DALLAS — DeMarcus Ware recently became the latest Dallas Cowboy to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame but there are some players in the team’s history who are hall of famers of a different sort.
The Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame in Fort Worth pays homage to the cowboys, rodeo champions and other famous figures to embody the western culture. Of the more than 160 honorees, only three have worn both the cowboy hat and Cowboy helmet.
“It is basically who I am,” said former tight end Jay Novacek. “That is what I enjoyed doing. That country lifestyle.”
A lifestyle Novacek loved so much, he continued to ride cutting horses even during his playing days in Dallas that netted 3 Super Bowl rings. Replicas of those rings now sit alongside cutting horse competition trophies in Novacek’s display at the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame.
A similar combination of football awards and rodeo accolades can also be found at Randy White’s exhibit.
But perhaps the most cowboy Cowboy to ever cowboy is Walt Garrison.
A fullback for the team from 1966 to 1974, Garrison was known for his hardnosed, tough running style but for also being a bona fide cowboy off the football field. He competed in rodeo competitions during his playing career. In fact, it was a knee injury he suffered at a rodeo in Bozeman, Montana which ultimately ended his days as a Dallas Cowboy in 1975.
“Like a football injury, things happen and you have to learn to live with it,” Garrison said from his hospital bed while being interviewed by WFAA in a story now archived at the SMU Jones Film Library.
Garrison’s display at the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame also has items from another of his many talents.
Whittling.
In a 1973 interview during training camp in Thousand Oaks, California, then-WFAA sports reporter Verne Lundquist was perplexed at how Garrison was able to get washers wrapped around the whittled wood. A secret Garrison never revealed as he showed off the many pieces he managed to whittle between practices.
Some of those whittled pieces are kept at the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame along with other accomplishments from his life as a Cowboy who could cowboy.