A Big Mess in Texas: The Miraculous, Disastrous 1952 Dallas Texans and the Craziest Untold Story in NFL History

by David Fleming

The incredible, untold true story of the 1952 Dallas Texans--the worst team in the craziest season in NFL history.

Rattlesnakes on the practice field, fist fights on the team plane, bounced checks, paternity suits, house bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, stadium fields covered in circus elephant dung, one-legged trainers, humiliating defeats, miraculous wins, All Pro quarterbacks getting drunk at halftime, sex in phone booths, and even a future Hall of Fame coach stealing a cab.

Nearly lost to history, this singular season in the most football-mad region of the world is a kaleidoscope of every larger-than-life, fictionalized Texas football folktale ever written or filmed, with one incredible it's all true. Over a fascinating, 10-month rollercoaster ride in 1952, in the waning Wild West days of the NFL, before television turned the game into a corporation, the forgotten Dallas Texans would go down in history as one of the worst teams of all time and the last NFL team to fail. But not before defying the Jim Crow South, pulling off a Thanksgiving Day miracle against George Halas’s famed Chicago Bears and then celebrating with an even more infamous bender that would make Jimmy Johnson’s Dallas Cowboys blush. A year later, the NFL buried all trace of the most loveable, dysfunctional, entertaining team in history by secretly rebranding the train wreck Texans as the wholesome, all-American Baltimore Colts, the team that would go on to save pro football.

A Big Mess in Texas tells the Texans’ tale with all the humor, drama, game action, colorful characters, villains, world-class athletes, civil rights trailblazers, and incredible plot twists of that legendary season.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, History, Football

304 pages, Hardcover

Published October 14, 2025

Reviews

[TheConnieFox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since I am from Texas and do enjoy watching Football, the premise of this book initially intrigued me. Even though I usually read fiction books, sometimes I like to dip my toes into some nonfiction stories. This book was well written and I learned a lot of the history behind it. This book is about the disastrous 1952 Dallas Texans story in NFL history.

I wasn’t even born in the 50’s, but I do love a good history book regarding Texas and Football. A lot of wild and horrible things happened! The players had to deal with rattlesnakes during their practices, they had strip poker with groupies and they got drunk during halftime. Race and civil rights played a huge factor, because there were violent things that happened by the KKK. The things that happened in this nonfiction book are insane! I would have never known any of this had happened, if it wasn’t for this book! Overall, I give this book a 3 out of 5 stars rating. It was interesting, came with a clear thesis, flowed well and was well researched!!

Content warnings include violence, racism and adult themes. I think fans of Texas Football history, with a vivid storytelling, would really enjoy reading this book!

Thank you to NetGalley, author David Fleming and St. Martin's Press for this digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

This book is expected to be published on October 14, 2025!

[Maven_Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Big Mess in Texas: The Miraculous, Disastrous 1952 Dallas Texans and the Craziest Untold Story in NFL History by David Fleming

This is a wildly entertaining and meticulously researched nonfiction tale about the 1952 Dallas Texans, one of the most dysfunctional, bizarre, and truly unforgettable teams in early NFL history whose singular season was filled with chaos on and off the field, from rattlesnakes on practice fields and barroom brawls among teammates to miraculous upsets and staggering misfortune that landed this team in the history books as both a laughingstock and a legend. It’s a story that blends sports history with cultural insight, capturing a moment when pro football was still rough around the edges and before it became the corporate giant it is today.

This book felt like a secret legend unearthed, one of those tales where truth is stranger than fiction and you almost want to pinch yourself to make sure it’s real. Fleming draws you into a world where a brash young owner tries to plant professional football in the heart of the South during the Jim Crow era, assembling a ragtag roster that would endure laughable defeats, financial collapse, and absurdly human moments that will make you laugh and wince in equal measure.

What made me feel most captivated was how the narrative doesn’t merely catalog game scores and stats, it introduces personalities, scandals, and human drama with humor and heart: players who carouse with abandon, coaches whose priorities feel hilariously misplaced, and even surprising upsets that shine amid the calamity. Beyond the sheer football lore, the book also gently sketches the broader social backdrop and racial tensions that permeated the era, giving emotional weight and historical texture to the Texans’ story rather than letting it float above the real world.

