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Old news? Actor punches Sooner football player at pool hall
Published: 12/26/2011 12:39 PM
Last Modified: 12/26/2011 12:39 PM

This is not breaking news: Did you hear that a University of Oklahoma football player had to go to the hospital because a card game led to him getting into a fight?

This is why it's not breaking news: It happened after the Korean War. And the person who sent the football player to the hospital had a couple of aliases, including Maverick and Jim Rockford.

I'm reading James Garner's book, The Garner Files.

Garner grew up dirt-poor in Norman, Okla. After serving in the Korean War, Garner returned to his hometown and hoped to play football at OU. But he dropped out after one semester because his knees were messed up and he wasn't really interested in school. During that time period, Garner hung around the pool hall. He ran out of money during a card game with a Sooner football player and, soon, fists were flying.

Garner managed to play a down or two of football at places other than OU. He played for a couple of high schools in California and he wrote that he drew the attention of a USC coach. He said he also heard from a Norman High School coach, who "needed help fast or he was going to lose his job." So Garner migrated back to Oklahoma and played for Norman High, never mind that he was two years older than most of the seniors.

By that time, Garner had already done some modeling work. In one of Norman's games against an Oklahoma City school, guys in the stands heckled Garner and called him "pretty boy." After a punt, Garner jogged off the field -- and kept going, all the way into the stands to go after the hecklers. Garner wrote that it turned into a brawl and the police broke it up. He said the hecklers got arrested.

I got the book for Christmas and read the first 50 pages before Dec. 26 arrived. Two things I have learned so far: 1, The first punch Garner ever threw wasn't the result of Angel Martin getting him into a jam. 2, I want to read the rest of the book.




Reader Comments 2 Total
The Picker (last year)
Angel is/was a fine American.
Angel Martin is one of the greatest weasel characters in TV history, right up there Frank Burns of "M*A*S*H" and Dr. Zachary Smith from "Lost in Space."
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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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