He and his buddies would walk three miles down from his house to watch minor league baseball games.
[1]: 17 In his entire four years of high school, he earned fourteen letters in football, basketball, baseball, and track.
[1]: 18 Henderson was drafted by the Chicago Cubs after his senior year of high school, but he chose to sign a football scholarship with the Georgia Bulldogs.
Jimmy Carter, Lester Maddox, Carl Sanders, and Vince Dooley to ensure his program would be successful.
When this change came about he hired a man named Don Richardson, from one of the black schools, to be the head basketball coach.
Henderson decided that he made the right move because the basketball team won six state titles and a national championship in 1978.
[1]: 94 He received a job at Mount de Sales Academy, a Catholic school, where he was assistant football and won two state baseball championships.
This was when Henderson won his first state title game as a head coach against Valdosta 16-14 following a tragic summer death of one of his players.
Coach Henderson won his first state championship in 1977 against Valdosta, who was led by quarterback Buck Belue.
Prior to retirement, Coach Henderson had been invited by Aubrey Hammack to appear on several television shows that were produced by Cox Cable in Macon and it was during that time that the first book was begun.
In May 2011, Aubrey Hammack published the book, The Winning Edge Lessons From Billy Henderson, which was well received.
Hammack had started assisting Johnny Reynolds of Athens, GA in writing the first book but at that time it was not completed.
Henderson went out to elementary schools giving pep talks trying to encourage kids to play football.
[5] The Hall of Fame first inducted an African American male named Pleas Starks, a longtime water boy for UGA.
One player told Henderson he wanted to thank him for teaching him how to shake a hand properly and to look someone in the eyes while talking to them.
[1]: 125 Coach Henderson allowed one of his football players, who was having some difficulties, to move in with his family at Willingham.
In the 60s according to Aubrey Hammack in his book, The Winning Edge Lessons From Billy Henderson 2011.,[8] Coach Henderson's final record with Clarke Central alone was 222-65-1 and he had an overall record of 285-107-15 which made him one of the most successful coaches in Georgia high school history.