Age is just a number? It’s no cliché to Mike Flynt, Sheila Johnson, and Buster Martin.
One is 59 and played college football in the fall of 2007.
One is 60 and is currently playing college tennis.
The other is 101 and is training to compete in the London Marathon this spring.
That’s right — 101. And it isn’t a farce, either. Buster Martin completed England’s Roding Valley half-marathon in early March in a time of five hours, 13 minutes. Based on that time, ten-and-a-half hours to finish a whole marathon might seem like a little much. Then again, one shouldn’t doubt whatever Martin decides to put his mind to.
A grandfather several times over, Martin is a bit of a celebrity in England. He became the oldest man to have regular employment in Britain when he went back to work two years ago at age 99, putting in three days a week at a plumbing company.
He also plays in a rock band — we told you we weren’t kidding — made up of members whose ages range from 90 to 101. The Zimmers, as they are known, recently had a single make the British charts when the group covered The Who’s "My Generation."
When Martin completed the half-marathon race in Essex, his first words at the finish line were, “Where’s my beer?” Should he finish the London Marathon on April 13, he plans to celebrate in the same fashion.
“I'll do what I always do and have a pint and a [cigarette],” Martin told Reuters News Service. “People ask what is my secret, but I haven't got one. They say [cigarettes] and booze are bad for you, but I'm still here, aren't I?”
Martin has no regrets about his life. Mike Flynt had one.
In 1971, Flynt was thrown off the football team at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas, for fighting. Flynt was a team captain at the time and, though he went on to a successful career — he was the strength and conditioning coach for the football teams at the University of Oregon, Nebraska, and Texas A&M, and also invented the Powerbase training system — he always lamented not finishing his college playing days.
When Flynt shared his regret with former teammates during a reunion, one of them had a suggestion: You have college eligibility left. Go back to school, take classes, and try out for the football team.
So Flynt did and, because he was (and still is) in exceptional shape, he made the team. Sul Ross State is a Division III-level team — meaning it doesn’t play the Michigans and Notre Dames of this world — but Flynt still played in six of the 12 games.
His 82-year-old mother and 18-month-old grandson also managed to catch one of his games.
The story has an even happier ending. After finishing the season and completing his college eligibility, Flynt was approached by LRMR Marketing, a sports representation firm based in Cleveland owned by NBA superstar LeBron James.
Maverick Carter, LRMR’s CEO and a childhood friend of James, told the Associated Press that he has already begun laying out a plan for Flynt that ranges from endorsing fitness products to speaking appearances to movie and television roles.
“Mike is a normal guy, but he had the will and desire to go back and play college football at 59,” Carter said. “I want those type of people to be around me and my company.”
Perhaps Carter will also feel the same way about Sheila Johnson.
A lifelong tennis junkie, Johnson won three Iowa state championships as a high school player in the early 1960s, and then played three years of tennis for Arizona State University on the collegiate level.
Three years.
Meaning she still had a fourth year of college eligibility left.
So, some four decades later, Johnson decided use up her final season of eligibility when her private tennis coach, Greg Prudhomme, took the vacant head coaching position of the women’s tennis team at Division II Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Ariz.
Determined not to give up on taking lessons from Prudhomme, Johnson told the coach she was going to enroll at Grand Canyon and try out for the tennis team. A still-vibrant player at 60, Prudhomme did her one better by offering her a partial scholarship.
Earlier this year, in her first college match in 43 years, Johnson scored a 6-1, 6-3 victory over 18-year old Jennifer Baughman of The Master’s College at the Cal State Los Angeles Tournament.
“When I first decided I would try to do this it was two weeks before school started and I spent those two weeks going back and forth on what I should do,” Johnson told Tennis Week magazine. “By day I thought I should try it and at night I thought, ‘This is a horrible idea!’ I had nine years of retirement and to tell you the truth I was kind of getting into a rut. I would go home and sit on the couch and watch soap operas, and I just needed a little kick start. My husband was very supportive and said ‘You should do this.’”
She did. And she’s thriving.
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