Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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where have you gone? Craig Hentrich, 1989-92 Kicker/Punter NFL veteran starts next career as a custom furniture maker By Dan Murphy C raig Hentrich's right foot helped steer him to a degree at Notre Dame. It led him to a 17-year career in the NFL and helped him become the first punter in league history to sign a million-dollar contract. It put a roof over his head and the heads of his wife and three children. So when Hentrich's days on the football field finally came to an end, he decided to give his foot a break. He wanted to work with his hands. Three years after Hentrich retired from the Tennessee Titans, his second career as a custom furniture builder is starting to pick up steam. He and his wife, Lisa, own and operate the Hen House Co-Op from their garage/ workshop on the outskirts of Nashville, Tenn. The idea for the business first started shortly after Hentrich moved into his new house a couple years ago, when he decided he wanted to try to fill it with creations of his own. "I've always wanted to learn the different trades of building. My dad was a really good handyman and actually built the house that we lived in and they still live in," he said. "I'm the kind of person that can't do the same thing every day. I needed to find something new to do, a new challenge. "This was a good challenge. It really lets your mind wander and your imagination go wild." Most of Hentrich's projects start with scavenger hunts in the area for unique old items that stir his imagination. He likened the experience to a smaller-scale version of the popular History Channel show "American Pickers," where the co-hosts scour collectors' shops and hoarders' garages in search of dustcollecting pieces of Americana. He takes his treasures back to the expanding workshop in his garage where he tries to "upcycle" them into useful furniture with a fun backstory. Hentrich, who claims he was never much of a garage tinkerer prior to retirement, said his carpentry skills have improved steadily in the past two years while he has tried to take on new projects. Recently, he hollowed the musical guts out of an upright piano built in 1917 and turned it into a welldisguised serving bar. On another hunt, he found a system of pulley wheels from a 19th century corn mill and turned them into a table. "I'm really kind of finding my stride right now," he said. "It's taken a good year to kind of form a brand and make our pieces more recognizable than everyone else's. In the last six months or so it's started booming and it's getting to be a lot of fun." Occasionally Hentrich will bump into a Titans fan that recognizes him