DALLAS — Walt Garrison, who led the Big 8 in dashing as an Oklahoma State Cowboy, gained a Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys, and within the NFL offseason competed as a rodeo cowboy, has died. He was once 79.
The NFL workforce stated in a story posted on its website Thursday that Garrison died in a single day. It didn’t give a explanation for dying.
A fifth-round draft selection out of Oklahoma State University, Garrison performed 9 years in Dallas and retired in 1974 because the No. 3 rusher and No. 4 receiver in franchise historical past. He remains to be fourth on Dallas’ all-time record with 4.32 yards consistent with lift and 9th with 3,491 dashing yards.
But it was once Garrison’s rodeo occupation — which he referred to as his past love — that made him without equal cowboy. As a little-used backup right through his rookie season, the Cowboys stated he would move out after workforce conferences and compete in native rodeos as a steer wrestler, then get back to the lodge sooner than 11 p.m. curfew.
“I wasn’t starting,” Garrison was once quoted as announcing. “I was returning punts and kicks and covering on the kamikaze squad, that’s all I was doing. And hell, you could get hurt worse on them than you can rodeoing. I didn’t think much about it, but the Cowboys did.”
Dallas trainer Tom Landry quickly prohibited the moonlighting right through the season. But Garrison persisted within the offseason.
“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,” Garrison stated. “And I said, ‘OK.’ I didn’t think rodeo was that dangerous.”
Garrison ran for 65 yards in a 16-13 loss to Johnny Unitas, Earl Morrall and the Baltimore Colts within the 5th Super Bowl, after the 1970 season, and ran for 74 yards within the subsequent yr’s Super Bowl, when Roger Staubach led Dallas to a 24-3 victory over Miami. In 1972, Garrison made the Pro Bowl after running for 784 yards and 7 touchdowns and including 390 yards and 3 extra rankings receiving.
Garrison did tear up his knee in 1975 whilst steer wrestling, which is sometimes called “bulldogging,” the Cowboys stated, forcing him to retire from the NFL at the age of 30.
“There’s a lot of similarities between rodeo and football,” Garrison stated, evaluating the 3 or 4 seconds it takes to strive against a steer to the bottom to the standard duration of an NFL play. “And the amount of energy and the amount of focus you need to have in bulldogging is the same as in football.”
Garrison arrived at Oklahoma State as a linebacker however quickly moved to running back. He led the Big 8 in dashing in 1964, beating out Gale Sayers, and had 924 yards and 5 touchdowns in 10 video games in 1965.
He is a member of the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame and the Oklahoma State Athletics Hall of Honor. He was once additionally named to the Dallas Cowboys’ twenty fifth anniversary workforce, the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.
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