{"id":401282,"date":"2025-11-24T12:22:26","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T12:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/401282\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T12:22:26","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T12:22:26","slug":"ex-stripper-bubbles-cash-explains-her-fame-as-the-dallas-cowboys-unofficial-mascot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/401282\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-stripper Bubbles Cash explains her fame as the Dallas Cowboys\u2019 unofficial mascot"},"content":{"rendered":"

The year was 1967. The Dallas Cowboys<\/a> were playing the Atlanta Falcons at the Cotton Bowl<\/a>. It was the middle of the first quarter. Suddenly, the referees stopped the game. The time clock froze. What was happening?<\/p>\n

A woman made a grand entrance to get to her box seat on the 50-yard line. She was wearing what later would be called a micro miniskirt. She held two stalks of pink cotton candy across her chest.<\/p>\n

Men lifted their binoculars for a better look. Nearly everyone turned to watch her.<\/p>\n

A photo appearing in the next day\u2019s Dallas Morning News shows, by my count, 40 smiling, happy people surrounding her. The caption: \u201cGame? What game?\u201d<\/p>\n

News Roundups<\/p>\n

Catch up on the day’s news you need to know.<\/p>\n

By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

Meet Bubbles Cash. A stripper. Why was she there? A player had given her tickets.<\/p>\n

Why this matters<\/p>\n

Bubbles Cash\u2019s in-stadium sex appeal is part of Cowboys legend. Some say she was part of the inspiration that led to the world-famous Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Known as the team\u2019s unofficial mascot, Bubbles parlayed her sudden fame and twice ran as a write-in candidate for state governor. Once she even came in fourth. <\/p>\n

Stripper publicity<\/p>\n

Bubbles Cash is alive and well, living quietly in East Fort Worth. I met her at a neighborhood diner near her home. At 78, her famous blond hair is replaced with long dark hair flowing down her back. The legendary pole dancer who practiced her routines at home in front of a mirror now mostly rides in a wheelchair.<\/p>\n

\"At<\/p>\n

At her Fort Worth home in October 2025, legendary exotic dancer Bubbles Cash showed the 1967 photo of her at a Cotton Bowl game that led to nationwide attention. In the original photo, taken by Dallas Morning News photographer Joe Laird, Cash turned heads when she descended the stairs holding cotton candy and wearing a miniskirt.<\/p>\n

Chitose Suzuki \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

Over a lunch of meatloaf, she recounted the chapters of her life. It could be a movie, starting with her dancing near naked at the Athens Strip bar on Lower Greenville Avenue.<\/p>\n

Several Cowboy players saw her there. Upon learning she had never seen a pro football game, they gave her player tickets. <\/p>\n

What happened next was brilliantly photographed by Dallas Morning News photographer Joe Laird and best described by writer John Eisenberg in his book Cotton Bowl Days: Growing Up with Dallas and the Cowboys in the 1960s<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Eisenberg writes: \u201cHer blonde hair was piled atop her head. She wore a tight sweater and a leopard-skin miniskirt. She carried two helpings of pink cotton candy, which she held at chest level.\u201d<\/p>\n

A roar of delight cascaded through the stadium. Referees temporarily stopped the game.<\/p>\n

Wide receiver Bob Hayes pointed her out to confused quarterback Don Meredith.<\/p>\n

\u201cDandy, look there! It\u2019s Bubbles Cash!\u201d<\/p>\n

Meredith called timeout.<\/p>\n

Coach Tom Landry shouted, \u201cWhat did you call timeout for?\u201d<\/p>\n

Meredith replied: \u201cCoach, it\u2019s Bubbles Cash.\u201d<\/p>\n

She recalls doing \u201ca little cutesy turn-around\u201d before taking her seat. \u201cGotta be cute,\u201d she chuckled in between bites of that meatloaf.<\/p>\n

\"Bubbles<\/p>\n

Bubbles Cash, the former stripper and Dallas Cowboys mascot, is 78 years old living in Fort Worth.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Cash Family<\/p>\n

\"When<\/p>\n

When exotic dancer Bubbles Cash attended a Dallas Cowboys game, which she did often as the team’s unofficial mascot, she stood out from the crowd.<\/p>\n

DMN Archives<\/p>\n

Life changed forever<\/p>\n

Laird\u2019s photo took up a good portion of The News\u2019 front page. The caption identified her only as \u201cthe young woman.\u201d One of the Weinstein brothers \u2014 either Barney or Abe \u2014 who each owned clubs where she danced \u2014 called The News and identified her by name in time for the next edition.<\/p>\n

After that, her life changed forever.<\/p>\n

She was a mere 19 years old at the time.<\/p>\n

\u2018Aaahh.\u2019\"The<\/p>\n

The caption for the photo in The Dallas Morning News when Bubbles Cash entered the Cotton Bowl for her first Cowboys game was “Game? What game?”<\/p>\n

