Jimmy Johnson, the former head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, will be inducted into the Cowboys Ring of Honor on Saturday, December 30, 2023. The ceremony will take place at AT&T Stadium during the Cowboys’ game against the Detroit Lions. Johnson will be the 24th member of the Ring of Honor.
Johnson was the first Cowboys head coach under Jerry Jones’ ownership in 1989. He won two Super Bowls with the Cowboys. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on August 7, 2021.
Johnson also played football at Kingsburg High School and UCLA, where he was the captain of the track team. In 1960, he was the first draft choice for the San Francisco 49ers. He also coached football at Oklahoma State and Miami.
Johnson, 80, spent five seasons as the head coach of the Cowboys, compiling a 44-36 record, three playoff berths and back-to-back Super Bowl titles in the 1992-93 seasons.
Johnson, who was hired ahead of the 1989 season, took over a team that had gone 3-13 the year prior to his addition and went 1-15 in his first season.
He helped orchestrate several vital moves for the rebuilding Cowboys, including the draft selections of Hall of Famers Emmitt Smith and Troy Aikman and the trade of running back Herschel Walker for a mountain of players and draft picks, with the latter eventually turning into talents like Smith, Russell Maryland, Kevin Smith and Darren Woodson.
Other members of the Ring of Honor include Bob Hayes, Bob Lilly, Charles Haley, Chuck Howley, Cliff Harris, Woodson, Don Meredith, Don Perkins, Drew Pearson, Smith, Gil Brandt, Larry Allen, Lee Roy Jordan, Mel Renfro, Michael Irvin, Randy White, Rayfield Wright, Roger Staubach, Tex Schramm, Tom Landry, Tony Dorsett and Aikman.
Neither had the same level of success apart as they had together. Johnson would go on to coach the Miami Dolphins between the 1996-99 seasons, putting together a 36-28 record with three playoff berths but no championships.
Jones’ Cowboys have won exactly one Super Bowl since Johnson’s ouster under Barry Switzer in 1995. Before Johnson, the only head coach in Cowboys history had been the legendary Landry (whom Jones fired upon buying the Cowboys in 1989). Since Johnson, the team has gone through seven head coaches.
