"They called him Psycho"
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| The 1962
Dallas Texans All-Stars. Top - David Webster, Cotton Davidson,
Abner Haynes. Bottom - E.J. Holub, Mel Branch, Bill Krisher,
Jon Gilliam, Sherrill Headrick, Paul Rochester, Chris Burford.
Sherrill Headrick was a Texan. Born in Waco in 1937,
Headrick attended North Side High School before taking his
gridiron talents to Texas Christian University. After
leaving TCU, Headrick had a short stint in the Canadian
Football League before he returned to Texas and began
working in an oil field.
When
the Dallas Texans were first signing players for their
initial training camp in 1960, Sherrill Headrick was one of
the men that they targeted. After surviving training camp
in Roswell, New Mexico, Headrick and settled into a
linebacker position with the Texans, from which he earned
All-AFL honors in his first three seasons.
Stories
abound of his high threshold for pain, which combined with
his intensity on the field earned Headrick the respect of
his teammates, and also a nickname. They called him
Psycho. Among the injuries sustained by Psycho that somehow
did not manage to put him on the sidelines – a broken neck,
infected gums and a fractured thumb. Once when he broke a
bone in his finger so badly that it was protruding from the
skin, he insisted that the trainer pop it back in and tape
it up so that he could continue playing.
Sherrill Headrick played eight seasons with the Dallas
Texans/Kansas City Chiefs before ending his career with the
Cincinnati Bengals, who drafted Headrick in the 1968 AFL
expansion draft. In 116 professional games, #69 recorded 15
interceptions, three of which he returned for touchdowns.
Sherrill Headrick was still a friend to fans and collectors
long after his retirement. So much so, that despite
suffering the ravages of cancer that would eventually take
his life on September 10, 2008, he continued to sign
autographs long after most people would have given up.
In
March of 2008, I sent a 1969 Topps card to Mr. Headrick with
a letter asking if he would please sign it for me. I had
not known that he was ill; if I had, I would not have
bothered him with the request. After learning of his
passing later that year, I figured that he had probably been
too ill to sign. As a cancer survivor myself, I knew
full-well how terribly you can feel while being treated for
the wretched disease. I had forgotten about the request
until March 16, 2009, when I received the card back,
autographed in Sherrill Headrick’s shaky hand. It speaks
volumes of Mr. Headrick that he would want to honor a fan’s
request, even feeling as poorly as he did. It also says
something about the quality of his family that they would
make sure that I received the card, after apparently finding
it several months after his passing.
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