Pete Gent was able to express in words what many players feel about pro football, both good and bad. While his writing left its mark on the game, it’s equally clear that the game left its mark on him. Gent died Friday from a pulmonary illness at his home in Bangor, Mich. He was 69. A few thoughts:
Classic scene from the movie "North Dallas Forty" based on the hit novel
written by the late Pete Gent.
In the early 1970s, as pro football was becoming the nation’s most popular spectator sport, a group of ex-players exposed, through both their words and their actions, the game’s seamy underside. A novel by Pete Gent, “North Dallas Forty,” based on his five years with the Cowboys, graphically depicted the pain and anguish the public couldn’t feel or see on their television screens. Yet, despite the broken bones and sleepless nights, most of the players wished it could go on forever. Many, like Gent himself, remembered their football days as some of the best times of their lives.
Gent starred in basketball, not football, at Michigan State. He was selected by the Baltimore Bullets in the 14th round of the 1964 N.B.A. draft. After trying out for the Cowboys on a whim, Gent was offered a free-agent contract and reported to training camp that summer at Thousand Oaks, Calif. It wasn’t the first time Dallas had added a player with no football experience after high school.
Two years earlier, the Cowboys had signed Cornell Green, a basketball player from Utah State. Green made the team and quickly became a starter on his way to a 13-year career at cornerback and strong safety. He made first-team All-Pro three times and was selected to play in five Pro Bowls.
“One of the things I did was go after great athletes,” said the Cowboys’ president and general manager, Tex Schramm. “I especially wanted a star basketball player who fell in the gray area of not being tall enough to make it as a forward in the N.B.A. and not being quick enough to be a guard.” (Ed Housewright, “100 Things Cowboy Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die”, Triumph Books, 2008)
Dallas also drafted Lou Hudson on the 20th round in 1966 and Pat Riley on the 11th round in 1967.
As with Green, the Cowboys tried Gent at defensive back, but at 6-4 and about 210 pounds, he wasn’t compact enough to execute the quick turns and pivots required to play in the secondary. The coaches decided that Gent’s best chance was at wide receiver. There, he made enough of an impression, particularly with his soft hands, to earn a roster spot.
Taking advantage of having the future Hall of Famer Bob Hayes on the other side of the field, Gent had his best year in 1966, with 27 receptions for 474 yards (17.6 yards per catch).
Defenses were so respectful of Hayes’s speed that they rotated their 3-deep zone, the standard coverage of the day, toward him, with the cornerback having help over the top from the safety. That provided opportunities in the passing game for the flanker, Gent, and the tight end, Pettis Norman. Dallas won the Eastern Division that year with a 10-3-1 record and made its first of many postseason appearances. In 1967, Gent moved to tight end when the Cowboys acquired Lance Rentzel from the Vikings.
After the 1968 season, Gent was traded to the Giants. When he was cut in training camp the following summer, he returned to Dallas, his football career over. His attempts at becoming a disc jockey and a television sportscaster failed. Like so many players, Gent had difficulty putting the game behind him and starting a normal life. He wrote about his fears during this transition period many years later:
In 1970, a promising young Oakland linebacker, Chip Oliver, after only two seasons, retired and joined a Berkeley commune. The next year, George Sauer of the Jets quit at age 27. Pro football had dehumanized them, they said.
Something about the game, however, brought them all back. Meggyesy worked for the players association. Oliver attempted to return to the Raiders. Sauer resumed his career three years later as a receiver for the New York Stars of the World Football League. They found out that once you leave the huddle, life is never the same. Gent expressed it well in the new foreword to the 30th anniversary edition of “North Dallas Forty”:
NY Times..
RIP: Pete Gent - wil.
Classic scene from the movie "North Dallas Forty" based on the hit novel
written by the late Pete Gent.
In the early 1970s, as pro football was becoming the nation’s most popular spectator sport, a group of ex-players exposed, through both their words and their actions, the game’s seamy underside. A novel by Pete Gent, “North Dallas Forty,” based on his five years with the Cowboys, graphically depicted the pain and anguish the public couldn’t feel or see on their television screens. Yet, despite the broken bones and sleepless nights, most of the players wished it could go on forever. Many, like Gent himself, remembered their football days as some of the best times of their lives.
