Doyle Brunson Inducted into Big Country Athletic Hall of Fame

The Big Country Athletic Hall of Fame (BCAHOF) has inducted seven new members into its pantheon of athletic stars during a ceremonial banquet held at the Abilene convention center in Texas, including the 83-year-old Doyle Brunson.
As a junior, Brunson was a promising basketball player that helped his team the Cowboys reach the NCAA single-elimination tournament in 1953 after scoring 428 points over just 28 games. In fact, the Hardin-Simmons basketball player was even on the brink of being recruited by the NBA’s Minneapolis Lakers, but Brunson’s athletic talent wasn’t just limited to basketball, and he had also been a prominent member of the Sweetwater High School ‘s baseball and athletic teams during the 1950s.
Unfortunately, Brunson’s athletic career came crashing down after severely injuring his leg during a workplace accident in the summer of 1953, an injury which still carries with him even today.
“There was a pad of Sheetrocks sitting on a forklift and it broke down at the bottom and I stepped in front of it trying to stop it. It weighed about 2,000 pounds and that was the end of my leg.”
The sports world’s loss eventually proved to be the poker world’s gain, and after dramatically changing his career,
Doyle Brunson has since become known as “The Godfather of Poker”, having done more than perhaps anyone else to move the card game away from its once seedy image into the main stream media.
Since winning his first WSOP bracelet in 1976, Brunson has notched up a total of 10 gold bracelets, including winning back-to-back Main Events in 1976/77, and in 1988 was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. Commenting on now being recognized for his athletic achievements, Brunson stated:
“I’m honored, because the (Big Country Athletic Hall of Fame) is from where I grew up and I know the names of most of the people who are in it. Most of the people in it who I knew personally have died. But I’m very honored because it’s from Texas.”