Former Dallas Cowboys fullback Walt Garrison died Wednesday night at the age of 79.
Garrison spent nine seasons with the Cowboys, winning one Super Bowl and taking his place among the franchise’s leading rushers after being selected in the fifth round (79th overall) of the 1966 NFL Draft. He also competed in the rodeo, where he was an accomplished steer wrestler.
“There’s a lot of similarities between rodeo and football,” Garrison once remarked. “Steer wrestling probably takes, depending on the size of the steer, the time is anywhere from three and a half seconds to six seconds. And a football game lasts a lot longer, but if you take an individual play in football, a regular play is three or four seconds. And the amount of energy and the amount of focus you need to have in bulldogging is the same as in football.”
Garrison was a local product. He was born in Denton and grew up in Lewisville before attending Oklahoma State. While in Stillwater, he led the Big Eight Conference in rushing and spent one year on the school’s rodeo team.
He went on to play in 119 regular season games and 13 playoff games for the Cowboys while continuing to compete in rodeos in the offseason. While playing on the Cowboys rarely interfered with his rodeos, a torn ligament he suffered while competing in a college bulldogging event did end his NFL career.
“That’s probably one of the best things that happened to me because it gave me the opportunity to go work for another company and to start a new career rather than hold on for another year in a career that would have lasted one more year at best,” Garrison said. “So it turned out to be a good thing.”
Garrison had his best rodeo performance in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1973. Even after he stopped competing, he was passionate about the sport and played a crucial role in securing sponsorship deals. He was also actively involved in charitable work, raising over $4 million for multiple sclerosis and serving on the board of directors for the Justin Cowboy Crisis Fund for more than 20 years.
He was also elected to the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame (1993), Oklahoma State Athletics Hall of Fame (2000), Texas Sports Hall of Fame (2012), Texas Cowboys Hall of Fame (2000), and the Dallas Cowboys 25th Anniversary Team.