Gent starred in basketball, not football, at Michigan State. He was selected by the Baltimore Bullets in the 14th round of the 1964 N.B.A. draft. After trying out for the Cowboys on a whim, Gent was offered a free-agent contract and reported to training camp that summer at Thousand Oaks, Calif. It wasn’t the first time Dallas had added a player with no football experience after high school.
Two years earlier, the Cowboys had signed Cornell Green, a basketball player from Utah State. Green made the team and quickly became a starter on his way to a 13-year career at cornerback and strong safety. He made first-team All-Pro three times and was selected to play in five Pro Bowls.
“One of the things I did was go after great athletes,” said the Cowboys’ president and general manager, Tex Schramm. “I especially wanted a star basketball player who fell in the gray area of not being tall enough to make it as a forward in the N.B.A. and not being quick enough to be a guard.” (Ed Housewright, “100 Things Cowboy Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die”, Triumph Books, 2008)
Dallas also drafted Lou Hudson on the 20th round in 1966 and Pat Riley on the 11th round in 1967.
As with Green, the Cowboys tried Gent at defensive back, but at 6-4 and about 210 pounds, he wasn’t compact enough to execute the quick turns and pivots required to play in the secondary. The coaches decided that Gent’s best chance was at wide receiver. There, he made enough of an impression, particularly with his soft hands, to earn a roster spot.
Taking advantage of having the future Hall of Famer Bob Hayes on the other side of the field, Gent had his best year in 1966, with 27 receptions for 474 yards (17.6 yards per catch).
Defenses were so respectful of Hayes’s speed that they rotated their 3-deep zone, the standard coverage of the day, toward him, with the cornerback having help over the top from the safety. That provided opportunities in the passing game for the flanker, Gent, and the tight end, Pettis Norman. Dallas won the Eastern Division that year with a 10-3-1 record and made its first of many postseason appearances. In 1967, Gent moved to tight end when the Cowboys acquired Lance Rentzel from the Vikings.
After the 1968 season, Gent was traded to the Giants. When he was cut in training camp the following summer, he returned to Dallas, his football career over. His attempts at becoming a disc jockey and a television sportscaster failed. Like so many players, Gent had difficulty putting the game behind him and starting a normal life. He wrote about his fears during this transition period many years later:
Anybody who has made it as a professional football player has survived the horror of real violence, facing the monster that lives in his heart – these men were true gods in ruins. Whether he stays a man is still a question of fate because the monster is always straining to be loosed again. (Foreword to the 30th anniversary edition of “North Dallas Forty”, Sports Media Publishing, 2003)
Eventually, Gent turned to writing. His controversial first novel, “North Dallas Forty,” was published in 1973. Its critique was consistent with others of that time, like Cardinal linebacker Dave Meggyesy’s “Out of Their League.” It was a story of violence, drugs, racism, commercialism and hypocrisy.
In 1970, a promising young Oakland linebacker, Chip Oliver, after only two seasons, retired and joined a Berkeley commune. The next year, George Sauer of the Jets quit at age 27. Pro football had dehumanized them, they said.
Something about the game, however, brought them all back. Meggyesy worked for the players association. Oliver attempted to return to the Raiders. Sauer resumed his career three years later as a receiver for the New York Stars of the World Football League. They found out that once you leave the huddle, life is never the same. Gent expressed it well in the new foreword to the 30th anniversary edition of “North Dallas Forty”:
I still remember vividly the struggle to nourish desperate desires to be alive as a man can be – to live each day as if it were the last – feeling life pumping through us with the hammering of our hearts. It was a great life. A lot of scary high wire work, too many injuries, and lots of pain. But I felt more in one Sunday afternoon than I did later on in whole years – writing is the only thing I have done that comes close to being as terrifying as being a football player.
Pete Gent called his time in pro football “a hard, violent, and painful life.” But he never regretted it. “They were great years,” he wrote in 2003. “Terrifying. Thrilling. Happy. Sad. Most of all, they were ultimately satisfying.”
NY Times..
RIP: Pete Gent - wil.
