The City of Greensboro and the state of North Carolina have lost a dynamic coach:Doug Henderson(Western Guilford HS) passed away last night

from a Facebook posting and at least two other sources and we hate to confirm it, but we have the news:
Sad news – Coach Doug Henderson(Western Guilford High School) passed away last night. Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers.

Coach of NCHSAA 1977 3-A Football State Champions
Stadium at Western Guilford named “Doug Henderson Stadium”
Western Guilford Sports Hall of Fame
Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame
North Carolina High School Sports Hall of Fame
Over 200 high school football coaching victories
His son Chuck is the head football coach at Lexington High School

We will be adding more on the legendary coach Doug Henderson as the morning moves on and we mourn his loss…..

Three sons Doug Jr. with Omega Sports, Chuck, the head coach at Lexington High School and his youngest son, whose name I do not remember(found the third son’s name and it was Robbie and he served in the military)…His wife worked in real estate sales for many year…I played for the man back in the day and I probably know that old Western Guilford football program from back in the 70’s as good as anybody that ever came through there and Doug Henderson made all of his players better football players because he implemented a very intense weight training program, the likes of which, I haven’t seen since….You might go in there to his program weighing 150 and come out of there weighing 200 pounds, and it would be pure muscle…The man knew how to challenge his players….Had a bit of a crafty approach to get you motivated, but his driving force to make you push, worked and it made you get better….

From the Henderson-era we still have old coaches like Bill Slayton(Southeast Guilford HS), Richard Kemp(Ragsdale HS/Southeast Guilford HS/High Point Central HS), C.K. Siler(Southern Guilford HS) and Marion Kirby(Page HS) still with us, but with the loss of Doug Henderson, the fraternity has lost one of its top members…

More on the “Old Ball Coach”, as the day goes on and I can tell you, he was every bit as tough as Steve Spurrier and I know that for a back…During Summer Football Camp at Western Guilford back in the day, we used to practice 4 times a day….I sometimes laugh when I hear kids today talking about how hard they are working….

Henderson got you working and you trained in that weight room three days a week, year round brother…If you bought in to what Doug Henderson was selling, you could take on any team from any town and you had a great chance to beat them, because you came in prepared…He was giving out weekly playbooks back in the 70’s to get you ready for your opponent that week and that playbook had your number on in and if you lost it, you may as well leave town…

Serious, that was Doug Henderson…Everything he did was serious and you better shape up around him or you would miss the train and I can tell you, you wanted to be on that train….Football, track, history classes, english classes, physical education classes, you want to make, the you better get in on the same game plan/floor plan as Doug Henderson, or you were not going to be able to pass the test…The class room test and the test of life….

RIP Doug Henderson and thoughts today go out to his family and his extended family from throughout the Guilford College Community….
*****We will try and get some our old Doug Henderson stories and have them up here on the site, later on today….This is sure a true time of reflection, with the loss of one of the most dynamic coaches to ever come through Guilford County…With Coach Henderson, you may not have wanted to do something the right or correct way, but he made you do it the right/correct way and you were better for it….

I’m sure many of the Western Guilford people from the past that knew Coach Henderson have a favorite Doug Henderson story and I think mine would be when I first got to meet him as a freshman at the school and it was the beginning of football practice back in the mid-to-early 70’s he asked me what my name was, and I said ‘Moose Durham’ which at the time, that was my name….And he said a bit gruffly, “Moose”, I will call you “Moose” when you show me something kid, and the next day at practice, Coach Henderson abruptly said, “Hey Moose get over here” and then my friends, I knew we were on the same page, or at least we were close to it…With Coach Henderson, you had to be on your guard at all times, and each day was a new mission, presented with new challenges…

Good days, as we say Goodbye to Doug Henderson, one of the greats that came through Guilford County….Now time to get back to our other missions, but more on the “Old Ball Coach” coming soon….

