Troy Aikman

Football Player

• Born: November 21, 1966
• Place of Birth: West Covina, California

SPORT: Football

Early Life

Troy Kenneth Aikman was born on November 21, 1966, in the Southern California community of West Covina, to Ken Aikman, a pipeline construction worker and rancher, and Charlyn Aikman. Troy, the youngest of three children, was born with deformed feet. Before he was old enough to walk, he had to wear casts on both legs. Once Troy could walk, at about fourteen months of age, the casts were removed, and he had to wear orthopedic shoes. Troy was able to discard the special shoes when he reached three years of age.

By the time he was nine, Troy was already imagining life as a professional football player. In 1979, the Aikman family moved from California to the small Oklahoma town of Henryetta and took up residence on a 172-acre ranch.

The Road to Excellence

After spending his first twelve years in Southern California, Troy had a difficult time adjusting to life in small-town Oklahoma. He learned from his father how to be tough and how to make the best of any situation. Troy grew to appreciate life in Henryetta. Troy attended the local high school, where he played football and dreamed of playing quarterback for the nearby University of Oklahoma.

The coach of the Oklahoma Sooners was the legendary Barry Switzer, under whose direction the Sooners had consistently been one of the top teams in college football. In 1984, Troy’s freshman year, the Sooners were a top-ten team, and in 1985, they finished the season as the top-ranked college team in the country according to both the Associated Press (AP) and the United Press International (UPI) polls. Though off to a promising start, Troy’s career as quarterback for the Sooners only lasted two years. After playing at Oklahoma for the 1984 and 1985 seasons, his desire to pass the ball more led him to transfer to the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

At UCLA, Troy found an offensive game plan that suited his style of play. Under Coach Terry Donohue, Troy was able to mature as a quarterback. As a transfer student, he was not allowed to play football during the 1986 season, but he contributed immensely to the Bruins’ success in 1987 and 1988. At 6 feet 4 inches and 215 pounds, Troy was a sturdy, durable quarterback. In addition to his size, Troy had a strong right arm, was a tough competitor, made intelligent decisions in pressure situations, and was a team leader. He was also a down-to-earth person who earned the respect of his teammates through his honesty and competitive spirit.

The Emerging Champion

Troy helped to lead the Bruins to the 1987 Aloha Bowl, where UCLA defeated the University of Florida by a score of 20-16. The following year, he led UCLA to the Cotton Bowl, where the Bruins defeated the University of Arkansas. Troy was voted the most valuable player in both bowl game victories. Troy won the 1988 Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award and was named quarterback on The Sporting News all-American team for 1988. Troy finished his college career having thrown for 5,436 yards and forty touchdowns. With his size and athletic prowess, Troy was qualified to play professional football.

In the 1989 NFL draft, Troy was the first pick overall and the first choice of the Dallas Cowboys, with whom he signed a six-year deal worth more than $11 million. The Cowboys were in the process of rebuilding after several poor seasons, and the organization believed that Troy would prove to be one of the primary ingredients of a winning team. Historically, under legendary coach Tom Landry, the Cowboys had been one of the NFL’s most successful teams. In 1989, however, the Cowboys had a new coach from the University of Miami, Jimmy Johnson. Troy’s rookie season was a nightmare. The team finished the season 1-15, and he missed five games due to injury. There were bright spots, however. Troy threw for 379 yards, setting an NFL rookie record, in a game versus the Phoenix (now Arizona) Cardinals. He was frustrated with losing and hoped that the rebuilding would not take long.

In 1990, the Cowboys went 7-9 and traded away quarterback Steve Walsh, Troy’s chief rival for the starting job, to the New Orleans Saints. Late in the season, Troy led the Cowboys to four wins in a row but suffered a separated shoulder and was forced to miss the remainder of the season. In 1991, the Cowboys finally turned the corner and became a quality team. With Troy at quarterback and Emmitt Smith at running back, the Cowboys had a balanced offense that was a threat to score from anywhere on the field. The Cowboys finished the season 11-5 and made the playoffs. Troy was named to the 1991 National Football Conference (NFC) Pro Bowl team.

Continuing the Story

In 1991, the Cowboys served notice as a contender for the Super Bowl. The Dallas fans were finally beginning to believe that the new coach and the new quarterback could win. In 1992, the Cowboys arrived. Troy showed great poise throughout the season, but especially in the playoffs. Troy broke Joe Montana’s 1989 NFL playoff record of eighty-three passes without an interception by throwing eighty-nine passes without an interception. The Cowboys played the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVII, and the Bills, who had lost the previous two Super Bowls, proved to be no match for the powerful Cowboys. Dallas won 52-17, and Troy was named the game’s most valuable player. He had a remarkable game, completing twenty-two of thirty passes for 273 yards and four touchdowns.