Rating: 4 out of 5.
This book made me smile, shake my head, and feel genuinely moved by the strange beauty of an underdog tale gone utterly off script. Its mix of humor, history, and human color made me appreciate how rich and messy real sports stories can be, even if you don’t normally pick up a football book.

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before the Dallas Cowboys became “America’s Team”, there were two professional teams that tried to be successful in that city. The story of one of those teams that didn’t succeed is known to many football fans- the Kansas City Chiefs started out as the Dallas Texans in the same year as the Cowboys, 1960 and lasted three seasons there with a championship in 1962 before moving to Kansas City.

However, there was an earlier team in Dallas called the Texans. They lasted one season, 1952, and sported a woeful 1-11 record. The short but wacky and eventually sad state of this team is the subject of this book by David Fleming.

The 1952 Texans were previously the New York Yankees (not to be confused with the legendary baseball team) and were sold to Giles Miller, the son of the owner of a successful textile company.Fleming does a very good job of portraying Giles and his many failed attempts at business using his father’s money. Figuring it would be different to own a pro football team in a football-crazy state, Giles goes ahead and purchases the Yankees, moves them to Dallas, and then realizes there’s more than what he bargained for.

The stories about Miller, the team’s struggles, and the carousing of the Texan players are the best parts of the book and it is here that Fleming does his best work. One player readers will recognize right away is Hall of Famer Art Donovan, whose eating, drinking and carousing in the book is amazing. Just as amazing as the poor play of the Texans and the mishandling of the team's finances which led them to lose their home stadium before the season ended. But their temporary home of the Rubber Bowl in Akron, Ohio was the site of the Texans’ best moment, their upset of the Chicago Bears.

If a reader wants to read an entertaining book on what pro football was like before the NFL became so successful, this is a good choice. Also, a it should be noted that after that one season, the franchise was on the move again. In 1953, new owners moved the team to Baltimore where they became the Baltimore Colts. That turned out to be a bit more successful that their time in Dallas.

I wish to thank St. Martin’s Press for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.

https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...

[Ginni · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Texan, I appreciate a healthy dose of audacity. The 1952 Dallas Texans NFL team was an audacious venture that owed its swift demise both to bad luck and buffoonery. David Fleming’s account was entertaining, but also an authentic portrait of Jim Crow-era Dallas. It’s hard to feel bad for people with more money than sense (Giles Miller), but the troubled racial landscape gives the silly story gravity. This is us, warts and all. At least we eventually figured out the pro football thing.

(I received this book for free through a Goodreads giveaway.)

[Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very good book. I was fascinated by the story of the Dallas Texans. As a football fan and a lover of history I was surprised I never knew anything about the Dallas Texans and their disastrous year in 1952. Fleming did a great job of making this book a great read. My one complaint is a focus too much on race issues but it was also a large part of the story of the Texans so it’s a small complaint. However, the capitalization of Black when referring to people versus the non-capitalization of white when referring to people needs to be remedied immediately. It is ugly in written form and should be a crime against humanity.

[Brandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

i received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I really wanted to like this book. I love watching football (go bills!) and was looking forward to learning some history of the game. while I did learn some things from the book I learned a lot more from having to look things up that the author presumably assumed that I would know. the whole book felt like a drunk uncle telling the story of his glory days. sometimes it felt like he started off writing about the Dallas Texans but ended up wanting to tell us the history of race in the NFL which is absolutely a story that should be told but maybe not as a sidebar to the story of a rich white man.

[Kristi Lamont · Rating 4 out of 5]

BOOK REPORT
Received a complimentary copy of A Big Mess in Texas: The Miraculous, Disastrous 1952 Dallas Texans and the Craziest Untold Story in NFL History, by David Fleming, from St. Martin's Press/NetGalley, for which I am appreciative, in exchange for a fair and honest review. Scroll past the BOOK REPORT section for a cut-and-paste of the DESCRIPTION of it from them if you want to read my thoughts on the book in the context of that summary.

Oh how funny. I’m writing this the day this book is hitting the mass market, having finished it just last night. Didn’t mean to hit it right on the mark like this, as I had intended to complete it during last week’s Auburn-Georgia game, which—as someone who was taught to say Roll Tide before she was 2—I would prefer simply did not exist.