DMN Archives<\/p>\n

From then on, players left her tickets for games, even away games where they arranged flights. She was the team\u2019s lucky charm.<\/p>\n

In his book Once a Cowboy, the late Walt Garrison writes that \u201cshe always waited for the middle of the first quarter to make her entrance. You knew she was coming when you heard the crowd start going \u2018Aaahh.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

As the team\u2019s unofficial mascot, she became a celebrity. Her entrances were often captured by TV cameras. She signed game programs and photos, where her autograph appeared like this: BB$.<\/p>\n

\"Tickets<\/p>\n

Tickets to the legendary 1967 Dallas Cowboys football game against the Atlanta Falcons where Bubbles Cash made her debut.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Cash Family<\/p>\n

\u2018Spontaneous combustion\u2019<\/p>\n

Looking back at that day 58 years ago, she says her debut lit up like \u201cspontaneous combustion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it just broke out all over the stadium. I didn\u2019t know it was going to happen. I didn\u2019t realize what a happening it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"When<\/p>\n

When Bubbles Cash entered the Cotton Bowl for the 1967 Cowboys-Falcons game, there was such an uproar that the refs stopped the game.<\/p>\n

Courtest of Cash family<\/p>\n

She came to terms with it: \u201cThe blond hair and the short skirt hit at the right time, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

She adds, \u201cI didn\u2019t know a stripper could get publicity like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Bubbles<\/p>\n

Bubbles Cash says one entrance to a Dallas Cowboys game changed her life.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Cash Family<\/p>\n

Micro miniskirts<\/p>\n

The skirts Bubbles wore to the games were so short \u2014 one newspaper account called them mini minis \u2014 that you couldn\u2019t buy them in a store. She bought regular skirts and shortened them. Considerably.<\/p>\n

Business boomed for the Weinstein brothers. Male-female couples attended the sudden celebrity\u2019s shows. People wanted to see Bubbles. Before the Cowboys were dubbed \u201cAmerica\u2019s team,\u201d some called them \u201cBubbles\u2019 team.\u201d <\/p>\n

A trooper<\/p>\n

Her trademark miniskirts didn\u2019t always help her, especially in colder games in northern climates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a trooper,\u201d she recalls. How did she stay warm? \u201cI rubbed my knees together like a grasshopper.\u201d<\/p>\n

The publicity machine didn\u2019t let up. \u201cI\u2019d go to a football game, and I\u2019d get my picture in the paper, and that would make me more popular.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enter Tex Schramm<\/p>\n

Cowboys general manager Tex Schramm, a football genius, knew a strong P.R. gift when he saw one. He was the guy who remade the NFL when the AFL teams joined. He pushed for instant replay and argued that refs needed microphones so they could, in the words of one ref, \u201ctalk to America.\u201d He advocated for a 30-second play clock and fought for wind direction strips on the top of goalposts. He also masterminded the creation of Valley Ranch, the Cowboys\u2019 massive training facility.<\/p>\n

\"Tex<\/p>\n

Tex Schramm in 1959 (Dallas Morning News file photo)<\/p>\n

He even arranged for the Cowboys to play in the Eastern division, believing they would get even more publicity with East Coast teams. That worked out better than expected.<\/p>\n

Another of his top achievements was recognizing the potential of the kerfuffle around Bubbles. \u201cWe could sell this,\u201d he supposedly said.<\/p>\n

He was talking about sex appeal, a game within a game. The team already had a cheer squad made up of high school boys and girls with the forgettable name CowBelles and Beaux. <\/p>\n

Eventually, the boys were dropped. After that, the squad disbanded. Schramm pushed for a professional squad, and he got it in 1972 when the new Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders<\/a> debuted in their hot pants, halter tops and white leather go-go boots. They quickly gained world renown. <\/p>\n

Yes, the G.M. could sell this. And he did.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders performed their pregame routine during the home opener against the New York Giants at AT&T Stadium in Arlington on Sept. 14, 2025.<\/p>\n

Tom Fox \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

Myth or truth?<\/p>\n

Dallas Morning News writer Sarah Hepola<\/a> is the resident expert on the Cowboys Cheerleaders. She created a Texas Monthly podcast called America\u2019s Girls.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cCash was a media sensation,\u201d Hepola says on the podcast. \u201cShots had been fired \u2014 and the sexual revolution was coming to Dallas.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Hepola says it\u2019s unclear whether Bubbles was the impetus for the world\u2019s most famous cheerleading squad. <\/p>\n

\u201cBubbles liked to say she was the inspiration,\u201d Hepola continues. \u201cAnd that idea gained a lot of traction over the years. Who could resist it? The story that a stripper is behind America\u2019s Sweethearts is too delicious.\u201d<\/p>\n