On Doug Henderson to the NCHSAA Hall of Fame:
Doug Henderson
Doug Henderson was an outstanding head coach in both football and track at several different stops. A graduate of Ellerbe High School (1955) and the University of North Carolina (1959), he started his coaching career in 1959 at Shalotte High School and coached in five different decades. He had additional coaching stints at Elizabethtown, East Bladen and Western Guilford. As a head football coach, Henderson saw his teams compile an overall mark of 216-102-5, including a mark of 107-47-3 at Western Guilford from 1972 through ’89. His 1977 Western Guilford team won the NCHSAA state 3-A championship. In addition, he had two different streaks of 40-plus consecutive dual meet victories as a track and field coach. Henderson is a former president of the North Carolina Coaches Association and helped to start the North Carolina Football Coaches Association, serving as its executive secretary from 1988 through 2003. He also served as a head coach in the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas, the NCCA East-West all-star game and the old North-South all-star game.

from GreensboroSports.com on Doug Henderson back in July of 2011:
Doug Henderson, who was the head football coach at Western Guilford for many years, is back in the news today, at the News and Record…..Coach Henderson, whose Hornets won the State 3-A Title back in 1977 and he coached the West to an All-Stars victory back in 1980, well the old coach has a son in the business and Chuck Henderson is an assistant for the West All-Stars in the big game, at Jamieson Stadium tonight….

Doug will be there and he’ll be proud of his son….I remember Dougie(Doug Jr. older than Chuck) and Chuckie back when they were around 3-4 years old, hanging around the gym, at the old Western Guilford High School….I’m sure a lot of other people from the old WG neighborhood remember those kids too…..I thought they had another brother, but I don’t remember his name(Rob or Robbie)….There were so many coaches kids running around that place, I can’t remember them all….Good kids and Chuck has done pretty well for himself in coaching, at Ledford and Asheboro High(and now at Lexington HS)…..

Coach Henderson used to drive up every day in that beige Volkswagon and we knew it was time to go work….Football was Henderson’s passion and he loved the University of North Carolina, his alma mater…

On Doug Henderson from July 20, 2014 with Joe Sirera at the News and Record:
Western to name stadium for Henderson

Western Guilford will honor former Hornets coach Doug Henderson by naming its football stadium for him in the fall.

Henderson will be honored at halftime of Western’s game with Southwest Guilford on Sept. 12, when the venue will be renamed Henderson Stadium. The playing field at Western Guilford was named for former coach and teacher Joe Robinson during a ceremony in October 2013.

Henderson coached the Hornets to the 1977 NCHSAA Class 3-A championship and served as head football coach, head track and field coach and athletics director from 1972 to ’89 at Western Guilford.

A North Carolina alumnus, he went 216-101-5 in a coaching career that included stops at Shallotte, Elizabethtown and East Bladen before he took over at Western Guilford. His track and field teams went 180-5 in dual and triangular meets.

Coaches that coached with Doug Henderson at Western Guilford High School:
Bill Hollifield
Charlie Griffin
Allen ‘Casey’ Jones
John Brooks
John Brown
Johnny Smith
Eddie Flinchum
Doug Smedburg
Chris Causey
Daniel Barrow
Brett Stell
Art Schoolfield
Joel McKenna
Fred Yadkin
Coach Wolfe
*****Probably some others we are leaving out…*****

6 thoughts on “The City of Greensboro and the state of North Carolina have lost a dynamic coach:Doug Henderson(Western Guilford HS) passed away last night

  1. What a leader and mentor he was! So many young lives he touched! Coach, Thanks for being our rock at Western Guilford!
    Bill Ahrens

  2. Another name that was back in the Western Guilford territory back in the Doug Henderson day and I don’t think he coached football, but I heard he was a pretty good fisherman, and that man was Bill Hunter…Coached girls basketball for a period of time at Western Guilford HS….Bill Hunter..

    Also hearing reports that Coach Doug Henderson died from a heart attack and suffered a near-death experience will attending a UNC-Notre Dame ball game earlier this season….

    Coach Henderson was a huge North Carolina Tar Heels man and he went there as a student and hung out with football team and learned from the coaches and hung so tight with that Tar Heel football team while he was at UNC that they gave Coach Henderson the nickname, ‘Tick”…

    “Tick” Henderson for hanging tight and learning from the UNC football team, while he was a student in Chapel Hill…..

  3. Thank-you much and we have added Rob/Robbie Henderson to the mix and he is in as Mr. Henderson’s third son…

    Thanks

    AD

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