On Coach Deion Sanders's insistence that HBCU's did not recruit him back in the day
The Friday Flashpoints
As I have written many times before, I have been a HUGE fan of Deion "Primetime" Sanders ever since he was a dominant college football star at Florida State University during my middle and high school years. Over the past year, I have watched with great interest and admiration as Coach Prime has quickly turned around a storied Jackson State University football program, one with four NFL Hall of Fame members, and has the Tigers in first place heading towards the stretch run of the SWAC championship race. Further, I have lauded and fully support his efforts to raise awareness about HBCU's, and I surely believe that whether he stays at Jackson State for four years or forty, that his media savvy and presence will be a net positive for what is becoming a renaissance of Black College sports.
That said, it still puzzles me when Coach Prime tells the media that "no HBCUs recruited me." That statement is false, as will be shown in today’s blog, but Sanders says it so much that it has made legions of his admirers who are hesitant to criticize him believe that it is true!
Now, you may be wondering, "why does Coach Prime say that no HBCU recruited him if he knows that's false?" The only thing I can deduce is that Coach is marketing himself as doing something that Black Colleges didn't do until he arrived in Mississippi, which is to go after the most sought after Black athletes in America. While there is some truth to this overall point, which includes my discussions with several personal friends from the Tallahassee metro area who went on to become college, NFL, and NBA stars despite not being heavily recruited by Florida A&M University in the late 80s and early 90's, when it comes to Sanders, that was not the case according to legendary former FAMU Coach Rudy Hubbard.
For those unaware, Coach Hubbard, like Sanders, is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame due to his 11-year stint at FAMU, one that included his Rattlers winning the Black College National Championship in 1977—and the inaugural NCAA Division I-AA (now FCS) championship in 1978—the only Black College to ever win that title.
Thus, after reading the HBCU Sports article Deion Sanders claims an HBCU never recruited him, but a former FAMU coach tells a different story, I was not surprised to see quite a few celebrity worshipping Sanders fans immediately conclude that, 1. Coach Hubbard was lying or, 2. Coach Hubbard is "hating on" Sanders and "clout chasing," the latter being a modern slang propagated by those whose fealty to some celebrity compels them to attack anyone who dares criticize their beloved iconic figure.
The problem with that notion is that having known Coach Hubbard since I was 8-years old, I can attest that he is a kind, honorable, and knowledgeable gentleman. Hubbard didn't diss Sanders at all, rather, he told reporters that he did, in fact, recruit the phenomenal football star in 1985 and wanted him to play his high school position—quarterback—which he sensed (correctly) that Sanders would not get a chance to do at Florida State (which was then under the leadership of its own future Hall of Fame Coach, the recently deceased Bobby Bowden).
Hubbard added that he told Sanders that he didn't have the "recruiting budget to compete" with Florida State, a comment that can mean different things to different folks. The meaning that I took, having been in middle school when Sanders arrived and remembering how he used to drive to FAMU and through "The Set" draped in jewelry and behind the wheel of his Chrysler Lebaron when I was in high school, was that FAMU—like most HBCUs—didn't have those deep pocketed boosters who were going to "pay" for him to “play.”
Still, the Hubbard skeptics deflected left and right yesterday in Facebook sports groups and on my page, where I had one respectful exchange that led to multiple equally respectful responses from both "pro-Prime" folks and some of my real life friends from Tallahassee, like Quinton Hubbard and Karen McWilliams Davis; folks who, like I, remember the Sanders years at FSU and how you couldn't hardly tell that he actually attended Florida State because he spent so much time on FAMU's campus dating beautiful FAMU women and chilling out with his FAMU friends.
As I grow older, that legendary Taurus patience of mine has begun to wane and I haven't the time (or desire) to go back and forth with folks who are determined to assert their fact devoid opinions. But of the many salient points made in defense of Coach Hubbard's reflections on his recruitment of Sanders, I add the words of my friend Troy Mosley, who expressed his position brilliantly:
Steven Samuels,
Let’s be honest here. Deion was the most highly recruited high school football player in the state of FL. He was the 100m dash sprint champion in 1985 with a time of 10.3. EVERYONE would have given him a scholarship. It is beyond ridiculous to state or even imply FAMU didn’t offer Deion a scholarship therefore FAMU didn’t recruit him. FAMU hadn’t landed a recruit of Deion’s caliber since Bob Hayes went to FAMU in 1961. If Deion really wants to be honest let him shed some light on why he didn’t even bother to go across the railroad track to meet Coach Hubbard. Since we are on the subject of honesty, let me shine some late on why Deion didn’t seriously consider going to an HBCU. I think he said it was 'kinda like a joke that we would all go to BCC…'
Deion didn’t consider an HBCU because White schools in the South didn’t recruit black players until 10-15 years prior to Deion’s graduation. Black athletes were statutorily shutout of major college football because of segregation laws that were not changed until 1968 so naturally little boys watching Alabama, Florida and Florida State would want to play for those schools the instant it became possible. Don’t blame FAMU because you didn’t want to go there. Miss me with that BS Coach Prime. Even when Black athletes excelled at HBCUs, White schools would not compete against them. No school in the south would invite FAMU’s track team to compete against them because they know they would get their asses waxed and they wanted to perpetuate the myth of White Supremacy. The National Champion FAMU Men’s 4 x 100 team had to go up north to compete against Northern schools to show their excellence at the Penn Relays at Villanova University."
Indeed!!! If this had been church, I would have lept from the pews shouting "Amen" to Pastor Troy Mosely 😆.
But seriously, I believe that what Mosley wrote is factually accurate, as were Coach Hubbard's reminisces and because of that, here's hoping that Coach Sanders will in the future say "I was more interested in Florida State and Florida my senior year in high school because I thought they offered me the best chances to play professional sports, but looking back, I wish I had considered Florida A&M." Such a statement would be far more accurate than his “no HBCU showed me any interest” claim because at least one, FAMU, clearly showed serious interest in “Primetime” wearing the Orange & Green!
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