DALLAS (AP) -- Tex Schramm, the showboating innovator who helped build the Dallas Cowboys into "America's Team" and was instrumental in the NFL's evolution and popularity, died Tuesday. He was 83.
Schramm's son-in-law, Greg Court, told The Associated Press that Schramm died at his Dallas home. The cause of death wasn't immediately known.
Schramm hired Tom Landry as the Cowboys' first coach and was with the team for the first 29 seasons. He left in 1989, two months after Jerry Jones bought the club and fired Landry, and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame two years later.
Schramm's legacy extends far beyond the Cowboys. Without playing a down, he did as much as anyone to shape today's NFL.
Instant replay, sideline radios in quarterback helmets and starting the play clock immediately after the previous play were his ideas. So were wrinkles such as wide sideline borders and wind-direction strips dangling atop goalpost uprights.
