In early 1959, a young oilman named Clint Murchison was trying to get a National Football League expansion team for Dallas, but he was getting a lot of opposition from influential owner George Preston Marshall of the Washington Redskins.

When efforts to negotiate Marshall's support failed, Murchison began probing the Redskins' organization for a weakness he could use as leverage.

He found his leverage one day when he discovered that ''Hail to the Redskins,'' the team's fight song since 1938, had not been copyrighted.

Murchison talked a buddy into buying rights to the song and refused to let Marshall use it until he threw his support behind the Dallas bid.

Marshall gave in during the 1959 season and the Cowboys were born in 1960.

This story, which I doubt even die-hard Redskins fans know, is in a book called ''The Pro Football Chronicle,'' released last year by Collier Books (Macmillan Publishing Company) and written by Washington Times' columnist Dan Daly and former Times' staffer Bob O'Donnell.

If you like reading about pro football but can't stomach all of the incomplete autobiographies about active players and coaches that flood the market, this book is for you.

It's a collection of short stories, presented decade by decade, from the 1920s to the 1980s.

It's funny, enlightening, entertaining and informative. It's the best book on football I've ever read.

Some examples:

* Defensive tackle George Musso of the Chicago Bears holds the distinction of going head-to-head with two future presidents. He battled guard Ronald Reagan of Eureka College while in school and center Jerry Ford of Michigan in an all-star game.

* NFL owners have rarely been on the same page when picking a commissioner. The last four - Elmer Layden, Bert Bell, Pete Rozelle and Paul Tagliabue - were compromises.

* Green Bay's Don Hutson held the NFL record for receiving consistency when he caught at least one pass in 95 consecutive games from 1937 to 1945. It was a record that stood until 1969 when Lance Alworth of San Diego broke it.

But the authors, who spent hundreds of hours pouring through newspaper clippings, found that Hutson did not catch a pass in a game against Cleveland on Sept. 21, 1941. According to clippings from newspapers in Milwaukee, Green Bay and Cleveland, the Packers completed just four passes that day, two to Joe Laws and one each to Ray Riddick and Clarke Hinkle. The NFL goofed. The streak should have ended after 45 games.

* Before RFK Stadium in Washington was built in 1960, stadium seats ranged from 17 to 19 inches in width. But a study conducted by stadium builders showed that the average fanny was 4 inches wider than a century earlier. Thus, RFK was the first stadium with 22-inch seats.

* In Oct. 1962, President John F. Kennedy talked his brothers - Ted and Bobby - into buying the Philadelphia Eagles for the family. Several days before Ted was to depart for Philly to make the offer, though, the Cuban missile crisis broke.

By the time the smoke cleared, Jerry Wolman had bought the Eagles.

* Guard Jerry Kramer of Green Bay is famous for the block on Jethro Pugh that allowed quarterback Bart Starr to score the winning touchdown against Dallas in the 1967 NFL title game.

The authors studied the film clip closely and discovered two things about theplay: Center Ken Bowman shared the block and should have gained some notoriety; Kramer moved his hand before the snap and was offside.

The authors contacted Pugh and Kramer. ''I kept looking around for a flag,'' Pugh said. ''I won't swear I wasn't offside on the play,'' Kramer said.

* In late 1980, Houston coach Bum Phillips was telling reporters how good the team's relationship was with the local media when a scuffle broke out in the dressing room and the combatants tumbled outside at his feet.

It was quarterback Don Pastorini and reporter Dale Robertson of the Houston Post.

* Blacks who were first in the NFL: Quarterback - Willie Thrower, 1953; Assistant coach - Emlen Tunnell, 1963; Official - Burt Toler, 1965; Referee - Johnny Grier, 1988.

* Hall of Famer Jim Brown's composite greatest running back: Earl Campbell's power, Walter Payton's heart, O.J. Simpson's speed, and Gale Sayers' moves.

* Houston defensive tackle Ernie Ladd (6-9, 315) once ate 124 pancakes in a charity pancake eating contest. He spent the rest of the day trying to come down from the sugar buzz induced by six containers of syrup. ''Worst drunk I've ever had,'' he said.

* Then there's the one about umpire Chick Rupp who shot himself in the hand with his own gun. Rupp fired the gun at the end of the first quarter of a game between the New York Giants on Pittsburgh in 1941, put the gun in his left hand and began walking toward the other end of the field.

Suddenly, the gun went off again. The webbing between two of his fingers was blown away, he sustained deep powder burns, and never officiated another NFL game.

This book is great.