Patrick Henry was a former student here at Flour Bluff High School. He was kind enough to donate his own letterman and tell us the story behind it. 

Henry wanted to showcase his legacy behind the jacket. He was a track star in his time back then. He always said his legs were never tall or long enough until the coaches taught him how to jump hurdles. Once his coaches inspired him to learn how to jump hurdles he won almost every single race. 

Henry would always compete with his brother in sports and always be fierce and ready to fight Calallen. His greatest achievements in all the sports he played was track.

“I won many medals and ribbons when we would run against Gregory-Portland and many other big schools,” said Henry.

When Henry delivered his letterman here, one of the coaches recognized the jacket and was able to give him a call to come down and check out the new colored football field. When he came down to the field lots of memories came back to him in an instant. The coach asked him to take pictures at the new football field to relive his moments.

“When I arrived at the football field I wondered if they still had my old jersey,” said Henry.

One of the coaches was able to find his jersey and let him wear it with a football in his hand to take pictures and relive the moment. 

When Henry was looking back all around the practice field he remembered that where the team practices now is the exact place where he practiced.

“I remember there used to be nothing there and I remembered during spring practice they used to put some of the cotton seeds all around the field. So I asked why they would do that and they told me it makes the field softer and easier to play on,” said Henry.

When Henry was playing, he remembers that the class then wasn’t so big. The varsity football team only had 15 players on the team and had to play both sides of offense and defense every game. 

“When we would play against big schools like Calallen it was very hard playing on both sides of the field and most people didn’t know that at the time, ” said Henry. “We were such a small school we were only a 2A district and by the end of my high school career we got bumped up to 3A”

Henry felt very comfortable knowing that the community is growing. He is proud of how the schooling here is taken care of by our amazing principal and school board. 

“It takes courage and determination that all of these people want to make sure that all you kids are taken care of,” said Henry.

Patrick Henry’s letterman jacket is located at the front office of Flour Bluff High School. Please feel free to stop by and recognize the hard work and story behind this piece of history.