I can only speak of what happened around here, but in the 80s you couldn't find a Cowboys fan. I know there were some around in the 70s, but they seem to have gone into hibernation during the 80s and didn't come out until Aikman, Smith, and Irvin came to town. Then they were everywhere. I know a little bit of bandwagon effect is to be expected, but when the Cowboys are bad you're hard pressed to find their fans.