Legendary Dallas Cowboys player Walt Garrison passes away at age 79

Walt Garrison, a former NFL fullback who played for the Dallas Cowboys for nine seasons and won a Super Bowl with the team, has passed away at the age of 79. 

Before being chosen by the Cowboys in the fifth round of the 1966 NFL Draft, Garrison was a standout player at Oklahoma State University, as Fox News reported.

Additionally, the Kansas City Chiefs, who were competing in the American Football League at the time, also selected him in the draft.

Garrison's Impressive Career

Between the years 1966 and 1974, Garrison played for the Cowboys, retiring as the team's third-best rusher and fourth-best receiver. He finished with 3,886 yards on the ground.

The news of Garrison's passing was posted on the team website, but the cause of his death was not specified.

Garrison was also an actual cowboy when he was not on the field. The squad reported that he would go out in the evenings after team meetings and compete as a cow wrestler at local rodeos. It was expected that he will check back into the team hotel prior to the 11 p.m. deadline.

"I wasn’t starting," Garrison once said. "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."

During the regular season, legendary Cowboys head coach Tom Landry stopped Garrison from moonlighting as a regular cowboy. However, Garrison continued to do so during 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 was quoted as saying. "And I said, ‘OK.’ I didn’t think rodeo was that dangerous."

Garrison's Last Plays

In 1975, Garrison sustained an injury while steer wrestling, which forced him to decide to end his career in football.

While Garrison was at the pinnacle of his career with the Cowboys, he also served as a national spokesperson for Skoal tobacco.

He concluded his career in the National Football League with 39 touchdowns and was selected to play in the Pro Bowl during the 1972 season. During the team's victory over the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VI in 1972, he had 74 rushing yards on 14 runs, helping the squad to a 14-3 victory.