In 1993, the Cowboys played like Super Bowl champions and again met the Bills in Super Bowl XXVIII. The championship game was close for the first half, but the Cowboys dominated the second, winning 30-13. The Cowboys had become the best in the NFL, and experts pointed to Troy’s maturity as one of the major factors in the team’s success.

During the 1994 NFC Championship game, Troy broke team records by throwing for 380 yards against San Francisco. After the 1995 season, Troy was selected to his sixth consecutive Pro Bowl, tying Roger Staubach for the most consecutive appearances by a Dallas quarterback. In Super Bowl XXX on January 29, 1996, Troy broke another club record by connecting on ten straight passes and also tied a club record by throwing for a touchdown in his fifth consecutive postseason game. The Cowboys were once again champions, defeating the Steelers 27-17. In 1997, his sixth consecutive year as a finalist for the honor, Troy received the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year award for his work with The Troy Aikman Foundation.

Through twelve NFL seasons, Troy became one of the game’s great quarterbacks. As only the third player in NFL history to lead a team to three Super Bowl victories, Troy rewrote virtually every passing record in Cowboys history. By posting 90 regular season wins, he closed out the 1990s as the winningest starting quarterback of any decade in NFL history at that time, topping Joe Montana’s previous best of 86 wins in the 1980s. Troy also finished his career with the fourth-highest all-time completion percentage, 61.5, among quarterbacks with at least 1,500 attempts.

After Troy was knocked out by four concussions during his last two seasons, he announced his retirement in early 2001. However, it did not take him long to find a new job. Later in 2001, Troy entered the broadcast booth for Fox Sports as an analyst and commentator alongside play-by-play announcer Dick Stockton and former teammate Darryl “Moose” Johnston. The threesome was an instant success, becoming Fox’s number two team behind Pat Summerall and John Madden. Afterward, Troy teamed with Joe Buck to become Fox’s lead broadcast team.

On September 19, 2005, Troy was inducted into the Cowboys Ring of Honor alongside Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin. Almost a year later, on August 5, 2006, Troy was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. In true team-first fashion, Troy praised the players, coaches, fans, friends, and family who helped and supported him throughout his football endeavors. In 2008, Troy added to his impressive list of accolades with induction into the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame. He started the Troy Aikman Foundation, a charity focused on children.

After two decades as NFL commentators on FOX, Aikman and his cohost Joe Buck transitioned to ESPN's Monday Night Football as lead commentators in 2021.

Summary

Troy Aikman combined physical prowess with toughness and leadership skills to become one of the best quarterbacks in the game. He made six consecutive trips to the Pro Bowl, from 1991 to 1996, and three appearances on the all-pro team, from 1993 to 1995. He was a key contributor to the resurrection of the Cowboys, leading Dallas to dominance of the NFL during the 1990s. From 1992 to 1998, Troy and the Cowboys won six NFC East titles, four NFC Championship games, and three Super Bowls, making them one of the NFL’s all-time great teams.

Bibliography

Aikman, Troy. “Memo to QBs: Stay in Touch.” Sporting News, vol. 230, no. 48, 2006, p. 42.

Aikman, Troy, and Greg Brown. Things Change. Dallas: Taylor, 1995.

Aikman, Troy, and Marc Serota. Troy Aikman: Mind, Body, and Soul. Hollywood: EGI, 1998.

Buckley, James, Jr. Troy Aikman. Dorling Kindersley, 2000.

Hill, Clarence. Troy Aikman. Random House, 2019.

King, Peter. “The Class of 2006.” Sports Illustrated, 26 July 2006, vault.si.com/vault/2006/12/25/the-best-of-2006.

Macnow, Glen. Troy Aikman: Hall of Fame Football Superstar. Speeding Star, 2014.

Monk, Cody. Legends of the Dallas Cowboys. Sports Publishing, 2017.

Salguero, Armando. 100 Things Dolphins Fans Should Know & Do before They Die. Triumph Books, 2020.

"Troy Aikman." National Football Foundation, footballfoundation.org/hof‗search.aspx?hof=2222. Accessed 20 June 2024.

Wilner, Barry. Troy Aikman and the Dallas Cowboys. SportsZone, 2019.