Both the need for sleep that night (which happened shortly after I wrote the author a fan email) and necessary adulting afterward got in the way, however.

Now that I’m done, I can confidently say this is a very good book—one that will be enjoyed most probably by football fans who also are history aficionados. It doesn’t get 5 stars from me because I don’t think any book about sports can ever rival The Courting of Marcus Dupree by Willie Morris, which is one of my all-time favorites. (Which you know, if you’ve known me as an adult for at least one football season.)

FTR, I actually recommended this book to my husband, which is a rare thing because we have such different reading styles/tastes. Although at this point he might not need to read it himself, as I read so much of it aloud to him, LOL.

Now, because I’m nothing if not self-aggrandizing, I will take this opportunity to share one of my favorite sports essays I’ve ever written. I’m not a David Fleming, and I’m definitely no Willie Morris, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

Why I (Sometimes) Cheer for LSU
Over the years, both my loyalty and my sanity have been questioned when I tell people that I cheer for LSU when they are not playing my beloved alma mater, The University of Alabama. Perhaps this will explain why.

It was the fall of 1988 -- Oct. 8, 1988, to be exact.

I was a stranger in a strange land (Natchez, Miss.), serving a stint of self-imposed exile for the sake of my journalism career. I was young, lonely, and very, very homesick for my people, and for Alabama Football.

Given that there was no option of going to an Alabama game that beautiful Saturday morning, I did the next best thing: I took the opportunity to go an hour-and-a-half south to Baton Rouge, La., and experience famed Tiger Stadium firsthand. And, more important, to watch LSU play Alabama’s arch rival, Auburn [shudders].

And play them they did.

That match-up, my friends, is what would go down in history as “The Earthquake Game.”

It. Was. Intense.

I never in a million years thought I would find myself in the stands screaming my fool head off for LSU, but there I was, hollering “Geaux Tigers” with the best of my suddenly adopted Cajun brethren. Things were tense; the low-scoring game was a tight defensive match-up. It wasn’t Alabama Football, but by golly it was exciting.

At almost the end of the game, toward the very end of four nail-biting quarters, Auburn was the only one on the scoreboard, with 6 points from field goals. And then.....and then....with less than two minutes left in the game, LSU’s quarterback (Tommy Hodson) drove the team down the field, then threw -- and completed -- an unbelievable, incredible 11-yard pass to the running back (Eddie Fuller). On fourth down.

Fuller ran it in, and the crowd went wild, wild, WILD. Given that I had matriculated at Alabama during the immediate post-Bear Bryant “Dark Years” (Ray Perkins, Bill Curry), I had never in my life experienced anything so intense in terms of a crowd reaction to a single play.

Turns out, nobody else had either. Things were so flat-out berserkers that all the stomping and whooping and hollering set off the university’s seismograph, which was located in a building about 1,000 feet from the stadium. Thus the moniker.


The game ended when David Browndyke nailed the extra point (his 69th in a row, bless him). Everybody went crazy again, and some of us have stayed that way.

No, it wasn’t Alabama Football. But it was a fine team on a fine day, and it made all the difference in a world to one Alabama fan.

Because if you can’t watch Alabama win? The next best thing is watching Auburn lose.

If you want to read more about The Earthquake Game, Wikipedia has a good write-up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthqu...

Also, here’s a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABIGm...

DESCRIPTION
The incredible, untold true story of the 1952 Dallas Texans—the most dysfunctional team in the craziest season in NFL history.

Rattlesnakes on the practice field, barroom brawls between teammates, bounced checks, paternity suits, house bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, stadium fields covered in circus-elephant dung, one-legged trainers, humiliating defeats, miraculous wins, All-Pro quarterbacks getting drunk at halftime, strip poker with groupies, and even a future Hall of Fame coach stealing a cab.

