The Associated Press

DALLAS - Tex Schramm, who turned the Dallas Cowboys into "America's Team" with his bold innovations and keen eye for promotion and was instrumental in making the NFL a billion-dollar industry, died Tuesday. He was 83.

The former Cowboys president and general manager died at his Dallas home, said Schramm's son-in-law, Greg Court.

"Tex will go down as one of the most influential figures in the history of the NFL," said Don Shula, the league's winningest coach.

Schramm was a showman with a passion for football. His focus was the Cowboys, but he was always thinking about what could help the league, too, with ideas ranging from using professional dancers as cheerleaders to letting officials correct calls through instant replay.

His dedication was recognized in 1991, when he became the first team executive elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

"The NFL family lost one of its giants," commissioner Paul Tagliabue said. "Tex Schramm was one of the visionary leaders in sports history - a thinker, doer, innovator and winner with few equals."

After making a reputation as an executive with the Los Angeles Rams and CBS-TV Sports, Schramm was hired at age 39 to start the NFL team in Dallas before it even was formally approved.

His first move was to hire Tom Landry as his coach. Despite opposite personalities, their "business relationship" - as Schramm called it - produced 20 straight winning seasons, 18 playoff appearances, 13 division titles, five Super Bowl appearances and two championships.

Schramm left the organization in 1989, two months after Jerry Jones bought the club and fired Landry.

Schramm spurred the NFL's evolution and popularity by wielding his power: He was the chairman of the competition committee for 25 years.

Among the rule changes Schramm oversaw: the addition of regular-season overtime, putting the official time on the scoreboard, moving goal posts from the front of the end zone to the back, and protecting quarterbacks through the in-the-grasp rule. He also pushed the six-division, wild-card playoff concept.

"He made so many contributions, you would run out of ink if you tried to write them all down," said Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt, whose franchise started in Dallas as the Texans of the rival AFL in 1960, the same season the Cowboys began. At former commissioner Pete Rozelle's urging, Schramm played a significant role in negotiating with Hunt the AFL-NFL merger.

Despite his high-profile roles with the league, Schramm made it clear his loyalty was to the Cowboys.

"It was the Cowboys first and everything else second," New York Giants owner Wellington Mara said. "That's why he was so successful."