Move over, Tom and Bum: Texas Rangers-Houston Astros is state’s biggest game ever | Opinion

Houston has always despised Dallas.

But honestly, Dallas hasn’t thought about Houston in years.

Until now. Suddenly, the old Dallas-Houston bitterness is on fire again, just like in the old days of oilmen vs. bankers, or the Starck Club vs. Gilley’s, or Neiman’s vs. Buc-ees, or the Galleria vs. ... the Galleria.

Texas’ state favorites are not at risk in this rivalry. H-E-B is from the San Antonio area. Whataburger is from Corpus Christi. Dr Pepper is from Waco, and Blue Bell is from Brenham.

But for the first time since the buttoned-down Dallas Cowboys and Tom Landry teed it up against the old Houston Oilers and Stetson-wearing coach Bum Phillips, sports fans in both cities are remembering why they don’t like each other and recalling put-downs from years ago,

Until Monday night, the zenith of the Dallas-Houston sports rivalry might have been Thanksgiving Day 1979, when the Oilers came from behind in the fourth quarter to beat the Cowboys 30-24 at Texas Stadium.

Phillips, a Southeast Texas truck driver’s son and a World War II combat veteran, crowed after Cowboys hero Roger Staubach threw three incomplete passes on Dallas’ last drive.

In the era of the movie “Urban Cowboy” and a nationwide craze for all things Texan, Phillips drawled into the microphones that the Cowboys “may be America’s Team, but we’re Texas’ Team.”

For decades, that line and a touchdown by former Texas Longhorns legend Earl Campbell kept Houston football fans charged up at Dallas.

We knew Rangers great Nolan Ryan came from Houston. But we overlooked that.

Dallas, meanwhile, went about its usual business of making money, leading in technology and passing Houston as a core city with Fort Worth in the state’s largest metropolitan area.

By the way, Fort Worth is more than a disinterested observer in this rivalry.

Cowtown has more in common with Houston than Dallas, down to the rodeo dirt on our boots.

But when Amon G. Carter Jr. and partners from Fort Worth and Arlington Mayor Tom Vandergriff first wanted to bring Major League Baseball to a new North Texas domed stadium in the 1960s, it was Houston and Roy Hofheinz, the Astros owner known as “The Judge” from his years in local government, who blocked the way.

In 1968, four years before the arrival of the Texas Rangers, Vandergriff wanted Arlington to win the National League team that instead went to San Diego. Or Montreal.

At every chance, Houston said no.

For six years, Dallas and Fort Worth had been fed every Houston Colt .45s or Astros game on TV, most in prime time on KTVT/Channel 11. Hofheinz didn’t want to lose the DFW market, the fans or the lucrative TV money.

Hofheinz “feels the entire state is Astro-land,” Vandergriff said. “This is not the case.”

In 1972, the Washington Senators moved to Arlington.

Vandergriff chose a name that would inspire the whole state of Texas.