Nearly lost to history, this singular season in the most football-mad region of the world is a kaleidoscope of every larger-than-life, fictionalized Texas football folktale ever written or filmed, with one incredible twist: it's all true. Over a fascinating, ten-month rollercoaster ride in 1952, in the waning Wild West days of the NFL, before television turned the game into a corporation, the forgotten Dallas Texans would go down in history as one of the worst (and, wildest) teams of all time and the last NFL team to fail. But not before defying the Jim Crow South, pulling off a Thanksgiving Day miracle against George Halas’s famed Chicago Bears and then celebrating with an even more infamous bender that would make Jimmy Johnson’s Dallas Cowboys blush. A year later, the NFL buried all traces of the most loveable, dysfunctional, entertaining team in history by secretly rebranding the train wreck Texans as the wholesome, all-American Baltimore Colts, the team that would go on to save pro football.

A Big Mess in Texas tells the Texans’ tale with all the humor, drama, game action, colorful characters, villains, world-class athletes, civil rights trailblazers, and incredible plot twists of that legendary season.

[Bob Greenway · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Big Mess in Texas is almost an understatement. The 1952 Dallas Texans were a circus of a football team, and author David Fleming serves as ringmaster, spinning the tale of lovable losers and Texas-sized characters who burst like fireworks in the early days of the NFL.

The Texans were the dream of Giles Miller, the wheeler-dealer son of textile tycoon C.R. Miller. Giles had little to do except chase his dreams and spend his father's money. He fell in love with bringing an NFL team to Dallas after learning the New York Yanks were about to fold. Giles thought a franchise would be a big hit in football-obsessed Texas.

C.R. wasn't so sure. He thought Giles's can't miss deal would go wide of the mark.

Up to that point, 31 of 43 NFL teams had gone broke. The Yanks were a sad-sack team with only one win in the previous season. Worse yet, the team reportedly owed $200,000.

On top of that, the Yanks had three black players on their roster (two would eventually make the team). C.R. knew that might be the biggest hurdle to the team's success. In those days, Dallas was segregated with ironclad Jim Crow laws.

Still, Giles plowed ahead, managing to cobble together $100,000 for the franchise price tag and $200,000 to pay the Yanks' creditors.

Miller oozed confidence. He told one newspaper that he couldn't imagine how the NFL could fail in Dallas. To him, the team was a jigsaw puzzle. He had all the pieces. It was only a matter of putting them into place.

Unfortunately, Miller was overwhelmed by the size and complexity of the puzzle. His "hey, kids, let's put on a show" attitude was no match for reality.

Miller hired Jimmy Phelan as coach and general manager. A fun-loving character, Phelan liked everything about pro football except coaching. He had no interest in practice, designing plays, or game planning. Players often spent practice lolling in the shade or playing volleyball across the goalposts.

Predictably, Phelan’s hands-off approach left players out of shape and unprepared. The team paid the price in sprains, pulled muscles, and fractures. In those days, teams fielded with 33-player rosters. Every injury was huge.

A shortage of healthy players once forced future Hall of Fame player Art Donovan to play a game with a broken leg. Coach Phelan advised Donovan--whose nickname was Fatso--to hit the turf on each play, hoping his girth would slow down the opponent's offense. According to Donovan, he played a decent game that day.

Amazingly, the Texans sported some truly outstanding players. Besides Donovan, Gino Marchetti, another future Hall-of-Famer, was on the team. Running back George Taliaferro and guard John Wozniak earned Pro Bowl selections that season. But talent couldn’t overcome a lack of discipline. Most efforts were, at best, half-hearted.

Take quarterback Bob Celeri's philosophy about the forward pass. He simply put the ball in the air. If a teammate caught it, great. If it was intercepted, no big deal. It was just one play among dozens in the game.

Still, the play on the field didn't harm the team's success as much as the city's racial climate. C.R.'s initial fears were proven right. The Cotton Bowl, where the Texans played, did its best to discourage black fans from attending games. Investors were reluctant to support a team with black players. White fans also stayed away for the same reason. With no fans or financial support, the team was doomed.

Still, the team managed one brief shining moment. The Texans managed to edge the legendary Chicago Bears 27-23 in a game played in the Rubber Bowl in Akron, Ohio. As luck would have it, only 3,000 fans witnessed the miracle.

Not long after, the team folded before the season was over, the fastest failure in the history of major league professional sports.

While the Texans faded, the franchise was destined for greater things. Visionary owner Carroll Rosenbloom bought the outfit and relocated to Baltimore, where the Colts — aided by the talent of more than a dozen Dallas players — grew into one of the greatest franchises in NFL history. Giles Miller's big mess became a big success.

