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A SENIOR MOMENT by Randy Rudder Could a 59-year-old really become a college linebacker? Mike Flynt shows it's never too late to tackle a dream.
Later that year, while attending a reunion in San Antonio with a number of his old football buddies, Mike mentioned that not getting to play his fourth season was the worst regret of his life. "The thing that gets me more than anything else," Mike said in semi-jest, "is that I think I can still play." "Then why don't you?" one of his friends responded. While most would have ignored the comment and just laughed, Mike begin to wonder if, perhaps, he really could achieve his lost dream. Skirmishes and Trouble Mike often thought back to that day in August 1971 when he had been kicked off the team for fighting. As a linebacker for the Lobos, Mike was known for his lightning reflexes, his strength, and his quick temper. As a boy, Mike had been taught to fight by his father, who was concerned about Mike's size and felt he would be picked on if he couldn't defend himself. But instead of helping him, Mike's aggressive behavior often got him into trouble. His temper had landed him in a number of scuffles over the years, but, that year, he got involved in one fight too many. He was asked to leave the college, just six hours short of obtaining his degree. "We were picked to win the [Lone Star] conference that year. I was the team captain and I felt we could win the championship," Mike says. "I could have graduated the previous spring, but I came back that fall to win the conference championship. I really felt like I let my teammates down. It was definitely the greatest regret I had in my life." Though the president of Sul Ross later granted Mike special permission to apply six undergraduate hours taken at UT Arlington toward his Sul Ross degree, he told him he could never come back to the school. Mike went on to become a strength coach at Nebraska, Oregon, and Texas A&M. But trouble continued to follow him. A business venture with an unscrupulous partner greatly harmed his reputation, landed him in court, and eventually caused him to leave Texas and move to Franklin, Tennessee. On the brink of despair, Mike contemplated taking his life. "Looking back, it was God knocking me to my knees. He knew exactly what it would take to get my attention," Mike says. "And He did." A Whole New Ball game During this difficult time, Mike was attending church, so he knew about God, but he didn't really know Him. "I had gone to church basically because my wife, Eileen, made me. We prayed before meals with the kids and things like that, but I had never had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ," Mike says. "When I shared with her that I was contemplating suicide, she took me by the hand and said, 'Come on, let's take a walk.'" As they walked, Eileen shared her faith. Mike says, "I never realized the depth of her relationship with the Lord until that day, and it was then that I realized I didn't have a relationship with the Lord. I didn't know much about Him. I had scarcely ever read the Bible." Eileen prayed for him and Mike says, "I didn't make a confession right then, because I didn't even know what that meant, but I felt a sense of peace, and I knew everything was going to be okay." The next day, Mike started learning all he could about God and His Word. A couple of months later, he made a formal profession of faith and was baptized. Then God began blessing Mike and his business endeavors. He started Powerbase Fitness, LLC, a fitness training company. Eileen prospered as a real estate agent, and the couple's three children grew up and left the nest. But that nagging regret about the mistake he made in college just wouldn't go away. After the reunion and the challenge from his former teammate, Stan Williamson, the wheels started turning in Mike's head. "I had given up on the thought of ever being able to go back and play simply because I didn't have all the facts," Mike says. "I thought I would be ineligible. When Sul Ross changed to a Division III school, though, the age limit was no longer a factor. But I didn't know this." Over the weeks, as Mike started thinking about making his dream a reality, he thought about phoning the Sul Ross Coach Steve Wright, but then realized this would not be the kind of conversation he could have over the phone. "If I am a head coach and a 59-year-old guy calls me to say he wants to play, what would I say? I would do everything I could to avoid him because that's a headache I don't need." The End Game In July, Mike drove from Franklin, Tennessee, to Alpine, Texas to see Wright in person. "On the way out there, I was really praying that God would bless my efforts. I had total confidence. I knew if I could get a chance, then one of those linebacker spots was going to be mine." When Mike arrived unannounced and met Coach Wright, he told him what had happened when he attended the school years ago. Mike says, "I told him I wanted to help some of the young players so that, in my mind, it would kind of make up for the guys I let down almost 40 years ago." When the coach realized that Mike was asking to try out for the team, he got a little flustered. He asked, "How old are you again?" Mike once again told him he was 59, and all Coach Wright could say was, "Boy, I don't know." "It was God's perfect timing, Mike says, "because just then, the assistant coach told him there were a bunch of players waiting on the field for him and he invited me to come along and work out with them. Had I gotten there 10 minutes later, I would have missed him." Mike ran with the players for an hour and surprised the coach by keeping up with everyone. So the coach let him try out. Discovering that he was indeed eligible for one final season, Mike began telling Eileen of his desire to move to Texas. She had always been supportive of Mike's dreams, but didn't know he was serious until he began talking about selling their home. "I feel like I'm married to Peter Pan," Eileen told him. She eventually relented, however, and moved to Texas with him. Mike enrolled at the school and registered for nine graduatehours. When he showed up for the first day of practice, one of the players asked if he was one of the new coaches. Discovering he was a new player, his teammate was shocked and asked, "How old are you?" But the team quickly learned that Mike could play. "They knocked me down and they knew full well that if I got a shot, I was going to knock them down," Mike says. "But when I had a helmet on, it was difficult to tell me from the rest of the players out there." Mike suffered a neck injury in practice that kept him out of the first five games of the season. "I was never hurt when I played as a young man, but the healing tissues in a 59-year-old body are just not the same. After the first week of two-a-day practices, everybody else was over the soreness. I never did get over the soreness," he says laughing. For the final five games, though, Mike played as a linebacker and on special teams. He helped the Lobos to a respectable 5-5 season. Mike's experience is chronicled in the book, The Senior (Thomas Nelson, 2008), and he is currently in talks with a major Hollywood studio to do a feature film about his story. He hopes his experience will motivate others to see that it might not be too late for them to pursue their dreams. "Over the years, you develop areas where you know you are competent. So when you have a natural talent or strength and know what that is, that's the area you need to work on and keep honing those skills because that is the area that God is going to bless," Mike says. "God is the one who has given you that strength, and it's your responsibility to determine where that can be applied and be open to opportunities to use that. You've got to play to your strengths." For more information, visit Mike's Website www.mikeflynt.com. |
