Dallas Texans ( NFL ) The Dallas Texans played in the National Football League for one season , 1952 , with a record of 1 – 11 . History . After the 1951 NFL season , Ted Collins sold his financially troubled New York Yanks franchise back to the NFL . Collins had founded that franchise in 1944 as the Boston Yanks , moved it to New York City in 1949 as the Bulldogs , and renamed it the Yankees in 1950 . A few months later , a Dallas - based group led by Giles Miller bought the franchise and moved it to Dallas - - the first - ever major league team to be based in Texas . Home games were scheduled to be played at the Cotton Bowl . Miller thought that Texas , with its longstanding support of college football , would be a natural fit for the NFL , and NFL owners approved the move with an 11 - 1 vote . However , they proved to be one of the worst teams in NFL history . The first game , against the New York Giants , set the tone for the season . While the Texans managed to get the first touchdown , they missed the extra point . They never found the end zone again and lost 24 - 6 . Only 17 , 499 fans showed up at the Cotton Bowl ( capacity 75 , 000 ) for that game , and attendance continued to dwindle as the losses piled up . Unable to meet payroll , Miller returned the team to the league with five games to go in the season . The NFL moved the franchise ' s operations to Hershey , Pennsylvania ( though it kept the " Dallas Texans " name ) . It also made the team a traveling team as the Texans ' last two home games ( Chicago Nov . 30 game was moved to Akron on Nov . 27 and Detroit Dec . 14 was moved to Detroit on Dec . 13 ) were moved . The team wound up playing one of its final two " home " games at the Rubber Bowl in Akron , Ohio , where the franchise ' s only win occurred — a 27 - 23 win over the Chicago Bears of George Halas , who was so confident that his team would win , he started his entire second string team — in front of an estimated 3 , 000 fans on Thanksgiving Day . The victory helped the otherwise failing franchise avoid what would have been the first winless regular season since 1944 . At the Bears vs . Texans game in 1952 , head coach Jim Phelan suggested because of the small turnout — where a high school game earlier outdrew the NFL contest ( a measure of how low the NFL still ranked on the sports scene at the time ) — that instead of being introduced on the field , they should " go into the stands and shake hands with each fan . " George Taliaferro , the team ' s leading rusher was selected to the Pro Bowl at the end of the season . Following the season , the NFL awarded the remains of the Texans operation to a Baltimore - based group headed by Carroll Rosenbloom , who used it to start the Baltimore Colts . The NFL does not consider the Colts ( now based in Indianapolis ) to be a continuation of the Yanks / Bulldogs / Yankees / Texans franchise , or even the Dayton Triangles for that matter considering that franchise ' s successor , the Brooklyn Dodgers / Tigers , merged with the Yanks in 1945 . As a result , the Texans remain the last NFL team to permanently cease operations and not be included in the lineage of any current team . In 1960 , the league made a second venture into Dallas and established what would become a more successful team , the Dallas Cowboys . Also in that year , the American Football League began with its own Dallas Texans ; that team moved after winning the 1962 AFL Championship and became the Kansas City Chiefs . The " Texans " name has since been revived by the NFL for the current Houston Texans , which started play in 2002 .