Jerome Wayne "Jerry" Hendren (November 4, 1947 – February 26, 2018) was an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

player, a wide receiver who played one season in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL), with the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC West, West division. The team is headquartered in E ...

Early years

Born and raised in

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the most populous city in eastern Washington and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It lies along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south o ...

, Hendren graduated from Shadle Park High School and played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

at the

University of Idaho The University of Idaho (U of I, or UIdaho) is a public land-grant research university in Moscow, Idaho, United States. Established in 1889 and opened three years later, it was the state's sole university for 71 years, until 1963. The un ...

He led the NCAA in 1969 in both receptions (95) and receiving yards Hendren also led the nation in 1968 in receptions (86) and receiving touchdowns (14). He was recruited to Idaho under head coach

Steve Musseau Stephen Joseph Musseau Jr. (July 15, 1923 – December 28, 1997) was an American football coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Idaho for three seasons, from 1965 to 1967, compiling a record of 13–17. Following coachi ...

; took over in

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

and emphasized the After the

1969 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...

season, Hendren played in five collegiate all-star games, including the

East–West Shrine Game East West (or East and West) may refer to: *East–West dichotomy, the contrast between Eastern and Western society or culture Arts and entertainment Books, journals and magazines *'' East, West'', an anthology of short stories written by Salm ...

, the the and the

College All-Star Game The Chicago Charities College All-Star Game was a preseason American football game played from 1934 to 1976 between the National Football League (NFL) champions and a team of star college seniors from the previous year. It was also known as the ...

in late July. He caught five passes in the ten in the and the city of Moscow honored him with and a key to

Denver Broncos

Selected in the

fourth round Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'', a 1972 Soviet drama ...

of the

1970 NFL draft The 1970 NFL draft was the 35th National Football League draft and the first of the league's modern era, following the merger of the National Football League with the American Football League. It was held on January 27–28, 1970, at the Belmont ...

, Hendren was signed by the Broncos in and he appeared in ten games for the Broncos in , principally on special teams, with eight kick returns for during his second training camp in

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

resulted in

After football

After his pro football career, Hendren coached then had a long career in law enforcement; his father Wayne was a police officer in Spokane and was the city's chief of police for a decade Hendren worked for the

Spokane County Spokane County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, its population was 539,339, making it the fourth-most populous county in Washington. The largest city and county seat is Spokane, the second largest c ...

sheriff’s department for 29 years: eleven years as a patrol deputy, seven years as an undercover officer, and eleven years as an investigator. Thomas is a captain in the Spokane Police In 2013, Hendren was selected by the

Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference is a List of NCAA conferences, collegiate athletic conference, affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I with college football, football competing in the Football Cha ...

42nd on the conference's list of "50 Greatest Male He was a charter member of the University of Idaho Athletics Hall of Fame Hendren died at age 70 in 2018.

References

External links

University of Idaho Athletics
– Hall of Fame – Jerry Hendren
''Gem of the Mountains:'' 1969 University of Idaho yearbook
– 1968 football season * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hendren, Jerry 1947 births 2018 deaths American football wide receivers Idaho Vandals football players Denver Broncos players Players of American football from Spokane, Washington

Early years

Denver Broncos

After football

See also

References

External links