Fans of the NFL and cultural history will find the book insightful and captivating as Fleming deftly moves between the hilarity and heartbreak of the team's wild ride of a season.

Kudos to Fleming for unearthing this gem of NFL history.

I received an advance copy from NetGalley.com.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading A Big Mess in Texas by David Fleming! It is humorous and shocking. A millionaire middle son, Giles Miller, tries to bring the NFL to Texas. He is spoiled kid. I can’t believe that his parents gave him so much over and over again. The decision does not make a lot of sense.

The team has two black players and Dallas in the 1950s is a scary place for blacks. There are still house bombings, segregation in all parts of life. The area was cotton country and that area had a tremendous amount of slaves. I wish I could have read this book before we moved to the area. No wonder we had to sell our house, it got to the point where I thought that they might burn a cross on our lawn because we were a couple, Asian and white and the culture is that races do not marry.

This book definitely has a dark side to it, the hurt and pain that black players and their families went through was tremendous. Thank goodness, there is comic relief in this book, it be hard to get through it without it.

It had a cameo appearance of H.B. Wells, the 11th president of I. U. at Bloomington, my parents went there and loved him. Anyway, a black man went to him and said I have a $1.25 in my pocket and I can’t eat anywhere. That was because, Bloomington culture was whites only. H. B. Wells went to a restaurant where the man was refuses service and told him that he wanted to eat with his friend (the black man). They refused. Then H.B. said then none of I.U. will eat here! Then the restaurant started to serve blacks. I wish my parents were alive today so I could share that with them. Anyway, the black man was inspired by that he went on to desegregate a movie theatre there by removing the wooden barrier that separated the races there,. That had special meaning for me because it was the same place where our family stood in a long line and saw Star Wars!

The best chapters are the first one and the last one. The last chapter tells you become of the people that you read about through it book. Some are shocking endings, some very sad and some good.

Be sure to read this book if you want to learn about the unknown story of when the NFL came to Dallas and failed. No relation to the current team in Dallas.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Big Mess in Texas
By David Fleming

This is the true story of the Dallas Texans, the first NFL team in the deep south, which played only one season – but in many ways made its mark on the future of the NFL.

In 1952, the fledgling NFL had more teams crashing and burning than succeeding. When Bert Bell, the commissioner, decided to take a chance on opening up the pro football market in the south, he decided on Texas because the love affair of Texans and football was well known. When Giles Miller, son of a textile millionaire, approached Bell to buy the failing New York Yanks football club, he had no idea what would be required to make it work. He was from a wealthy family; he never had to deal with NOT being able to do whatever he wanted. And he wanted to own a football team!

The team was a disaster. With a 1-9 record, not nearly enough financial backing, and no one with any idea how to run a team or "sell" it to the public, the team was doomed from the start. But the team brought about several changes that impacted the whole league. Perhaps the most significant of these was being the first NFL team to integrate its roster. In Texas, this was huge – but also led to the demise of this team. However, in time, this accomplishment set a new standard for professional football and other sports. Giles Miller picked talent over race – a shocking choice at the time. He lost his team and his social standing. But that choice benefitted the whole league.

The author does a good job of introducing readers to the players, coaches, administrators, and owners of the NFLs early days. This is an eye-opening read, even for those old enough to remember some of the growth and changes that have made the NFL what it is today.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subtitle proclaiming A Big Mess in Texas to be the craziest untold story in NFL history sets expectations for this book to be pretty high and, I’m happy to report, I wasn’t disappointed.

While it’s hard to imagine a time before the NFL became the juggernaut that it is today, this book tells of a struggling league in which not even half of the teams make money. Giles Miller’s opportunity to bring a team to the South (for the first time) only comes about because another team, the New York Yanks, runs out of money and is looking to move. Giles’ father, the owner of a successful textile company, is initially not interested in buying the team, but eventually gives in.

The book’s synopsis gives a good indication of the craziness which ensues. As I read through all of those tales, which I very much enjoyed, it was easy to imagine Hollywood making this book into an excellent film. It wasn’t so much the funny parts, however, which stuck with me. Instead, it was the heartbreaking ways that the team’s two best players, both Black, and their families were treated in the Dallas of the 1950’s. These guys were trailblazers and it’s a shame that many NFL fans might not even know their names.

