A Hall of Fame Comparison – CHARLIE HENNIGAN

Did the NFL and do HOF voters same look down upon those early days AFL, while not acknowledging the expansion Dallas Cowboys & the Minnesota Vikings likewise being ‘easy marks’ defense, terms stats garnered against?

Of course not – “We’re the ‘NFL’ – let every knee bow!”; pass the vomit bag.

While exhibiting impartiality in effect might lend credence to the argument against the early AFL – should follow vs NFL expansion teams of same period – would perhaps serve to end the silliness. Specifically, that by virtue a human being who played the same game/came via the same proving grounds college, yet is somehow ‘more’ than another player & league by mere virtue having an ‘N’ in front of their FL rather than an ‘A’.

Different venue, same principle: comes to mind the civil rights struggle the 60’s, one color being considered better than another. What’s next – the priest’s collar makes virtuous, police officer’s badge honest? The cost arbitrary caprice is high: segregation from the Hall of Fame, based upon a biased subjective.

Nod Pete Seeger’s, ‘Where have all the flowers gone?’ (and some Mr. Spock too), “remember the players of the AFL – may their memory live long, and prosper”.

A great thing about the AFL was that it gave a lot of good football players a chance, and in some cases, a second or third chance. Charlie Hennigan is a classic case. After being cut as a running back by the Edmonton Eskimos in 1958, Hennigan went to work making himself into a receiver. While teaching high school biology in Jonesboro, Louisiana, he drove 20 miles to Ruston several times a week where he worked with former Cleveland Brown great Dub Jones catching passes and running patterns. Several Oiler teammates testify that when Hennigan reported to the Oilers’ camp in 1960 his hands were questionable at best. All the Oiler coaches wanted to cut him except for receiver coach Mac Speedie, who loved Hennigan’s blazing speed and great work ethic. Winning an argument with head coach Lou Rymkus, Speedie took Hennigan under his wing and the rest is history.

Whenever the heat, humidity, and aches and pains of training camp began to wear on Hennigan, he’d remove his helmet and look at a monthly pay receipt he had taped inside for teaching at Jonesboro High School – $270.62. With that, he went back to running patterns.

Assistant Oiler coach Walt Schlinkman said of Hennigan, “Charlie’s greatest asset was his tremendous physical endurance. He ran like a gazelle and could do it all day. By the fourth quarter the defenders trying to cover him were just dragging.”

In a 1961 game against Boston he caught 13 passes for 232 yards, a new single game reception yardage record. That same season he would set a new single season reception yardage record of 1,541 yards in 12 games, breaking the previous record set by “Crazy Legs” Hirsch. In 1964 he would catch 101 passes.

Hennigan is certainly worthy of HOF membership.