Jim Dent
Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 1:23 pmfrom the Houston Chronicle:
AMONG those who helped Texas sportswriter and best-selling author Jim Dent get through 27 months of hard time were his old fraternity buddies from Southern Methodist University.
One frat brother stepped up, even if he had a few legal matters of his own to manage.
"Jeff Skilling is a very, very close friend of mine," said Dent, 53, who was imprisoned for felony drunken driving and paroled Sept. 20 to Skilling's guest house in River Oaks. "We've been close friends now for over 30 years, and for him to open his home to me was a great sign of generosity, because it's not something he had to do."
Skilling, the former CEO of Enron, currently is on trial in federal court, accused of conspiracy and fraud.
Dent, who covered sports for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dallas Times Herald and San Antonio Express-News before becoming a full-time author, said he didn't stay idle while "in the joint" at Beaumont. He penned a novel, which he's pitching to publishers, about a group of Texans who get in deep with the mob while trying to fix a football game.
The author of the best-seller The Junction Boys, about Paul "Bear" Bryant's infamous training camp with the 1954 Texas A&M football team, is delving back into nonfiction with another football book set for next year.
But Dent said he's happiest that he's clean after years of hard living.
"My life is completely changed. I have seen the light," he said. "This was a bad way to learn a lesson, but I can assure you, I learned it."
AMONG those who helped Texas sportswriter and best-selling author Jim Dent get through 27 months of hard time were his old fraternity buddies from Southern Methodist University.
One frat brother stepped up, even if he had a few legal matters of his own to manage.
"Jeff Skilling is a very, very close friend of mine," said Dent, 53, who was imprisoned for felony drunken driving and paroled Sept. 20 to Skilling's guest house in River Oaks. "We've been close friends now for over 30 years, and for him to open his home to me was a great sign of generosity, because it's not something he had to do."
Skilling, the former CEO of Enron, currently is on trial in federal court, accused of conspiracy and fraud.
Dent, who covered sports for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dallas Times Herald and San Antonio Express-News before becoming a full-time author, said he didn't stay idle while "in the joint" at Beaumont. He penned a novel, which he's pitching to publishers, about a group of Texans who get in deep with the mob while trying to fix a football game.
The author of the best-seller The Junction Boys, about Paul "Bear" Bryant's infamous training camp with the 1954 Texas A&M football team, is delving back into nonfiction with another football book set for next year.
But Dent said he's happiest that he's clean after years of hard living.
"My life is completely changed. I have seen the light," he said. "This was a bad way to learn a lesson, but I can assure you, I learned it."