Nostalgia Alert: Rugrats’ Epic Cheers for the Dallas Cowboys

When thinking back to the 90s, one of the biggest cartoon shows (and one of my personal favorites) was Nickelodeon's Rugrats. And when thinking of the biggest sports teams from the 90s, the Dallas Cowboys were certainly one of the greatest. So it's no surprise that the two would meet. And in one episode in particular, members of the Pickles family were shown to be huge fans of the Dallas Cowboys.

Which Rugrats episode featured the Dallas Cowboys?

In the season 1 episode titled, Touchdown Tommy, Stu Pickles invents a helmet for Tommy to prevent him from bumping his head on the household furniture while Stu, Grandpa Lou, Stu's older brother Drew Pickles & their family friend Howard Deville came over to watch the "Ultra Bowl" (which is a fictionalized version of the Super Bowl).

[Fun fact: they did have the REAL sports announcer Chick Hearn to do the play by play for the game in the episode. Another fun fact: the "Ultra Bowl" was set in the Lone Star State too.]

The climax of the episode is when Tommy is fighting off Angelica over a bottle of chocolate milk, in an epic "football match up".

That's not the main focus of the story however; eagled eye viewers were quick to notice the jerseys worn by the adults in the episode. Stu & Lou Pickles wear a white jersey with blue & red stripes & a tower that looks very familiar to the old Houston Oilers logo (the Oilers are still around but they're called the Tennessee Titans & Houston now has the Texans as their team).

Meanwhile Drew & Howard have blue jerseys with a blue star on it; obviously a clear reference to the Dallas Cowboys.

And if that isn't proof enough, you can clearly see them rooting for Houston & Dallas...

The game MIGHT be a reference to the ACTUAL November 10, 1991 showdown between the Cowboys & the Oilers. Houston would win that game 26-23 in what is nicknamed "The Battle For Texas". You can see highlights from that game on YouTube here.

What's even crazier is that a year after the episode would premiere on television, the Cowboys WOULD end up making the Super Bowl (Super Bowl XXVII) & beat the Buffalo Bills. (Did the Rugrats predict the future?? Maybe...)

While we never did find out who won between Houston & Dallas in the episode, the true winners are us: we got to enjoy a nostalgic cartoon show, Cowboys & Houston fans got to see their favorite sports team be cheered on, and me because I got to relive a nice piece of my childhood again.

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