We all live with regrets in our lives from unfulfilled dreams to what ifs. Well, life for Mike Flynt was no different. The 59-year-old was doing the male bonding thing with some old friends when he mentioned his biggest regret in life — getting kicked off his college football team before his senior year.
After being challenged by one of the friends to do something about it, Flynt looked into it. The rest is history. Flynt will return to Sul Ross State in Texas this month, 37 years after he left. It is like the Disney movie The Rookie with Dennis Quaid as the older man who goes back to live out his dream. Only this is at the college level and in football instead of baseball.
Flynt, a grandfather and a card-carrying member of AARP, is eight years older than his coach and has two kids older than any of his teammates. Talk about a generation gap.
So why did Flynt not play his senior year the first time? He was going into his senior year in 1971 when he got into a fight that was far from his first. School officials decided they'd had enough and threw him out of school. He earned his degree from Sul Ross by taking his remaining classes elsewhere.
His history in football, however, reads like a professional player. Achievements and honors are common. In 1965, he was on the first state championship team at Odessa Permian, the high school featured in "Friday Night Lights." He was offered a partial scholarship at Arkansas when the Razorbacks were among the top teams in the land, but instead went to Ranger Junior College.
He wound up at Sul Ross in 1969. An NAIA school then, the Lobos were in the Lone Star Conference with East Texas State, which at the time had future NFL stars Harvey Martin and Dwight White, and Texas A&I, which was starting a two-year run as national champs. The highlight of Flynt's two years at Sul Ross was sticking A&I with its only loss in '69. He served as a team captain and the leading tackler as a junior while at Sul Ross.
Flynt is not your typical 59-year-old. He has served as a strength and conditioning coach at Nebraska, Oregon and Texas A&M, he's spent the last several years selling the Powerbase training system he invented.
So what does his wife think of all of this? She admits that she thought it was a crazy idea when he first came home with stars in his eyes. She was not excited about the thought of being married to a college man.
They were on their way to celebrating their first year as empty nesters. Their youngest was going off to college and the couple was going to enjoy their alone time.
It took time to accept that instead of joining their daughter at Tennessee's home opener she would be watching her husband hit kids one-third his age.
Eventually she came around. The Christian couple sold their suburban Nashville home and are now living in Alpine, a town of about 6,000 residents near the Big Bend National Park, a three-hour drive from the nearest major airport.
This is a story that movies are made out of-it is motivating, dreamy, overcoming and inspiring. As a wife, I know that my husband has regrets about his life. Giving up college because of my pregnancy, wanting to do things better in college, in high school, etc. Regrets really play on men more so than I think they do on women.
This story inspires me to be supportive to my husband. I can’t imagine what his wife must have thought when he came home with this idea. But to be able to see him be successful and make the team at that age, that would have been a proud moment.
As for Flynt, he could see playing time as early as Sept. 1. Although his position has not been announced, he originally played linebacker in the late 60’s.
