Mike Flynt is American former

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

player who played

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

for

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their stu ...

Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas and wore the number 49. Flynt was a strength coach by trade and was a strength coach at

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, and Texas A&M. He is the inventor of the Powerbase Fitness exercise equipment. Clients for the Powerbase system include school systems and the military.

Early career

In 1965, he was on the first state championship team at Permian High School in Odessa, Texas, the high school featured in '' Friday Night Lights''. Flynt, as an All-District player for Permian High School, was offered several full football scholarships at places like the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...

and Sul Ross State University. However, he initially attended

Ranger Junior College Ranger College is a Public college, public community college in Ranger, Texas. The college's website asserts that it "is one of the oldest public two-year colleges in continuous operation in the state of Texas." In conjunction with its main campu ...

for one semester instead. He later attended Sul Ross State in 1969, which was a member of the NAIA. The athletic highlight of Flynt's two years at Sul Ross was participating in a victory against

Texas A&I Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by bo ...

, which went on to win the 1969

NAIA Football National Championship The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Football National Championship is decided by a post-season playoff system featuring the best NAIA college football teams in the United States. Under sponsorship of the National Associa ...

, with its only loss being to Sul Ross. Flynt had been a team captain, All-Conference Linebacker and the leading tackler on the Sul Ross team as a junior. At the start of his senior year in 1971, Flynt was involved in a fist fight with a freshman teammate, the last of several fights he got into on campus. School officials decided to expel Flynt. He only needed six hours to graduate, and he earned his degree from Sul Ross State by taking his remaining classes elsewhere. At a reunion of former Sul Ross students from the 1960s and '70s Flynt told a former roommate that losing his senior year at Sul Ross was the greatest regret in his life. The roommate suggested he make a comeback. Flynt accepted the challenge and ended up walking on at Sul Ross as a linebacker, making the team and becoming the oldest college linebacker in NCAA history.

Division III football

Flynt sold his house in Franklin, Tennessee and moved temporarily to Alpine, Texas. When Flynt went back to play, his youngest child was a

freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. Ara ...

at the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

. Two of his children were older than any of his teammates. Flynt was eight years older than his own coach, Steve Wright.Sports Illustrated, September 24, 2007, p. 34 One of his original college coaches, Jerry Larned, counselled him at the start of his comeback. Despite the fact that he was over 35 years older than his teammates, Flynt, a career strength and conditioning coach, told ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'' that he could still do some things in the weight room that the other players could not. Flynt said he could still do 25 consecutive

pull-ups {{unreferenced, date=March 2017 Pull-Ups is a brand of disposable training pants made under the Huggies brand of baby products. The product was first introduced in 1989 and became popular with the phrase "I'm a big kid now!" which is the product's s ...

and won a

bench press The bench press, or chest press, is a weight training exercise in which the trainee presses a weight upwards while lying on a weight training bench. Although the bench press is a full-body exercise, the muscles primarily used are the pectorali ...

competition with a 45 lb plate at the beginning of the 2007 season. He missed the first two games of the 2007 season with a

pinched nerve Radiculopathy, also commonly referred to as pinched nerve, refers to a set of conditions in which one or more nerves are affected and do not work properly (a neuropathy). Radiculopathy can result in pain (radicular pain), weakness, altered sensati ...

which turned out to be two bulging discs in his neck. When he made his debut on October 13, 2007, Flynt was believed to be the second-oldest college football player ever. Older players such as Tom Thompson have also since surpassed Flynt in age.

Film and Video

" The Senior," a 2023 film directed by Rod Lurie and starring Michael Chiklis as Mike Flynt, premiered at the

Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival Fort Lauderdale () is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and largest city in Broward County, Florida, Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the 2020 Unit ...

on November, 9, 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flynt, Mike Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American football linebackers American strength and conditioning coaches Sul Ross Lobos football players Players of American football from Odessa, Texas Permian High School alumni American motivational speakers