Alan Moore Becomes Oldest College Football Player On Record At Age 61

Forty-two years after the Vietnam War ended his athletic and academic career prematurely, a 61-year-old veteran and grandfather of five has become the oldest college football player on record.

As Second Act is reporting, Alan Moore has returned to the game of his youth as the placekicker at Faulkner University in Montgomery, Ala., where he is "having a blast" staying in the athletic dorm and "living the life of a student athlete."

Moore, who worked in the construction business for decades after his war service, told the Associated Press felt inspired to re-join the game after taking in a Jones College game while visiting his grandchildren in Mississippi. While noting that returning to football "wasn't a dream or anything," Moore went on to note, "Their kicker wasn't doing well that night, and I just joked to some people that I thought I could kick for them the next year."

Though Jones College wasn't interested, a coach at Holmes Community College in Mississippi felt differently. "It piqued my curiosity so I set up a time for [Moore] to come kick for me," Danny Robertson is quoted by The Birmingham News as saying. "He did a good job. I told him we only had one kicker coming back, and if he wanted to earn a spot with us, we would welcome him to two-a-days. He showed up here, and things have worked out for him."

After his stint at Holmes, Moore transferred to Faulkner (a four-year institution) where he opened the football season Sept. 10. "It's not about me, and it's not about being old," Moore -- who replaces Austin College's Tom Thompson as the oldest NCAA football player to get in a game, according to College Football Hall of Fame historian Kent Stephens -- is quoted as saying. Though many of his mates jokingly call him Moses, Old School and Grandpa, Moore takes those nicknames in stride. "It's about the team," he notes.

Watch the AP interview with Moore below: