Charlie Hennigan

Who is Charlie Hennigan?

Charles Taylor Hennigan, Sr., known as Charlie Hennigan, is a retired American football player with the former Houston Oilers who resides in Shreveport, Louisiana. Born in Bienville in Bienville Parish in north Louisiana, Hennigan grew up in nearby Minden, the seat of Webster Parish, located thirty miles east of Shreveport. His father, Clarence Roland Hennigan, was still a sheriff's deputy when he died at the age of eighty-seven.

His mother, Lura E. Hennigan, was a Pentecostal minister, piano teacher, and artist. She wrote a regular column entitled "The Abundant Life" for the Minden Press-Herald.

Hennigan graduated in 1953 from Minden High School, where he excelled in football, basketball, and track as well as academics.

Minden, a small city, produced other successful athletes too, including David Allen Lee, the punter for the Baltimore Colts from 1966–1978, and Fred Haynes, the holder of many football records as the quarterback at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge during the late 1960s.

Hennigan attended LSU on a track scholarship but wanted to play football. He therefore transferred to Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, where he became the star of the team. In 1960, he joined the American Football League's Houston Oilers in the team's first year of operation. Prior to joining the Oilers, he had taught high school biology at a salary of some $2,700 per year. He kept his teacher pay stub in his helmet to remind him that he must succeed in pro athletes.