HURON On June 14, Garney Henley, Huron College alum and current resident, had his number retired by the team in the Canadian Football League (CFL) where he spent all 16 years of his CFL career, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
He became just the third Hamilton player so honored. Many in the crowd would have been astounded to learn one fact about Garneys football career. No, it wasnt that he spent his career playing both offense and defense (and special teams!) or that he still holds multiple college records from his time at Huron College or even that he was drafted to the National Football League by the immortal Vince Lombardi.
It was that Garney never played high school football.
We didnt have that many students, Garney said as he cracked a smile. In the fall, we played baseball, not football.
Garney originally went to South Dakota State on scholarship for basketball and track, but SDSU was not a fit for Henley. He chose to transfer to Huron College to play the same two sports, but right away, the football coaches took notice.
When I came to Huron, Jim Long was the coach and Gil Peterson was his assistant. Every time I ran into Jim, hed try to get me to come out to football, Henley remembered. I tried spring practice, and for whatever reason, I liked it and I stayed.
He did have to convince his mother that football was okay, first. She finally came around and even attended a retirement ceremony for Garney in Canada.
The combination of Henleys natural athleticism and work ethic, as well as Gil Petersons patience, allowed Garney to pick up the sport, and he quickly joined a very good team already in place with Huron College. Henley would quickly become the standout of that team as they held a 28-game win streak and Henley amassed more than 4,000 rushing yards while scoring 394 career points, still an all-college record. In one game against Dakota Wesleyan, Garney carried the ball six times, scoring a touchdown on five of those carries!
We had a good team, Henley smiled. We led the small colleges in the nation in pretty much every offensive number out there.
Garneys eye-popping numbers earned him NAIA All-American honors, but more importantly, they earned him an invitation to a college all-star game in Tucson, Ariz., where he caught the eye of scouts and earned the most valuable player for his team.
Thats when the Green Bay Packers came calling, drafting Henley in the 15th round.
Vince Lombardi drafted me as a defensive halfback, Garney recalled. He brought me in for mini-camp and they had me run pass routes, and I was the fastest one in and out of routes. Then, when I came back to main camp, he kept me on offense, but I wanted to play defense.
Garney has a paycheck from the Packers, signed by Lombardi, framed among his keepsakes.
Henley was a final-day cut of the Packers, but the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the CFL acquired Henley, and he went on to have a legendary career with the Tiger-Cats over the next 16 years.
His initial impression on head coach Jim Trimble was not overwhelming, but defensive coach Ralph Sazio took notice and Sazio would go on to coach Henley to three Grey Cups, the CFLs championship trophy.
When Trimble first saw me, he told Sazio, Run him and send him home, Henley said with a shake of his head. I practiced two days and then played my first game.
It took me a little while to get used to the motion of the game in Canada, but I scored a touchdown in my first game, Henley laughed. I hardly left the field after that.
Sazio would move into the general manager role, and Henley won his fourth Grey Cup as a player in 1972.
Garney and his wife Charlotte welcome you into their home, and quickly, you find yourself in a room with a collection of Garneys trophies, awards and memorabilia.
Surrounded by all of these reminders of his own athletic greatness, Henley keeps a calm, reflective tone as he humbly talks about achievements that few athletes who ever participate can even hope to consider, let alone actually accomplish.
He may not brag much about his many accomplishments, but Henley is very adamant about one thing.
Im as good as any two-way player that played in North America, Henley said proudly. Playing both ways was the best thing that could happen to me.
He was selected for the all-time Hamilton Tiger-Cat team, and hes the only player who is named on both sides of the ball.
Garney has been inducted into numerous Halls of Fame, including one that he was selected for less than a month prior to his jersey retirement.
With all those accolades, one of the aspects of his life that Garney continues to harken back to is his coaching and the joy he took from his players successes.
You try to teach kids as if they were your own son, Garney expressed. I truly believe that you can be an average person and make yourself better. I always tried to encourage that in each kid I coached.
Henley was coaching basketball at the University of Guelph while he played for Hamilton, leading to a busy work balance. He had plenty of success, winning championships with Guelph and Hamilton.
I recruited every kid on my teams, and they were all Canadians. Every team we played had Americans on them, Henley said. These kids were good athletes. They just needed a bit more instruction than your typical college freshman playing basketball.
Those who have been coached by Garney, including his wife, can attest to his stress on completing an action all the way to ensure a task is complete. Charlotte jokes about Garney helping him with her tennis skills.
People talk about his work ethic and a quiet presence on the field. He has a great temperament when hes teaching, Charlotte said. I knew tennis, but he encouraged me to watch the ball all the way into the racket. I argued back and forth with him, but he calmly kept encouraging me.
She continued, Then I finally did it, and it was like slow motion. He was right!
That focus on fundamentals sometimes can make it tough for Garney to watch a football game on television as he notices players not complete fundamental actions, especially one particular one.
He gets so aggravated by watching games because the guys dont look the ball all the way into their hands, Charlotte chuckled. But he does that with everything in life, doing the little things to make sure something is fully complete.
This was evidenced after his honor with Hamilton. After spending a weekend being honored and recognized for his greatness, Garney returned home and was out at the State Fairgrounds the next morning to mow grass bright and early.
In all humility, Garney expressed how where hes been has positively impacted his athletic accomplishments.
I had a great career, Henley reflected. I was very lucky to be in the places where I went.
Almost as lucky as those influenced by Henley were that he was in those places
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