Year in and year out, a feel-good story about an older-than-the-norm college football player grabs the hearts and minds of fans across the country.
Be it 61 year old Vietnam Vet and Faulkner University place kicker Alan Moore in 2011, or 32-year-old active-duty Navy SEAL Tom Hruby walking on at Northwestern in 2014, these men are players you want to root for for no other reason than you want to see them live out a dream.
Enter 55 year old South Carolina State walk-on running back Joe Thomas Sr.
Yes, you read that correctly, 55 years old.
Thomas, a sharecropper’s son who was a former star linebacker and fullback at Blackville(S.C.) High School initially entered South Carolina State as a student alongside his son — walk on linebacker and current Green Bay Packer Joe Thomas Jr.
As many people whose glory years have passed, Thomas Sr. still felt the itch to play. He also longed to make his mark on college football.
In an interview with David Gardner of CampusRush, Thomas Sr. goes in depth about his motivation and drive to succeed and leave his legacy. He isn’t lacking for confidence either, producing this gem of a quote within the first two paragraphs:
“I believe that if the coaches looked past my age and just let me play football,” he says, “I’d steal someone’s position.”
While this is certainly a feel-good story, Thomas Sr. is already a college senior (no pun intended). With only two games left in the South Carolina State season it doesn’t look promising that he will make history.
Despite this, we refuse to stop rooting for Thomas Sr. to make history and definitely plan on tuning in as SC State makes its final push.