lit a candle 10h agoMy dad had a Cowboys Cheerleaders poster in the garage in the early 80s and I never knew until this week that one woman built the whole thing from a high school cheer squad. She turned down free unpaid models and made it a real program. That's the part that stuck with me reading about her today.
Their story
Dee Brock (born June 7, 1930) was an American educator, model, and the founding director of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. She built the squad from a free high-school cheer program into a dance-forward, racially integrated entertainment brand that reshaped NFL sidelines, then carried that same organizing energy into community college…
Dee Brock (born June 7, 1930) was an American educator, model, and the founding director of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. She built the squad from a free high-school cheer program into a dance-forward, racially integrated entertainment brand that reshaped NFL sidelines, then carried that same organizing energy into community college founding and PBS adult learning. She died on September 23, 2026, in Tyler, Texas, at age 96. Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders director Kelli Finglass and America's Sweethearts filmmaker Greg Whiteley confirmed her death the same day.
Brock was born in Covington, Oklahoma, and grew up in Wright City, Texas, where her father worked as a Sinclair Oil union organizer before running a jukebox business and a drugstore. She cheered at New London High School, earned a bachelor's degree from the University of North Texas in 1950 and a master's in English in 1956, and later completed a doctorate at North Texas in 1985. Parallel to teaching, she modeled in Dallas, debuting a Christian Dior gown at a New Look fashion show and walking for Neiman Marcus under Stanley Marcus's skeptical eye about her figure. She married Dallas Times Herald society reporter Bob Brock. They raised three sons and later divorced.
In about 1960 or 1961, Cowboys general manager Tex Schramm asked her to put models on the sidelines to fill empty seats for an expansion franchise fighting college football for attention. Brock asked what the job paid. Schramm said nothing. She told him models would not work free in Texas heat under expensive white skirts he had mocked up. Instead she recruited high-school cheerleaders who would chant for free. Schramm put her in charge. Early pay was bargained up from zero to as little as $600 or $900 a year. The squad was sometimes called the CowBelles and their Beaux after boys joined for a stretch. Brock dropped the male cheerleaders in 1969.
In 1965 she lobbied Schramm to integrate the squad while much of Dallas remained segregated, recruiting teacher Frances Roberson from an all-Black school to help. By 1971 roughly half the cheerleaders were Black. When the Cowboys reached Super Bowl V and VI, Schramm would not fund cheerleader travel, so Brock went on local television and found sponsors who wrote checks. After the move into Texas Stadium she pushed for older performers, ages 18 to the mid-twenties, more dancing than chanting, and a flashier uniform she said she sketched on a legal pad. She hired choreographer Texie Waterman, whom she had known from a 1950s summer musical, and split her own salary to pay her when Schramm would not. Designer Paula Van Wagoner and seamstress Leveta Crager later realized the star-spangled look that entered the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in 2018. Brock ran the program through the 1975 season and was succeeded by Suzanne Mitchell.
Away from the stadium she taught at Thomas Jefferson High School until 1966, helped found El Centro College as Dallas's first community college campus, and served as senior vice president of educational programming and director of adult-learning programming at PBS in Washington, D.C. In 2013 she founded the East Texas Book Fest. In June 2022, around her 92nd birthday, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders visited her Tyler home to present a Lifetime Achievement Award. "I hadn't realized I had made such a good impression," she told KETK that week. "It makes me very proud to know I got it started and they've taken it on, and doing a great job. So, I would say just keep on loving the Cowboys, and keep on cheering all you can."
Whiteley's Instagram tribute called her a model, teacher, PhD in literature, El Centro founder, and the person who started the Cheerleaders, and argued that if the Cowboys ever put a woman in their Ring of Honor, few would be more deserving. The organization posted on Facebook: "In loving memory of Dee Brock, our founding director. We will forever honor her and her legacy." Her influence lives in every star-spangled uniform, every USO stage, and every woman who still auditions to become America's Sweethearts.
Biography adapted from People.com obituary (24 Sep 2026); KLTV (23 Sep 2026); Texas Monthly Sarah Hepola (23 Dec 2021); Wikipedia (Dee Brock); dallascowboyscheerleaders.com/history; KETK Lifetime Achievement coverage (Jun 2.
In their own words
“My name is Dee Brock, and I was the founder of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.”
Self-introduction to Sarah Hepola for Texas Monthly / America's Girls podcast, reported 2021
“How much are you going to pay?”
First question to Tex Schramm when he pitched unpaid sideline models, recalled to Texas Monthly and KLTV
“If I were in charge, this is a start up team, first time you are going to have a team on the field, I would go for high school cheerleaders.”
Advice to Schramm after rejecting unpaid models, KLTV interview
“If there's anything hanging out that isn't adorable, show me.”
Reply to Sports Illustrated after a rival sponsor called the squad disgraceful, mid-1970s
“Tex Schramm had nothing to do with starting it except finally give us permission.”
On the 1972 dance-and-uniform reinvention, Texas Monthly interview
“I hadn't realized I had made such a good impression. I am so happy about that.”
KETK interview during June 2022 Lifetime Achievement celebration
“It makes me very proud to know I got it started and they've taken it on, and doing a great job. So, I would say just keep on loving the Cowboys, and keep on cheering all you can.”
KETK interview, June 2022
“There's nothing left. There's just a little sign about six inches tall, partly hidden by grass, that says Wright City. It's gone.”
On her vanished East Texas hometown, Texas Monthly 2021
“Well, I'm sorry, but there they are.”
Reply to Stanley Marcus's comment about models with large breasts, Texas Monthly
“In loving memory of Dee Brock, our founding director. We will forever honor her and her legacy.”
Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Facebook memorial post, September 2026
“If the Cowboys ever decide to put a woman in their Ring of Honor, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone more deserving than Ms. Dee Brock.”
Greg Whiteley Instagram tribute, 23 September 2026
“She created a standard, a spirit, and a symbol that have inspired generations and earned recognition around the world.”
Kelli Finglass tribute quoted by KLTV, September 2026
Photos
3Dee Brock wearing a star-banded cowboy hat, associated with Super Bowl-era travel in the early 1970s
by People Forever
Dee Brock in later years, from KLTV coverage of her death
by People Forever
Dee Brock with a Thank You, Dee commemorative book during a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders visit in Tyler
by People Forever
Same, had no idea it started as high schoolers until now.