TEXAS, USA — Football fans are mourning the loss of a Dallas Cowboys legend who passed away earlier this week.
Star fullback Walt Garrison has died at the age of 79, according to a press release from the Cowboys.
Garrison, who was born in Denton and went to Lewisville High School, played 119 regular season and 13 playoff games for Dallas during nine seasons with the franchise. He still ranks fourth on the club’s all-time list for average yards per rush (4.32) and is ninth in career rushing yards (3,491).
The Dallas native was also a cowboy in the literal sense, according to the Cowboys, as he performed in rodeos during the offseasons and even, for a while as a rookie, the night before home games.
“I rodeoed in the offseason. I steer wrestled. I roped some calves, but mostly steer wrestling,” Garrison once stated, according to the Cowboys. “And Coach Landry pointed out that there was a clause in my contract that if I got hurt doing another sport, that my contract would be null and void, and I said, ‘OK.’ I didn’t think rodeo was that dangerous.”
While Landry didn’t stop Garrison from rodeoing in the offseason, the Cowboys said he eventually put an end to Garrison’s participation in a nearby rodeo during his rookie year in 1966 once he found out about it.
Even though Garrison, the Cowboys’ fifth-round pick (79th overall) in the 1966 draft, was serving as the backup fullback that year, he did return kickoffs, gaining 445 yards on 20 returns (22.3 average). He figured since he had a minor role, being in the rodeo wasn’t a problem.
“That worked good for a couple of times,” Garrison said, according to the Cowboys. “And then somebody called Coach Landry and said, ‘We think it is so nice that the Cowboys let Walt come over here and bulldog the night before a game.’ So then I had a meeting with Coach Landry the next day, who told me, ‘Don’t do that anymore.’
Before joining the Cowboys, Garrison started off at Oklahoma State University when he arrived at the university in 1962. According to the university, Garrison led the Big Eight in rushing during his junior year with 730 yards. He was also named to the conference all-academic team.
He ended his college football career by helping the team beat Oklahoma University for the first time in 20 years.
Garrison was then drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in 1966 and stuck with the team through his nine years in the NFL. The fullback played a vital role in the team’s Super Bowl win back in 1972.
NOTE: The video below was uploaded in August 2023.