West Texas boy meets namesake, former NFL player during little league game in Waco

WACO, Texas (KWTX) – An 11-year-old boy from West Texas named Carder got a chance to meet his namesake, former NFL player and TCU All-American linebacker Tank Carder, in an almost unbelievable set of circumstances that played out in Waco on a little league baseball field.

Carder McClymond was with his team from Breckenridge in which his dad, Luke, helps coach, competing in the Little League sectionals tournament at Midway’s Granger Complex in Hewitt.

Sectionals is the tournament before the state tournament and only four teams qualified to compete in Central Texas, with Breckenridge being one and Fort Worth’s Westside Little League being another.

Luke took note of a player from Fort Worth’s jersey.

“I saw a tall lanky kid who looked like he was 5′7″ already at around 10-years-old and he had Carder, just like we spell it, across the back,” Luke said.

“And I said, ‘hey kid, your last name is Carder? He says, ‘yes, sir.’ And I asked, ‘and you’re from Fort Worth?’ ‘Yes sir.’ And I asked, ‘Is Tank your daddy?’ ‘Yes sir.’ I said, ‘where’s he at?’”

Luke attended TCU and was a huge fan of All-American linebacker Tank Carder.

It was when he was watching Tank Play on television, he had an idea he shared with his pregnant wife, Chelsey.

Carder McClymond with his family and team(Courtesy Photos)

“We were watching a football game one night, and Luke looked over at me and said, ‘if we are having another boy, we are naming him Carder.’ We saw Carder on the back of the jersey and saw it was spelled different. We loved it. “I loved that name,” Chelsey said. “I agreed to it.”

The family, however, never dreamed they’d meet Tank, especially, in an unplanned moment like this.

Luke walked his son Carder over to the batting cages to meet his namesake.

“I walked up and said, ‘hey, Tank. My name is Luke McClymond and we went to college together,’ and I said, ‘I’d like to introduce you to my boy Carder.’ And Carder stepped up and he shook his hand and I said, ‘I just wanted you to know we named Carder after you,’ and he and Carder both thought that was such a special moment.”

Little Carder was thrilled with meeting Tank and getting a baseball autographed, something he never dreamed he’d do.

Tank Carder and Carder McClymond (right)(Courtesy Photos)

“It was something that I really thought that I’d never get to do, and I thought he was still in the NFL and now that I’ve played against him and met him in real life and taken a picture. I can say that he’s one of the nicest people in the world I’ve ever met and his son, Kolt.”

Breckenridge later played Westside, putting Carder, Tank Carder and Tank’s son, Kolt, all on the same field at the same time.

Carder’s mom snapped a few pictures of her son playing catcher while Kolt was up to bat and Tank was on the field coaching.

“It’s crazy that 11 years later, the same month that he was born and we named him that, that he was able to meet Tank Carder in person and play on the same baseball field as his son,” Chelsey said.

Breckenridge ended up being eliminated after losing to Westside.

Cater’s family, however, left Waco with a lifetime of memories, not only meeting Tank, but being the first 11-year-old Little League baseball team from Breckenridge to make it this far in the Little League tournament since the 1980s.