Posted: Fri, 5 Nov 2010 12:04 PM - 8,642 Readers
By: Tiffany Young
Believed to be The University of Texas’ oldest living football player, John Henderson, is a 97-year-old man living in Steiner Ranch’s Longhorn Village—a retirement community developed in association with The Ex-Students’ Association of The University of Texas.
Henderson grew up in Fort Worth and decided to attend UT after graduating from high school. In 1932, he moved to Austin, where he played guard on UT’s football team until he earned his master’s of science in education in 1936.
He said a lot has changed since he attended the university.
“Back in those days, colleges didn’t recruit football players,” Henderson said.
At that time, UT was in the Southwest Conference—which dissolved in 1996—consisting of Baylor University, Oklahoma A&M University (now Oklahoma State University), Rice University, Southwestern University, Texas A&M University, the University of Arkansas and the University of Oklahoma.
Henderson said uniforms consisted of leather helmets and players did not wear facemasks. Not only have the uniforms and equipment changed, but also the rules of the game have changed.
“Today’s coaches coach from the sidelines. In those days, the coaches were prohibited from doing that—the quarterbacks called the plays from the field,” Henderson said.
As far as practice went, the season did not usually begin until October and the players were prohibited from practicing until Sept. 12, he said.
When Henderson was at UT, he said there were less than 50 automobiles on campus—one of them his own 1925 Dodge Coupe, which he bought for $26 and drove for three and a half years. He lived off Wichita Street, which was—at the time—south of, not on, campus.
Some things remain the same, however. During his years on campus, Henderson worked at Gregory Gym, where students can still be found lifting weights or working to help alleviate some of the costs of their education.
Henderson worked at the gym two hours a day for 50 cents per hour, which earned him $30 a month. At that time, the U.S. was going through the Great Depression and there were no scholarships for students. Henderson graduated without any debt with the money he earned and the little money his family was able to send him from home.
While attending classes, he met his wife, Charlotte, whom he has been married to for 70 years and whom he shares an apartment with in the unassisted area of their retirement community. The couple are busy as ever with activities, such as boating on Lake Travis and visiting museums.
After graduating college, the couple moved to Baytown and were married in Houston, where Charlotte taught at a private school, while John worked for Humble Oil and Refining Co. for more than 30 years. They lived in Baytown for 70 years, but the couple always wanted to move back to Austin for retirement.
In August 2009, after John had been retired for more than 30 years, they were the first couple to move into Longhorn Village.
The Hendersons, who never stopped attending games, still go to UT football home games at Darrel K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium. Even when they were in Baytown they would drive to Austin for home games.
Now, Henderson said, they get to ride, along with their friends from their retirement community, on a bus, oblivious to the traffic around them.
Though Henderson traded in his pigskin awhile back, he said his secret to a long life is his active lifestyle—he still wears a pedometer and logs 1 to 4 miles of walking each day.
