![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1757356458_865_960x0.jpg\")
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Sul Ross State linebacker Mike Flynt sits in the stands before a college football game against Texas Lutheran, Saturday, Oct. 13, 2007, in Alpine, Texas. Flynt, 59, is playing linebacker, 37 years after he last played for the Lobos. (AP Photo\/Matt Slocum)<\/p>\n
Copyright 2007 AP. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n
During the summer of 2007, Hollywood producer Mark Ciardi was sitting in his office when he came across an article in the Los Angeles Times on Mike Flynt, a 59-year-old who had recently made the football team at Sul Ross State University in west Texas. Flynt was once a captain and starting linebacker at Sul Ross, but he was kicked out of school before his senior season in 1971 for his involvement in a fight. He always regretted the way his career ended, so he decided to return to school decades later after attending a reunion and having former teammates tell him he should give football another shot.<\/p>\n
Ciardi, a former professional baseball pitcher, had produced a few major sports film and thought Flynt\u2019s story would make an ideal movie. As such, he got in touch with Flynt and traveled to Sul Ross, which is in Alpine, Texas, about 375 miles west of San Antonio and 90 miles from the Mexico border. That weekend, after meeting Flynt and his coaches, teammates and wife, Ciardi reached an agreement with Flynt to seek a movie about his life.<\/p>\n
Now, nearly 18 years later, Flynt\u2019s story is finally hitting the big screen. On Sept. 19, the movie, \u201cThe Senior,\u201d will be released in theaters nationwide.<\/p>\n
\u201cMike got a look into the film business,\u201d said Ciardi, laughing. \u201cSome things take a while to come together.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cTime doesn\u2019t always matter. These become evergreen, whether it happened in 2007 or present day. These stories resonate.\u201d<\/p>\n
After retiring from baseball in 1987, the year he pitched<\/a> in four games for the Milwaukee Brewers, Ciardi spent the next decade working in other industries before moving to Los Angeles in the late 1990s. At the time, he had friends in the movie business, and he thought he would give producing a shot, possibly in comedies or thrillers. But his first big break came in 2002 with the release of \u201cThe Rookie,\u201d a film he produced about Jim Morris, a former teammate who made his Major League Baseball debut at age 35.<\/p>\n In 2004, Ciardi produced \u201cMiracle,\u201d a movie about the U.S. hockey team that won the gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics. Two years later, he produced \u201cInvincible,\u201d a film about Vince Papale, who made his National Football League debut at age 30 despite having never played in college.<\/p>\n When Ciardi met Flynt in 2007, he envisioned Flynt\u2019s story serving as \u201cthe trilogy of second-chance\u201d sports movies alongside \u201cThe Rookie\u201d and \u201cInvincible.\u201d Flynt, though, hadn\u2019t given any thought about becoming a national story when he decided to return to Sul Ross. Still, when he told members of his church in Franklin, Tenn., that he would try out for the team, they had a different reaction.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople came up to me afterwards and were saying there\u2019s going to be a book and there’s going to be a movie,\u201d Flynt said. \u201cAnd I was thinking, \u2018Who cares about an old man going back to play college football?\u2019 I didn’t get it. I didn’t see where there was going to be any interest. It was never on my radar at all.\u201d<\/p>\n A book about Flynt, also titled \u201cThe Senior,\u201d was published in 2008 shortly after Flynt\u2019s season ended. He had only appeared in a few games and played on special teams for an NCAA Division III program that finished with a 5-5 record. He didn\u2019t have any tackles or any<\/a> other statistics, but his age and background clicked with people.<\/p>\n After getting kicked out of Sul Ross in 1971, Flynt worked as a strength and conditioning coach over the next decade with Nebraska, Oregon and Texas A&M and then spent more than 25 years in the fitness industry while living in Tennessee and raising his three children. He had stayed in top shape throughout his 40s and 50s and was 5-foot-10 and 195 pounds when he made the team in 2007, about the same height and weight he was three decades earlier. And he felt he could have an impact on younger teammates.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew that there was nothing that I could do to change the past and that regret that I had, but I felt like I could change the meaning of the past,\u201d Flynt said. \u201cIf I were to help a bunch of young guys, I could substitute it for those guys I let down all those years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n Through the years, Ciardi said there were about 20 times when he thought a movie on Flynt\u2019s life would come to fruition, only to be left disappointed but determined.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say (to Flynt), \u2018I\u2019m telling you this thing’s going to get made. I can’t tell you how long, but I won’t give up on it,\u2019\u201d Ciardi said.<\/p>\n