"Bumpy" - Richard "Bumpy" Henlon (Lion Youth, Village and Wadadah)

Richard "Bumpy" Henlon is the brother of Anita "Nita" Belnavis, the famous Table Tennis player, and that gives him the right to say "Ky-mani Marley is my nephew". He is also the youngest player to grace the NPL at the tender age of 13-14 up to the time when this article was going to press. He did so in the 1977-78 season with Village

In the early seventies, it was a rarity to see a short footballer on the football field. During this period, the wilderness years, for short players, were boys like Charles "Joe Grine" Miller, Leroy "Esto" Anderson, and Junior "Dynamo" Granville. Richard, Junior, Leroy, and Charles have a lot in common; the four youngsters were team-mates at Lion Youth and the under 14 team under the guidance of "Pinky" Smith (Bumpy’s brother) and Neville Glanville (Chairman JFF) respectively.

Neville Glanville
(Bumpy's coach at Lion Youth)

Born on Cornwall Street in Falmouth, Richard, like most present-day footballers, came up through the schoolboy ranks. His performances in those early days were so impressive that Village and then Wadadah of St. James immediately snapped him up.

Village was most of the time relying on Bumpy’s trickery and pace to win or turn a match for them. His obvious skills were exposed to thousand when he represented Village in the National Premier League.

Bumpy, as his friends know him, maintained steady progress, which saw him in the Jamaica Juvenile Team.

Bumpy was destined for one of the top St. James clubs under the watchful eyes of Gene Grey, the Wadadah manager. Joining Wadadah was probably the best to happen to the 19-year-old centre forward. Some Village fans accused Bumpy of lack of loyalty, but his achievement with Wadadah showed Bumpy had a wise head on young shoulders.

Bumpy for his part was always nagging at defenders with embarrassing regularity, his power, pace, acceleration and all-round skill was a sight to behold. Bumpy is not blessed with the greatest physical presence; the gods have bestowed upon him numerous skills and an abundance of natural ability to create havoc in the opposition’s defence line; added to that are feet which travel at enormous speed.

With so much being said about player not tall enough to play on the forward line Bumpy should be exempt from criticism. He is most definitely a player’s player. Playing football was always easy for this youngster with his distinctive height.

Gene Grey
(Managed Bumpy at Wadadah)