Chadron State College Athletics

Hendrickson is probably best remembered as a left-handed pitcher who signed with the Milwaukee Braves during a tryout camp in Rushville. Before hurting his arm in a motorcycle mishap, Hendrickson was a rising star in the Braves’ farm system.
He had a 24-8 record, including three victories in playoffs at Lawton, Okla., in 1955. That season he pitched 39 consecutive scoreless innnings and went 75 innings without permitting an earned run.  He had an 11-2 record the next year at Evansville, Ill., and then really drew attention in the spring of 1957 while pitching against the Yankees in an exhibition game.  That’s when he struck out Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Bill Skowran in the same inning and fanned Tony Kubek and Hank Bauer later in the game.
Later in the spring, he gave up just one hit during three innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers, but after giving up two homers in a game at Chatanooga, he was sent back to the minors. After the motorcycle incident he pitched for Braves’ minor league teams a couple more years but not as effectively as before. Altogether, he played seven years of pro baseball.
A graduate of Gering High School, Hendrickson never played baseball at Chadron State, but was an excellent guard for the basketball teams in the late 1950s. He scored 860 points during his career, which was cut short a couple of seasons because he had to report to spring training in February. Hendrickson averaged 12.5 points as a junior and 15.8 as a senior. Both ranked second on the team to his backcourt partner, Jim Hampton.
After teaching and coaching at Morrill for nine years, he spent 24 years as a coach and activities director at Kimball before retiring in 1996. He is a past president of the Nebraska Athletic Directors Association. His wife is the former Gayle Babue, a Chadron native.