I read this book wondering if the Texans would eventually become the Cowboys. The answer is no, but the birth of the Cowboys is briefly mentioned towards the end.

The last chapter gives updates on the players and coaches mentioned earlier in the book. It was a fitting conclusion to an excellent book.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me the opportunity to read A Big Mess in Texas. The above opinions are my own.

[J Earl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Big Mess in Texas by David Fleming is a fun read that also offers an eye-opening glimpse into society as a whole during that time.

As an old Baltimore Colts fan (I still haven't gotten over them sneaking out of town under cover of darkness) I was vaguely aware of the story behind this team, but only what would probably have been covered in a three page overview, so this held a special interest for me. Wow did I ever learn a lot!

Like the book description from the publisher makes clear, this juxtaposes the chaos that was this single season with the cultural milieux within which it took place. The partying and fighting of the team is set against the Jim Crow south and the terrorist organization of the KKK. How and why a football team couldn't even survive a season in an area that prides itself, even then, on loving football is a question that needs a multifaceted answer, and Fleming goes a long way toward providing it. Just imagine a son of a rich businessman who believes himself to be above making errors taking what seems like a good bet and completely failing. We all have seen that scenario.

This will be an excellent read for those who love sports, football in particular, but want to know what goes on behind the scenes to make or break a franchise. If your primary interest is sensationalized stories without any context, you will have a more mixed experience since the stories are here but this is a level or two above what you're looking for and requires some level of curiosity beyond just voyeurism.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Jules The Book Junkie Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

This very entertaining book chronicles the one and only season of the fledgling Dallas Texans, a new NFL franchise in 1952 whose early demise was sealed by confluence of mishaps not the least of which were management inexperience, inadequate financing, and the depth of racial intolerance at the time.

Author Fleming delivers an accurate account of the rough and tumble NFL in its early years when the league’s viability hung by a shoe string. While chronicling the formation of the Dallas Texans by Giles Miller, son of a Texas Textiles magnate, Fleming cleverly delivers the story of the Texans losing ways both on and off the field through the eyes of its owners, coaches, and players. In doing so, Fleming also deftly connects the dots among various foundational personalities in the NFL, it’s early business and athletic heroes, and its inaugural commissioner Bert Bell, whose perseverance through calamities like the Texans eventually resulted in the viable NFL of the 1960’s.

For the Pro Football fan, this book is a must read. Accurate in its depiction of historical events, the reader is treated to insights from many of the leagues seminal personalities. Its richness is further augmented towards the end of the book by recollections from the family of the main characters. Well done, David Fleming.

I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. For more reading recommendations, visit Book Junkie Reviews at
www.abookjunkiereviews.wordpress.com

[Pam Masters · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to thank St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of A Big Mess in Texas. All opinions presented here are my own.

I was interested in reading this book from the moment I first learned about it. Why? Because I love learning about sports history, especially football and the NFL. And I have never heard the story of the 1952 Dallas Texans.

A Big Mess in Texas feels like an appropriate title for this story. But it could also be titled the Big Scheme of Bert Bell and the NFL. I am not saying that Giles Miller was innocent in his failings. But he was pretty naive about what was needed to be a successful team owner. He didn’t surround himself with people who would help him succeed.

Now, about the book, it was an interesting story full of anecdotes about the team and their antics. Like most people who have heard the story, I find it too wild to be true. At the end of the book, the author states that the primary source of information was Miller’s own diaries. He also used a few other publications to help him tell the story.

Who would I think would enjoy reading A Big Mess In Texas? Anyone who enjoys reading about sports history, social injustices, and racial struggles in the South.

[Russ Bertetta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this a 4 primarily because I learned a lot from reading it. I had known a little about the failed Texans but not nearly to the extent that Fleming chronicled. It was a complete shit show from the very beginning to their sad ending. I knew of George Taliaferro but again nothing of what a really good player he was and an even better person he was in his post-NFL career. And most importantly, the horrible extent of the racism that dominated Dallas was exposed. And I found it interesting that racism was a factor in the failure of the Texans but a short 8 years later the Cowboys entered the league and despite the fact that they were a terrible team they succeeded and drew good crowds, Certainly many things factored into their success-the popularity of the NFL, solid ownership but you can't tell me Dallas was no longer racist-I guess they just hid it better!
Not a fabulously written book, but informative, entertaining and enlightening.

