ATLANTA – Mississippi Valley State alumnus and NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice will be inducted into the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame this weekend.
 
The induction will be part of the National Black College Alumni's 33rd Annual Hall of Fame Weekend, which runs from Wednesday through Sunday at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta.
 
A three-time Super Bowl champion with the San Francisco 49ers, Rice rewrote the Mississippi Valley State record books by the time he concluded his college career in 1984. He caught 301 passes for 4,693 yards with 50 touchdown receptions for the Delta Devils. While catching passes from teammate Willie Totten, Rice helped lead the Delta Devils to their only FCS (then NCAA Division I-AA) playoff appearance in 1984.
 
Rice's 50 career touchdown receptions at the collegiate level stood until 2006. So prolific was the Totten-to-Rice connection that Mississippi Valley State's football stadium now bears the name of both student-athletes.
 
Rice is the fourth Mississippi Valley State alumnus to be named to the NBCA Hall of Fame, and the first alumnus to be so named for achievements in the field of athletics. He is also the second Valley alumnus to be named in as many years; last year, Dr. Gary McGaha – currently the president of Atlanta Metropolitan State College – was inducted into the NBCA Hall of Fame in the field of education.
 
Other Valley alumni to be named to the NBCA's Hall of Fame include former MVSU President William H. Sutton (1998, Education) – for whom the university's administration building is named – and Dr. Walter Roberts (1992, Science).
 
The National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame Foundation continues its mission to be a catalyst to serve as a catalyst and partner for ensuring the stability, strength and excellence of the nation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). (Its) aim is to advance the reality that HBCUs are valuable treasures and critical resources that help transform the seeds of potentiality into the fruits of possibility.
 
For more information, visit https://nbcahof.org/ .