Black College Football Hall of Fame Class of 2022

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Ben Coates earned a scholarship at small D-II Livingstone College, a historically black Christian school in Salisbury, NC. Excelling in track he became the team’s Most Improved Player as a sophomore. Ben Coates promptly picked up where he left off on the high school gridiron. Coates’s excellence earned him Livingstone College’s MVP honors in 1987, 1988, and 1990. He played basketball in 1989 before returning to the gridiron a season later. Coates came back with a vengeance for his senior season racking up 36 receptions for 504 receiving yards and nine touchdowns in 1990. He became a First-Team All-CIAA selection and a Black College Sports All-American the same year. Most NFL recruiters were unaware of this amazing talent who from small-town Greenwood, South Carolina. Most teams thought his less-than-ideal size and competition at the collegiate level would hurt his draft stock in the NFL. Ben Coates proved them wrong once he set foot on the pro gridiron.

Donald Driver attended Alcorn State University, fulfilling his grandfather’s wish of him going to an HBCU. He would excel in both football and track & field. He finished his college football career with 88 receptions for 1,993 yards. Driver is one of the most decorated track athletes in the NFL (he is an Olympic-class high jumper, being able to jump 7 feet 6 inches and almost qualified for the 2000 Summer Olympics team). He was a five-time “Athlete of the Year” in the SWAC in track and football. He would later be selected in the seventh round by the Green Bay Packers in the 1999 NFL Draft, became the franchise all-time leader in receiving yards, 4x pro bowler, and Super Bowl 45 champion.

Driver would later talk about why he wasn’t drafted in the first or second round.

“Scouts told me that if I had of went to Tennessee or Miami….. I would’ve been a first-round draft pick, since I went to Alcorn State the first thing they said was I never played against anyone.”

He would continue with how HBCU football prepared him to play football at the professional level, highlighting Deion Sanders as well.

“If you know about any Black College, we play man to man but and run all day long. The best corner in here is Deion Sanders… and he played but and run all day long. So we knew when you got on the line, you gotta have good feet and be able to move. It taught us how to have a competitive edge every single day!”

Sammy White played at Grambling State University from 1972-1975, playing alongside future NFL quarterback and Super Bowl XXII MVP Doug Williams during his final two seasons. He was a first-team All-SWAC selection in 1973 and 1975. White caught 37 passes for 802 yards and 17 touchdowns as a senior. He would be selected by the Vikings in the 1976 NFL Draft. He would go on to play his entire 10 years with the Vikings from 1976-1985. After being awarded Offensive Rookie of the Year and making his first Pro Bowl, White had become a key player in his first couple of years with the team.

Former Florida A&M Rattler and Dallas Cowboys Nate “The Kitchen” Newton became the newest inductee from FAMU, joining Greg Coleman and “Bullet” Bob Hayes. Newton played on both sides of the line for FAMU under the leadership of College Football Hall of Fame coach Rudy Hubbard. After college, Newton spent his professional career in the USFL with the Tampa Bay Bandits and excelled in the NFL with an All-Pro and Super Bowl-winning career for the Cowboys.

Newton would later explain where he got his nickname from a workout with the Cowboys

“I went to the Cowboys, I was out of shape about 345 pounds, and their biggest offensive lineman was 235 pounds. So I figure I was gonna get cut. So at the beginning of the workout, the biggest pair of pants were extra large and they try to sew together two pairs to try and fit me… in doing that one of the coaches said Man Chicago might have the Fridge but I promise you we got the Kitchen!”