A self-portrait of the last player from a U.S. service academy to be drafted by an NFL team in the first round is for sale by an art gallery in Texas.
Wearing a leather helmet, DeWitt "Tex" Coulter's head is slightly off center and his hands are up as his body rises out of an offensive lineman's stance. Coulter is wearing a red No. 79 jersey top and white pants. His accomplishments are listed on the right side of his body, and seven words -- "The Toughest Football Player Who Ever Lived" -- are over his left shoulder.
His signature, Tex C., is in the bottom left corner.
"I wouldn't call him a precise artist, but I would call him an accomplished artist," Charles Morin, owner of Vintage Texas Paintings, told Military.com. "... He had a real colorful palette. He used bright colors a lot, which is something that I like. They're just pleasing."
Since the first NFL draft in 1936, only three service academy players have been selected in Round 1. Besides Coulter, his former Army teammates -- the Heisman Trophy-winning backfield of Glenn Davis ("Mr. Outside") and Felix "Doc" Blanchard ("Mr. Inside") -- were also first-round selections. (Blanchard won the Heisman in 1945; Davis won the following year.)
The seven-round NFL draft is scheduled from April 27-29, 2023, in Kansas City, Missouri; Army linebacker Andre Carter is projected as a potential late-round draft pick. The omnibus bill that Congress passed in December 2022 allows athletes the option of deferring their military commitment to play professional sports, freeing Carter to join a team immediately. (Update: The Minnesota Vikings signed Carter as an undrafted free agent.)
Born in 1924, Coulter first gained notice on the football field at the Masonic Home and School of Texas. After serving in World War II, he was part of consecutive national championships (1944-45) at Army as an offensive tackle.
Coulter enjoyed a 10-year pro football career. He spent six seasons with the New York Giants, then four with the Montreal Alouettes of the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union -- a precursor to the Canadian Football League. He earned multiple all-star selections in both countries, including on both sides of the line of scrimmage in Canada. "If someone ever called Tex Coulter the premier lineman of his day, I would not disagree," CFL historian Steve Daniel told Military.com.
Despite the 6-foot-4, 250-pound Coulter's success in football -- he was drafted seventh overall in 1947 by the Chicago Cardinals, but never played a down for the team after it traded his rights back to the Giants -- he had another interest that commanded his attention.
After flunking out of West Point, Coulter was so committed to his artwork that he initially told NFL teams not to pursue him, because he intended to study commercial art at Georgia Tech. Coulter relented only after the Giants offered a $21,500 contract, about seven times the average U.S. household salary at the time, for the 1946 season and vowed to help him pay for his education.
He retired after four seasons with New York, accepting a job at a Dallas newspaper as a cartoonist and sports writer for one year before returning to the Giants to play for two more years. Shortly after he turned 32 years old, Coulter retired from football for good after his stint with the Alouettes to focus on his art.
"To most people, the switch seemed incongruous, but I had wanted to be an artist since the sixth grade," Coulter said. "I always believed that the only security I have is my own talents."
Coulter, his wife and their four children remained in Canada after he retired, and he accepted a position diagramming and analyzing football plays for a Montreal newspaper. He also worked on the Alouettes' radio broadcasts, but he became widely known for his portraits, particularly of hockey players.
His renderings graced many magazine covers. Coulter used his brush to depict such hockey legends as Gordie Howe, Jean Béliveau, Henri Richard and Jacques Plante, among others.
"His attention to detail and brilliant strokes of colour put him at the top of his field in the Canadian sports media industry," a blog post from Hockey Then & Now read. "The simple 'Tex' signature on a canvas or magazine cover was the only identification required. His full-length and close-up portraits followed a trend unique to the era.
"The Saturday Evening Post had some artist known as Norman Rockwell, and hockey was fortunate enough to have Tex Coulter," the post continued.
Coulter's paintings were so popular that some pieces were displayed at the Montreal Forum, the longtime former home of the NHL's Canadiens. In 1966, when a group of University of Montreal students broke into the arena and stole a bunch of the visiting Detroit Red Wings' jerseys, they also absconded with three of Coulter's works displayed in the lobby.
After moving his family back to Texas, Coulter entered the home-building business and worked with the Marbridge Foundation, a nonprofit that provides transitional and long-term care to adults with special needs. In his down time, he no doubt found time to paint.
Coulter died in 2007 at the age of 82.
-- Stephen Ruiz can be reached at stephen.ruiz@military.com.
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