Former Cowboys fullback Walt Garrison died Wednesday night, the team announced. He was 79.
Garrison was a star fullback for the Cowboys from 1966-74.
He played 119 regular-season games and 13 in the playoffs for the Cowboys in his nine seasons and 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).
Garrison also was a cowboy, performing in rodeos during the offseasons and even, for a while as a rookie, the night before home games. The Denton, Texas, native excelled at steer wrestling.
“I rodeoed in the offseason. I steer wrestled. I roped some calves, but mostly steer wrestling,” Garrison once said, via the team website. “And coach [Tom] 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.”
The Cowboys made Garrison a fifth-round pick (79th overall) in the 1966 draft out of Oklahoma State, while the Chiefs took him in the 17th round of the 1966 AFL draft.
He served mostly on special teams his first three seasons, including as the primary kickoff returner.
In 1972, Garrison made his only Pro Bowl after rushing for 784 yards and seven touchdowns and catching 37 passes for 390 yards and three touchdowns.
He played in two Super Bowls, winning one ring.
Garrison injured a knee while steer wrestling in 1975, ending his NFL career, but launching his association with US Smokeless Tobacco.