If anything, it\u2019s a mythical story about a football team with unlimited legends. Only this one takes place off the field.<\/p>\n

Her nickname<\/p>\n

Bubbles got her nickname as an infant. She couldn\u2019t talk yet, but she could blow mouth bubbles on command. She liked the attention and kept it up. A metaphor, perhaps, for her future career.<\/p>\n

Older Cowboys fans who remember Bubbles often forget she ran for Texas governor. Twice. The first was in 1968. It kept her name in the news.<\/p>\n

She was more serious the second time, in 1990, when she earned an asterisk in one of the state\u2019s most memorable elections. She noticed almost 20 people signed up as write-in candidates. \u201cEverybody and his dog was running,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n

She paid the $50 filing fee. Her platform focused on ending the Vietnam War, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 and making it easier to buy alcohol. <\/b><\/p>\n

In that race, most of the attention focused on Democrat Ann Richards and Republican Clayton Williams.<\/p>\n

Bubbles ran a serious campaign. She dressed in a business suit and made the rounds to various organizations. Her slogans were \u201cBank on Bubbles\u201d and \u201cTexas needs Cash.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept everything G-rated,\u201d she recalls about her time in the public eye. \u201cI was never risqu\u00e9. I tried to never do anything off color. Nothing to embarrass my family or my brother who was a Baptist minister.\u201d<\/p>\n

The brother, Durward M. Cash, told me he was teaching at Arlington Baptist College, and his students sometimes asked if he was related.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no estrangement due to her professional career,\u201d he told me. \u201cI never did mind. She\u2019s a very positive-minded person. She was not an immoral person.\u201d<\/p>\n

On election day, Richards beat Williams and a Libertarian candidate placed third. <\/p>\n

Bubbles, running as an independent, beat all write-in candidates. She received 3,287 out of 11,553 write-in votes, enough for fourth place.<\/p>\n

As she explained to me, \u201cI had to do something with all that publicity.\u201d <\/p>\n

She argues that for a stripper she was quite the goody-two-shoes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t prostitute or anything like that,\u201d she recalls. \u201cThat would be an embarrassment for my family and for me. I didn\u2019t want to be un-classy.\u201d<\/p>\n

She brags, chuckling, \u201cI was able to get press and not go to jail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Post-stripper career<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to grow old wearing a G-string,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

She understood the shelf life for a stripper is short. Bubbles had a lot of jobs. She worked at a butcher shop where she created a big meat \u201cBubbles Burger.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI grounded the beef. It was show-offy big, just like me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

She owned Top Cash Gold and Silver pawn shop in Dallas for 10 years.<\/p>\n

She became a country-western and blues singer and a guitar player. She played with a local band, the Bucks.<\/p>\n

She appeared in several B movies, including: Hip Hop and 21, Hot Thrills and Warm Chills and Mars Needs Women<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps her most interesting job was one she created. She stood in the street median along Lemmon Avenue and held up advertising signs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in the advertising business,\u201d she once explained. Companies pay her a small percentage of sales. \u201cAs I told my mama, it\u2019s legitimate streetwalking. I attract a lot of attention because people think I\u2019m some kind of protester. They stop and ask me what I\u2019m protesting and read my signs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good for business. I tell them when they go into the store, \u2018Just say Bubbles sent me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"After<\/p>\n

After her exotic dancing days ended, Bubbles Cash took on many jobs. Here she held signs in the median of Dallas streets to gain attention for local stores.<\/p>\n

DMN Archives<\/p>\n

Big plans<\/p>\n

Her dream <\/b>was to make it big in Dallas, then do the same in Las Vegas, and from there move to Hollywood where she\u2019d become a movie star.<\/p>\n

She missed a big break that could have made it happen.<\/p>\n

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson invited her for an appearance. But the Weinstein brothers blocked it.<\/p>\n

Why? \u201cThey thought they would lose her,\u201d says her daughter Keiley Mynk.<\/p>\n

To this day, Bubbles remains completely loyal to her favorite NFL team.<\/p>\n

\u201cJerry Jones, too?\u201d she is asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s all right,\u201d she answers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m totally for the Cowboys. Win or lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bubbles Cash likes her position in Cowboys lore. She made a contribution to the spirit and culture of America\u2019s Team. <\/p>\n

Of that, she says, \u201cI am honored.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The year was 1967. The Dallas Cowboys were playing the Atlanta Falcons at the Cotton Bowl. It was…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":401283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,11890,1596,8998,13114,19892,5546,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-401282","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-commentary","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-cowboys","12":"tag-dallas-cowboys-cheerleaders","13":"tag-high-profile","14":"tag-pop-culture","15":"tag-texas","16":"tag-tx","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115604657372731325","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}