"The Dallas Cowboys," By James Rothaus

What if the Cowboys Had Traded for and Drafted Earl Campbell in 1978?

The Dallas Cowboys were pioneers in computer data simulation.

Sportsmaster was the largest civilian computer ever built, and there were some that said it was even bigger than the Pentagon computer that controlled the nation’s defenses. Its master memory banks contained all the data on sports and sports figures that anyone anywhere had ever bothered to put down on paper or film or tape. It was designed to prepare detailed, full-color, whole-cloth simulations, for both standard television wall screens and the new holovision sets. ~ George R.R.Martin

In the relaunch here From the 55 to Gridiron America Radio, one of the things we have wanted to explore more is the subject of sports simulation, just not for American football, but also other sports, hopefully in conjunction with other podcasts here on the Sports History Network. Let's make it clear to the newbie though, simulation sports are not fantasy sports that play in the present. Rather, in simulation sports we play in the past, much like you do with table top games like Strat-o-Matic and APBA, where the real world numbers of past performance matter and dictate what MIGHT have occurred at any projected point in time.