Update
SI PLAYERS, SEPT. 3, 2007
He waited 37 years to suit up for his senior season. Waiting another week to get in a game won't kill Mike Flynt (below), the 59-year-old linebacker who made the roster at Division III Sul Ross State in Alpine, Texas. Last Saturday, Flynt, who missed the Lobos' first two games with a pinched nerve, donned a uniform for the first time and drew much more attention than the typical bench warmer. As Sul Ross was being crushed 55--14 by D-III rival Mary Hardin-Baylor, Flynt's fan club—the Sul Ross Baby Boomers, who made the seven-hour drive to Belton, Texas, for the game—and Mary Hardin-Baylor's band chanted for number 49.
Flynt's fans went home disappointed after coach Steve Wright held him out of the game, but Flynt—he last took the field for the Lobos in 1970—will likely play in Sul Ross's home opener against East Texas Baptist this Saturday. In the meantime Flynt, known as the Senior to his teammates, is enjoying himself. A strength coach by trade, he says he "can still do a lot of things in the weight room the other guys can't." Flynt, who was thrown out of Sul Ross in 1971, is also taking three classes—one of which is History of American Sports. "Maybe I'll be a footnote in that [subject] one of these days," he says.
PHOTO
LM OTERO/AP (FLYNT)