4 Old Men Who Played College Football

College football is usually a young man’s game, but occasionally an old timer finds his way onto the field. With this fall’s schedule finally in full swing, let’s take a look at four players who didn’t let their relatively advanced ages keep them off of the gridiron.

1. TOM THOMPSON // AUSTIN COLLEGE

In November 2009, Tom Thompson cemented his place as the grand old man of college football when he booted an extra point for the Austin College Kangaroos in a game against Division III power Trinity. Thompson, a 61-year-old graduate student at Austin, had been a backup kicker in high school, but he dusted off his kicking skills for the first time in four decades to make the big boot. The story would have been something right out of a movie if not for the final score: Trinity waxed Austin 44-10.

2. ALAN MOORE // HOLMES COMMUNITY COLLEGE/FAULKNER UNIVERSITY

Alan Moore kicked as a freshman at Jones County Junior College in 1968. At the end of the season he headed off to fight in the Vietnam War, and once his tour of duty was over Moore never managed to get back onto the gridiron ... until 2010, that is.

After getting laid off from his job in 2009, Moore moved to Mississippi to be near his grandchildren and found he once again had the urge to kick. He bought kicking shoes, built a goal post in his daughter’s yard, and started practicing. After a failed attempt to rejoin his old squad at Jones County, the 60-year-old kicker with 40-plus-yard range suited up for Holmes Community College for the 2010 season. In 2011—at age 61—Moore made the squad at Faulkner University in Montgomery, Alabama, becoming the oldest person to ever step on the field.

3. MIKE FLYNT // SUL ROSS STATE

Back in 2007, Mike Flynt told his pals that his biggest regret was getting kicked off of his college football team. When a friend challenged Flynt to do something about it, the 59-year-old grandfather sprang into action. After establishing that he still had remaining eligibility, Flynt set about rejoining the team at his alma mater, Division III Sul Ross State in Texas.

Flynt wasn’t your average 59-year-old ex-jock, either. He had spent his career working as a strength and conditioning coach at schools like Tennessee and Nebraska, so he’d stayed in shape. He ended up making the Sul Ross State squad as a linebacker.

4. TIM FRISBY // UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA

When Tim Frisby tried out for the University of South Carolina’s squad in 2004, he wasn't exactly an old man. But he wasn’t exactly the typical walk-on, either. At age 39, he was a former U.S. Army Ranger who had served in the first Gulf War and in Kosovo. He had six children. (Gamecocks coach Lou Holtz joked that putting Frisby on the roster would at least boost attendance if his whole family came to games.)

Stranger still, Frisby wanted to try out for one of the fastest spots on the roster: wide receiver. Luckily, his years in the military had preserved both his NCAA eligibility and his body; Frisby still ran a 4.6-second 40-yard dash. In 2005 Frisby notched his first career catch, a nine-yard reception, and won the team’s offensive GPA award with a 3.6 mark in his journalism major.

The NCAA doesn’t keep age stats, but at the time researchers pegged Frisby as the oldest man to ever play Division I football. Both Holtz and his successor, Steve Spurrier, insisted that Frisby was on the team as a deserving possession receiver, not a novelty, but the man his teammates called “Pops” got to have some fun with his unusual age. He made it onto the couch for both David Letterman and Jay Leno in that first season!

This story originally ran in 2011.