Dan Thomas Jenkins was born in Fort Worth, Texas on December 2, 1928. He graduated from Texas Christian University. In the mid-1950s, he became a writer and editor at The Fort Worth Press. He was promoted to sports editor before joining Sports Illustrated in 1962, where his main beats were golf and college football.
His first novel, Semi-Tough, was published in 1972 and adapted into a movie in 1978. His other novels included Dead Solid Perfect, Baja Oklahoma, You Gotta Play Hurt, and Limo written with Bud Shrake. His memoir, His Ownself: A Semi-Memoir, was published in 2014. He later wrote for Playboy and was a senior writer for Golf Digest. He died on March 7, 2019 at the age of 90.
030