Former Dallas Cowboys star says he has winning $28 million lottery ticket

Michael Holmes

Friday, March 24, 2000 | 11:57 a.m.

AUSTIN, Texas - Former Dallas Cowboys football player Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson says he's scored a really big win - a $28 million lottery ticket.

Texas Lottery officials today said they're waiting to see him with the ticket.

"He hasn't called in with an inquiry, so until that happens we're kind of at a standstill," lottery spokeswoman Kristina Childress said shortly before 9 a.m.

Henderson, who played college football at Langton in Langston, Okla., said he purchased the winning ticket in Wednesday night's Lotto Texas drawing at an Austin pharmacy. The former Cowboys linebacker, who played in three Super Bowls, says he already knows how he'll spend some of the money.

He also said he wasn't certain when he would claim his winnings.

"I'm going to take everything under advisement. I'm not in any hurry. I've got plenty of money already," Henderson said this morning.

"I am just going to continue to do the charities that I do, take care of my children and buy my momma a Town Car," he told The Associated Press late Thursday.

Henderson has had his share of bad luck.

Earlier this year, he wanted to run for an Austin City Council seat but the secretary of state's office said he would be ineligible to run unless he received a pardon or his criminal record was otherwise cleared.

Henderson was arrested in California in 1983 after smoking crack cocaine with two teen-age girls. Police said he threatened the girls with a .38-caliber pistol, sexually assaulted one of them and held them against their will. Henderson served 28 months in jail.

Henderson said he wouldn't seek a pardon and that when he filed the preliminary paperwork with the city clerk, no one told him that his criminal record would be a problem.

Since being released from prison, he has spent most of his time helping others fight addictions and doing community service in East Austin, where he grew up.

At lottery headquarters, Childress said Henderson would be treated like any other winner.

He must give the ticket with the right six numbers -- 5, 8, 17, 35, 38 and 41 -- to lottery security officials, who will verify it. "He'll go through the same thing that any of the other claimants go through," Childress said.

Henderson said he bought $100 worth of lottery tickets earlier this week when he went to the drugstore to pick up some medicine.

Henderson, who played for the Cowboys from 1975 until 1979, said he doesn't normally play the lottery until the jackpot gets above $20 million.

"I probably have spent several thousand dollars a year on lottery tickets," he told the Austin American-Statesman, adding that the amount totaled $20,000 over 10 years.

Henderson has become well-known for his community activism in Austin. In 1997, he gained attention when he fasted in an effort to raise funds for a running track in low-income East Austin.

Henderson said he is going to spend money for improvements to the athletic field. The work will include adding hurdles, building a storage space and remodeling the fieldhouse.

"Nothing will change except that I will be able to do more of the work I think is important for the underprivileged youth of East Austin," Henderson said.

Henderson is a graduate of the old Anderson High School in East Austin, which was torn down for a parking lot. Henderson bought it and used community contributions to convert the parking lot into a football field.

In an interview today with Dallas television station KDFW, Henderson was reflective about his latest success.

"Well, you know it feels pretty good this time around," he said. "I thought I was a millionaire in 1975 when I got drafted by the Cowboys at a time when I was a successful athlete but I didn't quite know how to handle success, so 16 years later after - I've been sober now for 16 years - and I'm more in a better position now to handle success than I was as a young man."