Tex Schramm, the general manager of the Dallas Cowboys, was searching for a California summer home for his NFL team in the early 1960s. Schramm made a meeting with Orville Dahl, the president of California Lutheran College, in 1962. Dahl told Schramm that the college would expand the following year by adding a gymnasium, practice fields, training facilities, and dormitory accommodations for football players. The team was then among the newest expansion teams in the National Football League. The college functioned as the team's training camp for 27 years: from 1963 to 1989. The relationship between the school and the team has been described as one of the friendliest relationships between a professional sports organization and a college. CLU football coach Bob Shoup was instrumental in helping to bring the Dallas Cowboys to Cal Lutheran. President Tex Schramm liked the CLU campus due to the weather being cooler than in Dallas, and due to its isolated location and relatively close proximity to a major airport.