Peter Gent

NFL player


DateOfBirth=Birth date and age|1942|8|23|mf=y
Birthplace= Bangor, MI
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College=Michigan State
Position=Wide receiver
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years=1964-1968
teams=Dallas Cowboys
DatabaseFootball=GENTPET01
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George Davis "Peter" Gent (born August 23, 1942 in Bangor, Michigan) is a former Michigan State University basketball player and National Football League wide receiver turned novelist.

At Bangor High School, Gent led the Bangor Vikings basketball team to the 1960 State Championship. The team was known as the Cardiac Kids for their late-game wins in District, Regional, Quarter-Final and Semi-Final games. This final game was no exception, it was tied 41-41 after three quarters. Bangor went on to win 57-45. The team included many of Gent's lifelong friends, such as Bill Mayhak, Rich Waite, and Chester Slazek, none of whom are otherwise notable. Peter Gent led the team with 21 points, and was named to the All-Tourney Team which was chosen from schools of all sizes throughout the state.

Then Gent was a center/forward with the Michigan State University basketball team 1962-64. He led the team in scoring three consecutive seasons. In his senior year, he averaged 21 points per game. He is currently 22nd on the list of MSU's top career scorers, with a total of 1146 points. That's 17.4 points per game for his college career.

Gent graduated from Michigan State with a BA in Advertising. He was drafted in the tenth round by Baltimore. On a lark, Gent went to the Dallas Cowboys training camp in the summer of 1964. He had heard they were paying $500 to players who attended the training camp. Gent wound up making the team, where he was a receiver from 1964 to 1968. He was known for his "soft hands" and caught many passes from quarterback Don Meredith, with whom he enjoyed a close friendship off the field.

In the Cowboys' 1965 season, Gent caught 16 passes for 233 yards and 2 touchdowns. In 1966, he had 27 receptions for 474 yards. That was a 17.6 yard per catch average. In 1967 and 1968, Gent had 25 receptions total. He was traded to the New York Giants in 1969, but never played there.

After leaving professional football, Gent wrote a semi-autobiographical novel titled "North Dallas Forty". Many have hypothesized that the main characters of the book, a quarterback and a receiver, are based on Gent and Don Meredith. The novel, published in 1973, exposed the seamier side of American football. Often regarded as one of the finest sports novels ever written, the novel examines the NFL's hypocrisy regarding drug use -- as heavy use of painkillers is recklessly encouraged to keep players on the field but personal use of marijuana and narcotics is frowned on. The book was made into a movie of the same name in 1979 starring Nick Nolte, Mac Davis, G.D. Spradlin, and Dayle Haddon. Gent wrote the screenplay for the film. He had epic creative battles with legendary producer Frank Yablans on the set of the film.

Gent made his home in Texas for many years, where he was friends with many of the great creative minds of the day, including Larry L. King, Billy Lee Brammer, Gary "Jap" Cartwright, Bud Shrake, Jerry Jeff Walker and Dan Jenkins. They called themselves the Mad Dogs.

Gent also examined the corruption deriving from the huge sums of money involved in modern professional sports in a sequel volume entitled "North Dallas After 40", published in 1989, and in an unrelated football novel "The Franchise", published in 1983.

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