Former Cowboys star fullback Walt Garrison recently passed away at the age of 79. Garrison wore the silver and blue for nine seasons (1966-74), playing in 119 regular season games and 13 post-season games, including Super Bowls V and VI. He ranks fourth on the team’s all-time list for average yards per rush (4.32) and is ninth in career rushing yards (3,491).
Why is this significant?
In a Redskins-Cowboys Monday night duel on Oct. 8, 1973, Garrison was on the opposing end of one of the most memorable plays in Redskins history and the team’s greatest defensive play in the regular season. With 24 seconds left, Dallas trailed, 14-7, and faced a 4th-and-goal at the 4. When Garrison caught quarterback Craig Morton’s pass at the 1, virtually everyone among the 54,314 fans at RFK Stadium and the millions more watching on TV had to be thinking the Cowboys were about to pull within a point. But Redskin Ken Houston appeared from his safety position, picked Garrison off his feet as he tried squirming toward the end zone, and bulldogged him to the ground short of the goal line as the ball popped out. Ironically, the powerful Garrison was an off-season rodeo Cowboy who specialized in bulldogging steers.
The Redskins coach at the time, George Allen, made more than 100 trades in his 12-year NFL coaching career, mostly for clever veteran players. That’s why one of his nicknames was “Trader George.” But his trade for Houston prior to the 1973 season may have been his most impactful one. Allen traded five solid players to the Houston Oilers–offensive tackle Jim Snowden, tight end Mack Alston, wide receiver Clifton McNeil, defensive end-special teamer Mike Fanucci and safety-special teamer Jeff Severson for Houston, whom Allen called the “best strong safety in all of football.”
Before arriving in D.C., Houston had already been a two-time AFL all-star and three-time Pro Bowler. He proceeded to earn seven more Pro Bowl appearances, as well as two first-team All-Pro honors, before retiring after the 1980 season with a total of 49 interceptions. Today, he’s a member of the NFL Films 100-Greatest Team announced in 2019 to coincide with the NFL’s 100th anniversary.
Houston played five seasons for Allen, who coached the Redskins through the 1977 season and took them to five playoffs appearances, including Super Bowl VII in the 1972 season. In an interview for my biography on Allen, George Allen: A Football Life, Houston implied that his career may have been less celebrated had he not had played for Allen.
“You don’t really understand what you learn from George Allen until you get out of the game, and you have something to compare it to,” Houston explained. “He always put you in the right defense. You did a lot of studying. He also taught you a lot of life lessons that you didn’t even understand he was teaching you until you left the game. In the five years I played for George Allen, I never heard him say a curse word. His strongest word was `geeez.’ He had a way of showing you he was disappointed. But he never was that kind of coach. He always cared about his players. He was a great innovator because he taught me strategies and things I didn’t know.”
Regarding his tackle of Garrison, Houston said: “That was probably the defining play of my career. There were other plays I thought were greater, like the back-to-back interceptions I returned for touchdowns in one game. But as far as one particular play that highlighted my career, that was it. Everywhere I go, people identify me with that play.”
That tackle stands stands as one of the most treasured moments in Redskins history.
