60-year-old Stage 4 Cancer Survivor is now working to become the oldest active college football player ever

t’s rare to get a true second chance in life, but Tom Green is making the most of his.

At 60 years old, the Carroll County resident is stepping into a world most people experience decades earlier: college. Not only is he attending for the first time, but he’s also competing on the football field alongside teammates less than half his age.

During an early morning spring practice at McDaniel College, the Division III Green Terror ran through conditioning and light contact drills. Wearing No. 72, Green kept pace with the rest of the team, matching them in effort and intensity despite the significant age gap. A freshman majoring in political science, he joined the team as a walk-on and now plays on the defensive line.

The team’s requirements are straightforward, players must be full-time students and fully committed to showing up and putting in the work each day. Age isn’t a factor.

Green, who owns a wooden pallet business in Littlestown, Pennsylvania, never had the chance to attend college when he was younger. He did, however, spend time playing semi-professional football. In 2015, his life took a dramatic turn when he was diagnosed with Stage IV kidney cancer. Against the odds, he survived.

Now, years later, he’s chasing something new: a spot in the record books as the oldest person to ever play college football in the United States.