Henley was born on September 24, 1936, in West Point, Mississippi, where he graduated from West Point High School in 1955. He served two years in the United States Marine Corps, where he played football for Camp LeJeune. He attended the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he was captain of the 1961 Chattanooga Moccasins football team. In 1962, he played in one game in the American Football League (AFL) for the Buffalo Bills on September 30 against the Dallas Texans. Henley died on April 15, 2013.
