Texas football coach marries stripper girlfriend named ‘Pole Assassin’ – whose pet monkey ‘attacked child on Halloween’
A COLLEGE football coach has married his pole dancer girlfriend in a lavish Texas ceremony.
Texas Longhorns special teams coordinator Jeff Banks wed his long-time girlfriend Danielle Thomas last weekend.
Banks and Thomas have been dating since 2018 after the football coach separated from his ex-wife Kori, per The Daily Mail.
The pair were joined by staff from the team as they partied the night away.
"Incredible 72 hours with our family and closest friends," Banks captioned a selfie on Instagram with his new bride.
"We truly love you all now off to Barcelona for our honeymoon."
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Thomas is an adult dancer who regularly performs on stage with her emotional support monkey Gia.
She dances under the name The Pole Assassin, per ESPN.
Thomas appeared on The Jerry Springer Show in 2017, showing off her moves on national TV.
"Pole Assassin = GOAT!!!!" wrote the show's official X page.
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"Is this the greatest pole dancer to ever hit our stage?" they added.
The couple hit the headlines again in the fall of 2021 after monkey Gia allegedly bit a child in Banks’ backyard on Halloween.
A lawsuit was filed in Travis County District Court by Amy and Casey Clinkenbeard after the white-faced capuchin reportedly bit a trick-or-treater.
"C.C. [the boy allegedly bitten] was forced to manually pry the monkey's jaw open," court documents read, per Austin-based Fox affiliate KTBC-TV.
"There was so much blood that C.C. was unable to see the full extent of the injury."
The boy reportedly had attempted to "high five" the monkey, the lawsuit added.
College football's 2024 shake-up
Oklahoma and Texas switching from the Big 12 to the SEC is one of the biggest changes to college football in recent times.
And that has set off a chain reaction which has left the Pac-12 conference decimated.
The Pac-12 has lost 10 of its 12 members and is down to just Oregon State and Washington State.
Four of those teams are headed for the Big 12 - Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah.
Another four are going to the Big 10 - Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington.
And the other two teams, California and Stanford, will join the ACC conference.
No teams have left the SEC, Big Ten or ACC.
"Instead of showing any semblance of care for an injured child, Danielle Thomas was instead worried about the risk of her monkey being taken away," it added.
It is not clear if the lawsuit moved beyond the initial filing.
Thomas denied the claims in a since-deleted post on X, per Sports Illustrated.
"I had a haunted house on one side gated off/ he had no permission to go pass the gate I had no idea he went in my back yard," she wrote, according to the outlet.
"Neither did i know anything about a bite! Until a doctor of neighborhood told me the treat a small bite. No parent have contacted me about it!
"A 11 /12 year old child should know better then to enter someone yard without permission and old enough to also follow the rules.
"The rules were when u get to the gate turn around and come back out for candy every other parent and child did so!"
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The Longhorns are currently preparing to make their debut in the Southeastern Conference following a shake-up of college football.
Banks joined the staff at the University of Texas in 2021 and has formerly worked for Alabama, Texas A&M, and Idaho State.
