Gent attended Bangor High School in Michigan, where he was a standout four-sport athlete. In basketball he led the Bangor Vikings team to the 1960 state Class C Championship, while accumulating a 22.6 scoring average. The team was known as the Cardiac Kids for their late-game wins in District, Regional, Quarter-Final and Semi-Final games. The final game against top-ranked Grand Rapids Lee was no exception: it was tied 41–41 after three quarters and Bangor went on to win 57–45. 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.
College career
Gent was a center/forward with the Michigan State University basketball team from 1962 to 1964. He became the first player in school history to lead the basketball team in scoring three consecutive seasons. In his senior year, he averaged 21 points per game. He left school ranked as MSU's second career scorer, with a total of 1,146 points. He averaged 17.4 points per game for his college career, he was third team All-Big Ten in 1963 and second team All-Big Ten in 1964. In 1964, he was awarded the Big Ten ConferenceMedal of Honor, which is given annually to a male and female athlete at each of the Big Ten institutions, who demonstrates the greatest proficiency in scholarship and athletics. Gent graduated from Michigan State University with a BA in advertising. Gent was the recipient of the 2005 Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Although Gent never played a down of college football, the Dallas Cowboys were impressed by his athleticism and offered him a tryout. He went to training campin the summer of 1964, to receive the $500 they were paying to players who attended. As with Cornell Green whom the team had converted two years earlier, he was first tried at defensive back, but at 6–4 and 210 pounds, he was not agile enough to play in the secondary. The coaches decided that Gent's best chance was at wide receiver, where he wound up making the team and turning down a contract offer from the NBA's Baltimore Bullets, who had selected him in the 14th round of the 1964 NBA draft. He became a valuable wide receiver by his second year in 1965, while splitting time with Buddy Dial and playing opposite Bob Hayes. He caught 16 passes for 233 yards and two touchdowns. In 1966, he had ten starts over Dial, registering 27 receptions for 474 yards and one touchdown. In 1967, with the arrival of Lance Rentzel and health problems, he was moved to tight end and he played in only seven games. In 1968, he played in 10 games, posting 16 receptions for 194 yards. Gent's career was marred by injury, as he underwent knee operations and endured constant back problems. He was known for his intelligence, soft hands and size. He caught passes mostly from quarterbackDon Meredith, with whom he enjoyed a close friendship off the field.
After leaving professional football, Gent wrote several novels dealing with the sport. His first and most famous book, a semi-autobiographical novel entitled North Dallas Forty, was published in 1973. Its main characters, a quarterback and a wide receiver, are widely considered to be based on Don Meredith and Gent, respectively. The novel was one of the first to examine the NFL's hypocrisy regarding drug use. North Dallas Forty 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. During the making of the film, he experienced creative difficulties with producer Frank Yablans. Gent made his home in Texas for many years, where he was friends with many of that state's significant creative minds of the day, including Larry L. King, Billy Lee Brammer, Gary Cartwright, Bud Shrake, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Dan Jenkins. They called themselves the Mad Dogs. Gent also explored the corruption in modern professional sports in a sequel volume entitled North Dallas After 40, published in 1989, and in two unrelated football novels — Texas Celebrity Turkey Trot and The Franchise.
Personal life
Gent had two children, Holly Gent and Carter Davis Gent. He resided in Bangor, Michigan at the time of his death from a pulmonary disease on September 30, 2011, and was working on another novel.
