MOP Award for 1965: Pete Gent

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• Dallascuriosity

  Was curious if you had any personal information on Gent? Was he married? Any kids? Where is he today? What kind of person/reputation did he/does he have?

  Thanks,

  Curious

• John

  Pete has two kids, Holly Gent Palmo, b. 1963; and Carter Davis Gent, b. 1976. He resides in Bangor, Michigan and is currently working on a novel.

  Pete has written numerous books. The follow up to North Dallas Forty ‘North Dallas After Forty’, Texas Celebrity Turkey Trot, and THe Franchise. He also wrote a book about coaching his boy Carter in little league. The name of the book escapes me at this moment.

  Pete also has talked about his injuries from football and relying on a TENS device that sends electric shock to the muscles in his injured back to reduce pain and to relax the muscles. I remember him talking about having to turn it up so high that it actually burned blisters on his back.

  Pete also was good buddies with Dandy Don Meredith during his time with the Cowboys. I believe he suffered a broken leg during the season that they played The Packers in the Ice Bowl. He regrets this a lot cause he felt he would have been able to handle the cold weather, since he came from Michigan, better than a lot of The Cowboys players that day.

  Leroy Jordan and Pete didn’t get along at all during his time with The Cowboys. Pete was a free spirit and partied with players black or white. Leroy, at that time, was a southern boy and was pretty open with his racist kind of thinking. He and Pete had several fights during practice scrimmages.

  Some people say that they thought that Pete kind of elevated ‘Phil Elliot’ his supposed alter ego in North Dallas Forty. Pete explains that he was told by Landry (I think) that he did have the best (softest) hands in football. Other players who were there say that Petes book was dead on with the way it was.

  There was an audio interview with Pete on the net at one time. It is pretty good but the interviewer annoyingly kept calling Pete ‘Pete Gent’ with a hard ‘G’ as in Guardian and not how his last name is pronounced with is ‘Gent’ as in gentleman or ‘jent’.

• Fred Goodwin

  John:

  Gent’s book about his son’s Little League team is called “The Last Magic Summer”.

  But speaking of ND40: I’ve always wondered about Gent’s scathing portrayal of the young “Christian” quarterback character, very clearly meant to be a slap at Roger Staubach.

  In fact, Gent’s last year with the Cowboys was 1968, while Roger didn’t join the team until 1969 — one wonders how well the two knew each other? What did Roger ever do to Gent to deserve the treatment he got in Gent’s book?

• Robert H

  First of all I was very happy to see the posts are relatively recent because I went searching for some updated info on Peter Gent and his son Carter after re-reading ‘The Last magic Summer’ and was afraid the public might have forgotten about Mr. Gent. He is a very talented and insightful writer and North Dallas Forty deserves to be remembered as a great novel and not just a great ‘sports’ book. ‘Summer’ is also a book that displays his ability to tell a story with both wit and candor. (Also a great read for many fathers on so many levels) John, do you know how his family is doing? Carter seemed to have some of his father’s talent even as a child. What is his latest novel about? Thanks.

• John

  Pete has been asked about the character of Hartman. This was the backup QB who was a devout Christian and family man. He says that it is not based on Roger Staubach as many people think and have claimed. The character was a composite of several players who were into the born again Christian thing that he played with during his time with the Cowboys.

• Fred Goodwin

  Gent leaves in 1968; Roger joins in 1969; the book is published in 1973.

  And its just a coincidence that the Christian character, out of 40 positions on the team, is a back-up QB.

  OK.

• Jimmy Etheridge

  Pete did break his leg against the Cleveland Browns in the Conference Championship game Dec. 24, 1967 at the Cotton Bowl. I was 12 years old at the time and at the game. Bob Hayes had a huge day, and the ‘Boys advanced to play Green Bay for the NFL Title the next week, Dec. 31st at Lambeau.

• Bert Baker

  Growing up, I was a neighbor of Pete Gent.  My first year living in Bangor Mi., Pete led the basketball team to a state championship averaging over 23 points per game.  Pete’s mother was a study hall teacher of mine in high school.  His dad took me to a father-son dinner once and I worked with his brother Jamie at a nuclear power plant in the 1960′s.  Jamie was also a good athlete as was Pete’s brother Charlie.
  Loving football as I do, having played at a Christian college myself, I create Pete Gent on my playstation 3 football team each year and he wears no. 35.  
  Had Pete not been so injury prone, he surely would have had a better career than he had.  All in all, however, he was blessed by God to have a strong work ethic and developed his athletic skill very well while coming from a town of 2,109 population.