For the Dallas Morning News, he wrote a local history column called Tolbert's Texas that ran from 1946 until his death in 1984.
He worked as a sports writer for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, the Wichita Falls Times Record News, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
He also wrote articles that were published in Leatherneck Magazine, Collier's, Esquire, and the Saturday Evening Post.
He served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II, and married Kathleen Hoover in December 1943.
In 1967 he founded, with Wick Fowler, the World Chili Championship held annually in Terlingua, Texas, which was later named for them.