Former Dallas Cowboys running back and rodeo cowboy
DALLAS — Walt Garrison, who led the Big 8 in rushing for the Oklahoma State Cowboys, won a Super Bowl as a fullback with the Dallas Cowboys and competed as a rodeo cowboy, died Oct. 11. He was 79.
A fifth-round draft choice out of Oklahoma State, the 6foot, 205-pound Mr. Garrison played nine years in Dallas and retired in 1974 as the No. 3 rusher and No. 4 receiver in franchise history. He’s still fourth on Dallas’ career list with 4.32 yards per carry and ninth with 3,491 yards rushing.
But it was Mr. Garrison’s rodeo career — which he called his first love — that made him the ultimate cowboy. He also was a longtime spokesman for U.S. Tobacco and its Skoal smokeless brand, with the catch-phrase “Just a pinch between your cheek and gum is all it takes.” A staple of his 1970s television ads.
As a little-used backup during his rookie season, the Cowboys said he would go out after team meetings and compete in local rodeos as a steer wrestler, then get back to the hotel before 11 p.m. curfew.
“I wasn’t starting,” Mr. Garrison was quoted as saying. “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.”
Dallas coach Tom Landry soon prohibited the moonlighting during the season. But Mr. Garrison continued in 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,” Mr. Garrison said. “And I said, ‘OK.’ I didn’t think rodeo was that dangerous.”
Mr. Garrison ran for 65 yards in a 16-13 loss to Pittsburgh native Johnny Unitas, Earl Morrall and the Baltimore Colts in the fifth Super Bowl, after the 1970 season, and ran for 74 yards the next year in the Super Bowl, when Roger Staubach led Dallas to a 24-3 victory over Miami. In 1972, Mr. Garrison made the Pro Bowl after running for 784 yards and seven touchdowns and adding 390 yards and three more scores receiving.
Mr. Garrison tore up his knee in 1975 while steer wrestling during an exhibition run at the U.S. Tobacco-sponsored national college rodeo in Bozeman, Mont., forcing him to retire from the NFL at the age of 30.
“There’s a lot of similarities between rodeo and football,” Mr. Garrison said, comparing the three or four seconds it takes to wrestle a steer to the ground to the typical length of an NFL play.