Pro Football Hall of Fame executive Gil Brandt died on Thursday at 91. He was a football genius who drafted 15-of-19 Cowboys in the team’s ring of honor while serving as Dallas Vice President of Personnel from 1960 to 1989.
Brandt was ahead of his time. He revolutionized scouting, becoming the first talent evaluator to use computers to enter number grades for prospects during the draft process and the first to test players’ ability to handle pressure through rigorous psychological tests.
The methods pay dividends for the Cowboys. Under Brandt, they selected or signed nine HOFers, including quarterback Roger Staubach (1964), running back Tony Dorsett (1977) and wide receiver Michael Irvin (1988). During this timeframe, Dallas recorded 20 consecutive winning seasons from 1966 to 1985, made five Super Bowl appearances and won two championships.
“You can’t tell the story about the success of the Dallas Cowboys and their two-decade run of winning seasons from the mid-1960s to mid-1980s without mentioning Brandt,” said HOF president Jim Porter. “He is credited with advancing the use of computers in the front office of pro football teams, but the real computer was the one in his own head, where he stored an incredible amount of information where he loved to share with anyone who appreciated the game like he did.”
Brandt was like a walking database. “One of the stories they liked to tell from the Cowboys days was that some fairly obscure player name came up, and Gil said, ‘His fathers sells eggs in Albuquerque,'” former NFL public relations executive Greg Ailleo told NFL.com’s Judy Battista.
Brandt’s impact on the organization cannot be understated. His knowledge and insight built one of the NFL’s most recognizable franchises and set the groundwork for cutting-edge analytics that would modernize the league.