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A Living Legend
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I had a great day recently. Former Atlanta Falcon Chuck Smith, photographer Alex Hanson and I traveled to Athens, Georgia to talk to former Clarke Central High School coach Billy Henderson and it was a great trip down memory lane.
Billy Henderson coached high school sports in Georgia for over 45 years. Along the way he won 3 GHSA football championships, 3 baseball championships, and somehow found the time to win one state swimming title. In football he won 285 games which is 14th all time in the state of Georgia which included 3 perfect seasons, 14-0 in 1977, 15-0 in 1979 and 15-0 in 1985 and he also was the architect of a 29 game winning streak for the Gladiators.
Those are the statistics. There is so much more to the man. The tens of thousands of young people he coached and influenced thank their lucky stars for being in his orbit for a while and learning many of life’s lessons. GPB’s Chuck Smith played for Coach Henderson and hosted an interview with the coach that will air this season on Football Fridays in Georgia.
“ I was very nervous, he means so much to me, he is like a second father figure. He is held in such high regard by all of us that played for him, that I was very nervous doing the interview,” says Chuck.
And that coming from a guy who helped lead the Atlanta Falcons to their only Super Bowl appearance. These two talked about their times together, the games, the practices, the lessons learned, the Thanksgiving Day trips to the Georgia-Georgia Tech freshman game and Thanksgiving Dinners, and the Christmas Day runs to Five Points, not to mention training camps at Jekyll Island, and memories of Billy’s wife Fosky who was team mother to all the players. It was like Chuck was 17 again, and the coach’s eyes twinkled when he thought about his coaching life.
“I never worked a day in my life”, says Billy Henderson. “ I had the opportunity to be around some fine young people and I looked forward to every day. “
He talked to Chuck about the three GHSA football championships he won.
“Every team I ever coached was special. Some teams accomplished special things. But they were all unique, they were all different, they were all important, and they were all special.”
Another of Coach Henderson’s former players is Dave Perno, the former University of Georgia baseball coach who has returned to his alma mater to coach the football team this year. Coach Perno learned a lot more than just X’s and O’s from Coach Henderson and is proud to carry on that legacy at Clarke Central. The veteran coach had this to say about the current Gladiator coach.
“If he coaches like he played they will win every game. That guy never loafed, not once, he always gave 110 percent.”
The stories just kept on coming in this interview. There were stories about playing for coach Wally Butts at Georgia and playing as the backup tailback to Maxwell Trophy winner Charlie Trippi not to mention how he helped out the Macon and Athens Sports Halls of Fame and the Athens YMCA where he winks and says when asked how often he goes to work out, “ oh, just about 8 days a week.”
And then Coach Henderson who was quite a talented baseball player in his day, talked about playing in an all star game in the mid 1940’s when he was a teenager. His coach……………….Babe Ruth. Yep, that Babe Ruth…..the Bambino, the Sultan of Swat, the guy who belted out 714 home runs…………..here’s that story.
So young Billy Henderson learned a big lesson from that experience. He would never EVER get after a player for making a physical mistake…..NEVER. If he was not hustling, sure, but never for making a physical mistake. And he never did.
You will get to see Chuck’s interview with Coach Henderson coming up on Football Fridays in Georgia on September 23rd, when Clarke Central takes on Cedar Shoals. It’s a good one, so don’t miss it.
And thanks coach, for all the life’s lessons taught and for being a terrific role model for a lot of kids.
All of Athens is proud of you. All of Georgia thanks you!
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