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First practice in Miami

Miami — Of all people, Marcus Henry spent much of his childhood being mentioned alongside bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger.

For being one of the skinniest players on Kansas University's football team, such a comparison is a little strange.

But it's Henry's other half who might get the blame for this one. Marcus is three minutes older than his twin brother, Maurice. And with all of the wild quirks that can show up through simple biology, the story of Marcus and Maurice Henry is a pretty extreme case.

Marcus, you see, is 6-foot-4. Maurice is 5-8.

That's an eight-inch difference - a few phonebooks stacked on top of one another.

"(Friends) always compared us to the movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger," Maurice said with a chuckle.

That would be "Twins," a 1988 comedy flick starring the giant Schwarzenegger and the height-challenged Danny DeVito.

Both of the Henry brothers find the enormous height difference amusing. They've lived with it most of their lives, from being best buddies in high school to spending two years apart for college and now being reunited again.

The two are now teammates at KU, both preparing for very different roles in the Jan. 3 Orange Bowl against Virginia Tech.

Marcus is the star wide receiver, a fast and gangly playmaker who has 994 receiving yards and nine touchdowns for the 11-1 Jayhawks.

Maurice, meanwhile, spent two years at junior college before joining the Jayhawks as a walk-on cornerback in 2006.

He's not expected to play in the Orange Bowl, but it doesn't take away from the fun these two twins - yeah, they are twins - are having back together. It's just like old times.

"I think it's helped out a lot," Marcus said. "Just knowing that he is up here with me and we can hang out together and stuff like that."

Biological quirk

Marcus and Maurice - like Schwarzenegger's and DeVito's characters - are fraternal twins, born three minutes apart on Feb. 21, 1986.

That basically means they were two separate eggs fertilized at the same time. By contrast, identical twins are a single egg at the onset before dividing into two separate embryos.

Fraternal twins are much more common and basically result in two siblings who just happen to be the same age. Their DNA isn't any more similar than, say, brothers born two years apart.

One look at Marcus and Maurice Henry is all the proof one needs of that. The twins' mother, Rhonda, knew she was expecting fraternal twins before they were born and knew that at least one was going to be a boy. It was a pleasant surprise to go with older daughter Raechelle.

But who knew that Marcus and Maurice would be built so unique? When they were born, they were just one inch apart - Marcus at 19 inches, Maurice at 18.

Slowly, they started to grow up very differently. It was obvious from the time they were tykes.

"I was chubbier," Maurice deadpanned.

The two stayed within a couple of inches of each other throughout their elementary-school days, though Marcus never relinquished the upper height.

Then, seventh grade came along. And Marcus pretty much became a bean stalk.

"He started growing," Maurice said. "After seventh grade, he was about 6 feet tall and I was about 5-4."

Quiet and athletic

By the time both enrolled at Eisenhower High in Lawton, Okla., they looked nothing like twins. But the two did have some similarities that reminded many of their closeness.

For one, they both were strikingly quiet (Mom says it's from Dad's side). But more than that, they were really good athletes.

Marcus, who is five inches taller than even his father, Greg, was a standout basketball player at Eisenhower. Maurice didn't play, in part because of his shortness.

But the two stood out together as football players and sprinters on the track team. Both ran legs on Eisenhower's 400-meter relay team, and each ran the 100-meter dash.

So the perfect question is posed to two competitive brothers: Who's faster?

"I think I might be, but I don't know," Maurice said with a laugh. "It's real close."

Maurice may have the slight edge in speed, but it was Marcus who turned into the football star. After his senior season at Eisenhower, Marcus was named all-state and was given an automatic invitation to the Oklahoma All-State game the summer after graduation.

By this point, Marcus and Maurice had planned to go together to Northeastern Oklahoma, a junior college across the state in Miami. Neither had been offered by any Division-I school.

That changed when Marcus had a big showing in the summer exhibition, catching eight balls for 156 yards and a touchdown. Tape of that game ended up in the hands of KU coach Mark Mangino, who had an extra scholarship available for such an occasion.

"After the All-State game, coach Mangino called me and asked me to come up here," Marcus said. "That was maybe two days after the All-State game. Within a week, I was already up here getting ready for practice."

Maurice went to NEO as planned, the two suddenly separated for what amounted to two years. Marcus' change of plans was met with anxiety by those close to them, but with a smile by Maurice.

"I wasn't worried that they couldn't survive," Rhonda said. "It's just that they had never been apart.

"I did ask Maurice (if he was OK). He said it didn't bother him at all."

Reunited

While Marcus skipped a red shirt and immediately added depth to KU's receiving fleet, Maurice was at NEO for two years, red-shirting one of them.

During that time, the two talked on the phone almost every day. Near the end of the second year apart, Maurice brought up the idea of walking on at Kansas to join his brother.

Marcus liked the thought.

"I talked to the coaches about him coming up," Marcus said, "and they said they'd be happy to have him up here."

If nothing else, it makes it easy for the parents - especially since older sister Raechelle, now 26, lives in nearby Lenexa with her husband.

"We're up there quite a bit," Rhonda said.

And even back home in Oklahoma, they see quite a bit of their boys these days. With Kansas racing to its best season in school history, the media have hopped on the bandwagon. Kansas has been all over national television and regional newspapers.

One of the big highlights shown continuously, of course, is Marcus' 82-yard touchdown reception at Oklahoma State on Nov. 10, where he caught a slant pass, slipped past three defenders, juked a fourth and out-sprinted the rest. It was a huge play in the Jayhawks' 43-28 victory that helped them improve to an unprecedented 10-0.

Maurice watched it unfold last month. And while he's not in the spotlight himself, a jolt of pride rushed through his body.

"It's real exciting," Maurice said. "I always knew he could do that kind of stuff."

Of course he did. Twins, whether identical or phonebooks apart, always know best.