Roy Henry
Roy Henry
He had a scholarship to ND in 1973. For the youngins following this thread, that's when ND was IT on a STICK. Ara Parseighan was their HC and this was a year before Joe Montana started with the Irish. Roy and some teammates got into trouble and were suspended for a full year or a season, not sure. He was the only one who didn't stay at ND, instead, came back to LA. I understand his parents wanted him back closer to home in NOLA. He ended up signing with USL (Boomer can elaborate) and sat out the 74' season due transfer rules.
As a side story, and since I'm sitting and taking the time on this subject, here's a little something you may enjoy hearing. I walked on the spring of 75' and was 7th or 8th string QB starting spring practice. I remember holding blocking dummies my first practice! Well, I ended up starting the Red & White game after some guys left, probably due to seeing what Roy could do and knowing they wouldn't play much, and some were not very good either. Randy Fontenot and Randy Dufrene, were two that left and they WERE pretty damn good also. I was a walk-on and was just happy to be playing football again after being out since my senior season at Rayne High in 72'. Well, the White team won the game and that happened to be the team I played on. I ended up being 3rd string to start the 75' season behind Roy and Barry Pollard (Juco from California). Those two were battling it out as Barry had started most if not all of the games the season before. I was happy to be there and my roommate at Stokes, was happy too. He was this blue eyed, Mexican guy that could "kick the ball" with either leg! I ended up holding for him in practice most of the time and because Barry was too busy trying to keep the starting job. This came in handy because the year of 75', the NCAA made a rule that you could only take 48 players on a road trip to reduce travel costs. Well, I wasn't a math major but I knew 44 players would make up 1st and 2nd team offense and defense, and we had a punter and a kicker, so that left only 2 more spots to make the travel squad. I didn't know if they would travel with 3 QB's, but since my roommate was the kicker, I had him convinced he needed me to hold for him because Barry was too busy battling Roy. Oh, and that first game of the year was Long Beach State in California. I hadn't been west of the Astrodome and really wanted to make that trip to the Pacific Ocean! Well, the rest of this story worked out OK, even though our OC, Larry Zeno, was ____ed and thought he was going to pop me upside the head when Rafael told him I had to hold for him. In any case, I didn't miss a road trip in my 3 years of eligibility. I backed up Roy for the better part of 3 seasons, roomed with him on all road trips and got to know him quite well. BTW, I think it was Bear Bryant that told the NCAA to F-off on that travel limit and it was only enforced that one season.
Back to Roy. He played at 6' 1", weighed 200-205 lbs...ran a 4.4 forty and must have had a 36" vertical. Dude was tough on the BB court! One day after practice we were goofing around. I was throwing the ball threw the goal posts from the 50. That's not bad, though it took my whole body to do that. Roy did that on a knee. Fact. I then told him to get on the goal line and throw it as far has he could. Now, this was wind aided, but maybe 5-10 mph at most. He threw it to the 5...Fact. I was blown away. Roy was street smart and book smart. I'm pretty sure he graduated before finishing his elgilibity being a 5 year student athlete having to sit a year for the transfer from ND.
My biggest criticism of Roy was he didn't run enough. Funny how this parrallels with some of the comments about LL. I'm not saying this lost games for us, but we definitely could have kept some drives going more than a few times. But, his reasons for not running more wasn't being scared about getting hurt, he didn't want to run becuase he wanted to play QB in the NFL. He was scared his running ability would keep him from being given the opportunity to play QB. Remember, this is all taking place in the mid 70's, black QBs in the NFL were few and far between. Doug Williams, the first Black quarterback in league history to start and win a Super Bowl was from Zachary and played at Grambling. Doug and Roy were the same age, but Doug wasn't a gifted runner but could toss it as any of us old timers can attest. Magic, or Mr. Magic as Roy was called had the ability to be an elite runner, but chose not to showcase that ability to attain his goal. Can't blame him, but there were a few times during a half time or after a game, I was mad at him because in some of the plays, I felt the team would have been better having me behind center. Of course, these were just a play here and there where moving the chains may have made a difference and throwing the easier, shorter pass for positive yards was easier than taking a shot downfield. But, it's easy to pick and choose plays you'd like to have over, I still do that at night when I can't sleep. But Roy, playing the whole game, gave us the best chance of winning everyday and twice on Sunday. To those who have much, much is expected and he truly had incredible arm talent, that definitely played into his completion %, for those critics of that stat.
Roy was not drafted, which may surprise those not knowing much about him. We believe it was due to him being thrown off the team prior to the start of our senior season in 77'. I was shocked as anyone when I heard the news from Tam as he asked me to go back to my locker and put the uniform again to take a few more pics for media day. The next day at practice only 1 black player showed up, that was big Andy Harrison, may he RIP. Roy and Andy were both leaders amoung the black players and in this case, Roy had asked them not to show up. Andy never followed Roy's lead, possibly because he as a DT. LOL! This happened again the next day, maybe a third, not sure, but during a team meeting at the student union, Coach Robertson pulled me out of the building and told me Roy was back on the team. I was not surprised this decision was made, just thought Tam should have been the one to tell me, not the Def Coord. I told Coach, something like, "well, we'll win more games with Roy and that's a good thing for the team." We played Tulsa the first game of the season and kicked some golden hurricane ass, beating them by 30 or so points. I tell this story because what happened is what we believe caused Roy to not get drafted. Trust me, anyone with the team will tell you we had pro scouts at our practices throughout the 76' and 77' season. There were something like 16 rounds in the draft back then, no way Roy wasn't going to be drafted, but that's how it played out. According to Roy, he was signed by Tex Schramm of the Cowboys as a UFA, then traded to SF. Somewhere during this timeline he was drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats of the CFL and he took their offer because it was twice the money. Lots of black QB's ended up in Canada before getting over the to the NFL, Warren Moon anyone? So, what Roy did was not considered a mistake at all. He busted up his knee early in his rookie season, apparently a career ending injury. Sad story.
I tell fans of football history all the time that I consider Joe Montana one of the best quarterbacks of all time. Maybe because he beat the Saints so many times when the Saints were in the NFC west division, or because he only won, what, 4 super bowls. Dude was Joe Cool and was always a pleasure to watch him play. But, if Roy had stayed at ND or not gotten into trouble, Joe Cool may have had to make a living selling cars. I mean look it up, Montana was a late bloomer in college. He was a year younger than Roy, but don't see him being physically gifted enough in his early years to beat out Mr. Magic. Joe was drafted in the 3rd round, not exactly a ringing endorsement of what his college career brought to the NFL table. Interesting story.
In closing, and for those still reading this novel, Roy was also responsible for my nickname, SlickRick. I'm pretty sure it was the 76' season and Roy showed up for the first game with a towel his GF made for him. It had an iron-on decal of the Playboy rabbit head. Under the rabbit head, were lettered, USL 11, Mr. Magic. Well, that towel was not allowed in the game. During the QB meeting Monday after the game, Coach Zeno was ribbing Roy about the towel, then told him he could wear a towel with the wording, just leave the logo out. We all had a laugh, then he turned to me and asked, what are you going to put on your towel. I said, nothing. He said, oh I know, you need to put USL 12, SlickRick. I have to believe he gave me that name for figuring out how to get on the traveling squad in 75'. Good memories, good times. Also, I was awarded a scholarship after the Lamar game in 75'....another reason for the SlickRick moniker. Boomer can provide that story because he played an integral part in it. If he remembers! Sorry Boomer!
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Re: All he does is win.
Originally Posted by SlickRick