[Becky Rosas · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley for the advance reading copy of this book. As a native of Texas and a lover of football, I had no idea this had occurred. The back history is fascinating, and there are so many people and it takes one back to a much different time in Texas history. It’s not necessarily a great time in Texas with segregation going on, but the story of the Dallas Texans reads like The Replacements (movie) was so much talent and lack of discipline or structure right up to the game with the Chicago Bears that was phenomenal. I enjoyed learning about all the players who went on to become members of the pro football Hall of Fame. I also enjoyed learning that the Dallas Texas went on to become the Baltimore Colts, which is something I didn’t know. A great book and it filled in some history I was not aware of.

[Matt Vaughan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up thinking it was about the AFL’s Dallas Texans, who went on to become the Kansas City Chiefs, only to find out there was another team called the Dallas Texans in 1952, and their story is wild. This book is a series of unbelievable events against the backdrop of a completely unrecognizable NFL, one that is constantly losing money. The standouts are the many larger-than-life characters, from star-eyed businessmen who bite off more than they can chew to players who are desperately trying to go on their next bender. It’s not all silly, though, as there are stories about black players who had to deal with harrowing situations in 1950s Texas, as you might imagine. It’s an enjoyable read all the same.

[John Yingling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Considered one of the worst teams, if not the worst, in NFL history, the 1952 Dallas Texans were badly mismanaged and poorly coached, with an ownership that was way over their head in business sense. Although the team had players who would go on to greatness in their football careers, notably Gino Marchetti and Art Donovan, they just didn't have what it takes to make even a mediocre team. A lousy team indeed, but their story has been turned to an excellent, well-told tale by the author. A thoroughly enjoyable book from beginning to end, and a tale of society in the 1950s, particularly in the South, as well as story of a professional sports league still finding its way to reach the hearts and interest of sports fans. A terrific book that is one of the best I have read in 2025.

[Johnny G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mad Dog Russo was talking about this book on the air, and I found it through my local library network. It’s ok. There are a lot of names to keep straight, but once the story of how the actual season unfolded I got into it more. I learned a lot - specifically, how awfully black players were treated in the early 50s in Texas, but this team is a cool little piece of history that got the NFL going, as the 1952 Texans became the 1953 Baltimore Colts. Now I want to learn more about George Taliaferro - a terrific Black running back that opened the door for many other players.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy books about the Wild West days of the NFL, pre-TV money. The '52 Texans were the last NFL team to fail. Once the networks started paying up for broadcast rights, nobody went under again. The '52 Texans were supposed to be a sure thing - bringing professional football to the most football-crazy state in the union. But they forgot to be in any way professional, and forgot that Texas was one of the harshest of Jim Crow states in the union, as well. One miraculous win, the rest of the season was a comedy of errors. Very entertaining read.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I’m not a huge NFL football fan, I found this book about the original Dallas football team very entertaining. In my case, it was an audio book that I listened to while traveling. How could one person risk the entire family fortune to purchase an NFL team? It was a big risk, and readers should listen to the story to discover how it panned out. Of interest to me was George Taliaferro, the first black player to be drafted by the NFL and a graduate of Indiana University.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full disclosure, I'm not a huge pro football fan except for my favorite team, the 1985 Chicago Bears. I chose this book to complete the sports genre in the genre challenge from my library.

I enjoyed the antics of those involved from the players all the way up to the NFL commissioner at the time. It also provided historical context relating to segregation and Jim Crow in Texas in the 1950's. It sounds odd that both would be in the same book, but the author did a nice job interweaving humor and more serious subject matter.

I recommend the book for football fans and history buffs, especially those interested in Texas.

I received an advance copy from #NetGalley.

[Kristin Schmidt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! It was interesting to read about the start of professional football in Dallas I would recommend this book to any football fan and especially Texas football fans Thank you St Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review

[Pattie · Rating 4 out of 5]

lots of little known history about the NFL

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

review to come