Doug Henderson was an outstanding head coach in both football and track at several different stops. A graduate of Ellerbe High School (1955) and the University of North Carolina (1959), he started his coaching career in 1959 at Shallotte High School and coached in five different decades. He had additional coaching stints at Elizabethtown, East Bladen and Western Guilford. As a head football coach, Henderson saw his teams compile an overall mark of 216-102-5, including a mark of 107-47-3 at Western Guilford from 1972 through '89. His 1977 Western Guilford team won the NCHSAA state 3-A championship. In addition, he had two different streaks of 40-plus consecutive dual meet victories as a track and field coach. Henderson is a former president of the North Carolina Coaches Association and helped to start the North Carolina Football Coaches Association, serving as its executive secretary from 1988 through 2003. He also served as a head coach in the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas, the NCCA East-West all-star game and the old North-South all-star game.