Lawrence Jr. Garron (May 23, 1937 – September 13, 2019) was an American professional football player. A fullback, he played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

Western Illinois University Western Illinois University (WIU) is a public university in Macomb, Illinois, United States. It was founded in 1899 as Western Illinois State Normal School. As the normal school grew, it became Western Illinois State Teachers College. Once West ...

, then played professionally in the

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, AFL–NFL merger, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Foot ...

(AFL) for the Boston Patriots from 1960 through 1968. He holds the team record run of 85 yards from scrimmage, set in a game against the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East div ...

on October 22, 1961. He averaged 5.9 yards per carry in 1962 and accounted for 1,168 total yards from scrimmage in 1963.

Career

Garron was an American Football League All-Star in 1961, 1963, 1964 and 1967, and a member of the Patriots' All-1960s (AFL) Team. For one season, along with Bob Fouracre, he served as a color commentator for

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...

preseason games. At the same time Larry Garron was on the Patriots he studied various forms of

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; ...

. He held ranks in

Kenpō is the name of several martial arts. This term is often informally transliterated as "kempo", as a result of applying Traditional Hepburn romanization, but failing to use a macron to indicate the long vowel In linguistics, vowel length is ...

(fist law),

Hakkō-ryū Hakkō-ryū () or Hakkō-ryū Jūjutsu () is a school or 'style' of jujutsu descended from Daito-ryu founded in 1941 by Okuyama Ryuho (1901–1987) a student of Sokaku Takeda and a practitioner of shiatsu. This style of self-defense focuses o ...

Jujutsu Jujutsu ( , or ), also known as jiu-jitsu and ju-jitsu (both ), is a Japanese martial art and a system of close combat that can be used in a defensive or offensive manner to kill or subdue one or more weaponless or armed and armored opponent ...

, Gōjū-ryū (hard soft system), Shintō Musō-ryū, Yoshitsune

Jujitsu Jujutsu ( , or ), also known as jiu-jitsu and ju-jitsu (both ), is a Japanese martial art and a system of close combat that can be used in a defensive or offensive manner to kill or subdue one or more weaponless or armed and armored opponent ...

, and

Taekwondo Taekwondo (; ; ) is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving primarily kicking techniques and punching. "Taekwondo" can be translated as ''tae'' ("strike with foot"), ''kwon'' ("strike with hand"), and ''do'' ("the art or way"). In ad ...

Family

Larry had some talented sporting sons and nephews, including nephew Donald Garron, who won the 1981 Massachusetts All State 220 yard championship in 22.37, as well as

Rufus Harris Rufus D. Harris is a retired American professional basketball player. He was the America East Conference co-Player of the Year as a senior in 1979–80 while playing for the University of Maine. After graduating, Harris was selected in the 19 ...

, who had a tryout with the

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NBA), Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), ...

in 1980. Two of his sons, Arnold and Andre, are in the Hall of Fame for American football at the University of New Hampshire. Andre also played professionally for the Kansas City Chiefs as a running back and kick returner for two seasons in the late 1980s. Arnold also played professionally in the NFL one year for the New England Patriots and one year for the Washington Redskins as a defensive backArnold Garron interview 2010
Retrieved on May 23, 2016

References

1937 births 2019 deaths American football fullbacks Boston Patriots players NFL announcers New England Patriots announcers Western Illinois Leathernecks football players American Football League All-Star players People from Quitman County, Mississippi Sportspeople from Framingham, Massachusetts American Football League players Players of American football from Mississippi {{runningback-1930s-stub

Career

Family

See also

References