as the Cowboys coach. This massive, league-shaking October 1989 deal is not only the biggest trade in NFL history in terms of numbers of players, but more than any trade before or since it can be identified as the origin point of a dynasty.

The Minnesota Vikings received aging running back Herschel Walker and a couple of future draft picks from the Cowboys for a haul of veteran players and premium draft picks. Those players helped build the team that would win three titles in the next six years. One of those picks was used in 1990 to select Emmitt Smith, who became not only the offensive star of the team but also the NFL’s all-time leading rusher.

Nov. 5, 1989

To be fair, this midseason win isn’t impressive in the traditional sense. It’s more impressive for what it symbolized. The 13-3 victory over Washington was the first win of Johnson’s Cowboys career, and also notably, it would be the only on-field triumph for that entire season. It was also highly notable in that the club’s star rookie QB, future icon and Hall of Famer Troy Aikman, didn’t play that night due to injury. Snatching a win on the road with backup QB Steve Walsh is an impressive feat, regardless of the score or overall impact of the result on the season.

Dec. 29, 1991

The 1991 season is when the misery of the past was shed to reveal the promise of the future. On the strength of the emergence of “The Triplets,” aka Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and receiver Michael Irvin, the ‘Boys made the playoffs for the first time since 1985 with an 11-5 record. As in the 1989 win mentioned above, Aikman was not under center. Veteran backup Steve Beuerlien had led the team to several consecutive wins while Aikman was out injured. Although Aikman was available to play, Johnson stuck with the backup and it paid off in the form of a tough 17-13 wildcard round win on the road in front of the always rowdy Chicago Bears fans.

Jan. 31, 1993 & Jan. 30, 1994

Both of Johnson’s Super Bowl triumphs should be on any list such as this one. The 52-17 victory over the Buffalo Bills for Super Bowl XVII was more dominant, but we don’t mind saying we were more impressed with the win one year later. Trailing by a score of 13-6 at halftime, Dallas rallied in the second half to score two touchdowns while shutting the Bills out in the final two quarters to secure a second consecutive championship by a score of 20-13.

Jan. 2, 1994

There were some impressive wins prior to each of the Super Bowl appearances that have rightfully earned lofty spots in Cowboys lore. One of those took place in the final week of the 1993 season, with the division title on the line against the New York Giants in New Jersey. This will forever be known as the game when Emmitt Smith played with a dislocated shoulder while collecting more than 200 total yards and a touchdown in the overtime win. It is one of those games that Cowboys fans will always remember where they were when the final whistle was blown.

Jan 10, 1993

You might be noticing a trend on this list by now. Most of these impressive wins for Johnson and the Cowboys came in the playoffs. That’s notable, of course, because playoff wins have been sparse since Johnson left the team. This specific divisional round win, however, had something for fans that many other Johnson victories didn’t have: a juicy revenge factor. Defeating the hated Philadelphia Eagles four years after the so-called “Bounty Bowl” by 24 points in the playoffs was both highly satisfying and a sign of the toughness Johnson brought to the team.

✭ January 17th 1993
Head Coach Jimmy Johnson post game speech after winning 1992 NFC Championship game in San Francisco.

“How Bout Them Cowboys”#90sCowboys #CowboysNation #DallasCowboys pic.twitter.com/TheKUHOM1N

— 90’s Dallas Cowboys (@90s_cowboys) January 18, 2023

Jan. 17, 1993

There are some, including us, who don’t have a problem suggesting that the Cowboys’ rivalry with the San Francisco 49ers is an epic one, although we admit it’s tough to top the ill will between the Cowboys and the Eagles. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a Cowboys fan who watched the 1992 NFC Championship game and does not believe it’s one of the greatest games the franchise has ever been a part of.

Knowing that Dallas would go on to win the Super Bowl two weeks later by a 52-17 score, it’s easy to make the argument that the muddy game in the Bay Area against Steve Young and Jerry Rice was much more than the mere championship appetizer. The NFL agrees too. In 2014, the league named this game the 60th greatest NFL game of all time.

This was also the date when Johnson, during a rousing post-victory speech to the team, famously shouted, “How ’bout them Cowboys!?”