‘One of a Kind' Texas Writer Gary Cartwright Dies; His Career Spanned From the Dallas Cowboys to Hollywood and More

Gary Cartwright, a colorful Texas journalist who began his career on the talent-laden sports staff of the Fort Worth Press in the 1950s, died Wednesday morning after suffering a recent fall at his Austin home. He was 82.Cartwright went on to become an award-winning sportswriter for the Dallas Times Herald and The Dallas Morning News. He left the News in 1967 to advance a career that included writing the 1982 novel The Hundred Yard War, inspired by his coverage of the Dallas Cowboys.But his most prominent years as a journalist came during his time with Texas Monthly. He worked for the Austin-based magazine from 1973, when he profiled controversial Cowboys running back Duane Thomas for its debut issue, to 2010, when he retired.His credentials include multiple works of nonfiction, most based on stories for the Monthly, and credits on four Hollywood screenplays.Katelyn Cartwright, the writer's granddaughter, and journalist Jan Reid, one of his closest friends, confirmed Cartwright's death Wednesday morning."He was certainly one of a kind," acclaimed Texas author Dan Jenkins, 88, said of Cartwright, with whom he worked at the Press and the Times Herald. "He was a wild card, but he was awfully talented. We had a million laughs."Cartwright, Jenkins and mutual friend Edwin "Bud" Shrake collaborated on what may have been the most audacious, literary-minded sports staff ever assembled. All three worked at the Press and Times Herald, where their boss was an equally vivid character, the late Blackie Sherrod, who later became a columnist for the News. Cartwright was well-read, Jenkins said, "and he was a fan of the trade, as we all were. It just came natural to him. We were all kind of natural, for some strange reason. It was just one of those things. We all fell together. Blackie had an awful lot to do with making us work hard."We laughed a lot, we joked a lot, and we kind of wrote for each other and tried to out-write each other. It was fun, and we were all friends."  Continue reading...