Super Bowl Champion and Cowboys' Star Dead at 79

Walt Garrison, a former NFL fullback who played nine seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, won a Super Bowl in 1971, all while being a real life cowboy by competing in rodeos, died this week. Here is everything you need to know about the legendary Texan, how he died, and the legacy he left behind. 

Garrison, 79, died on October 11th in Weatherford, Texas. His cause of death is unknown. 

Born in 1944 in Denton, Texas, Garrison competed in rodeos at a young age, according to the Dallas Cowboys. He enjoyed steer wrestling in particular. "In fact, Garrison, who passed away last night at the age of 79, was almost as good at rodeo as he was at football and actually enjoyed it more," they wrote in a tribute to the athlete. 

Garrison played for Oklahoma State before returning back to his home state to play for the Dallas Cowboys, who selected him in the fifth round of the 1966 NFL Draft. 

He played for the Cowboys from 1966 to 1974. He retired as the team's No. 3 rusher and No. 4 receiver, gaining 3,886 rushing yards while on the team. 

"He was also a cowboy in the literal sense, performing in rodeos during the offseasons and even, for a while as a rookie, the night before home games," the team writes. 

"With the high-stakes money involved in the NFL these days, there is no way any team would allow one of their players to engage in such a pursuit. And with the amounts of money at stake now, no player would likely want to," they added. 

"I rodeoed in the offseason. I steer wrestled. I roped some calves, but mostly steer wrestling," Garrison once stated. "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." 

According to Garrison, the players would stay at a local Holiday Inn the night before home games. After a brief team meeting at 6:30 pm, he would take advantage of their free time and drive to Mansfield to compete in the rodeo and be back by the 11 p.m. curfew. 

"That worked good for a couple of times," Garrison said. "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 any more.'"

"But I wasn't starting, Don Perkins was starting. 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."

Garrison suffered a knee injury while steer wrestling in 1975, which ultimately ended his NFL career. "That injury is what actually ended my football career – that and my ability probably had as much to do with it," he said.

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"Nine years as a running back is a long time in the NFL, but I did tear my knee up bulldogging at a college rodeo. I did a match bulldogging against one of the college kids and I tore my knee up. But that gave me a good way to retire without someone saying, 'Well, you're too old and you're too slow.' I could say, 'Well, I'd still be playing if I hadn't hurt my knee.'"