Celebrating Black History Month: A look at the Broncos' connections to HBCUs

[Miles]

South Carolina State University

• DE Barney Chavous, 1973-85
• WR/PR Zach Thomas, 1983-84
• S Rafael Bush, 2011
• TE Temarrick Hemingway, 2018

Southern University

• DE Rich "Tombstone" Jackson, 1967-72
• DE Alden Roche, 1970
• LB Godwin Turk, 1976-78
• G/T Gerald Perry, 1988-90
• RB Jeff Alexander, 1989-92

"I tell you, it's unbelievable to have gone to an HBCU," Jackson told DenverBroncos.com's Aric DiLalla in 2019. "I've taken some classes at some other schools, like graduate classes and other corresponding classes and everything, and just the atmosphere — if you just have to deal with the atmosphere — was different. I go to most of Southern's home games, and it's just like Day 1 when I first went up there from out of high school. The camaraderie. It's just different.


"... It taught us how to navigate through society, making decisions, how to prepare yourself for the long haul," Jackson said. "Even today, I don't think some of the kids there would go to other schools would have received what I received in terms of being able to navigate and present yourself and be able to deal with some of the things that I have encountered along the way. Just speaking to some of the guys who have gone to so-called integrated schools, they don't have the same mindset that I have. They have not had the same preparation that I've had, and even today, I'm able to go into any setting and be successful, able to speak with anyone in any setting and any environment and not have a feeling that I would be less than anyone, that I was less educated than anyone, because you have an opportunity to be nurtured."


St. Augustine's University

• E Ike Lassiter, 1962-64

Tennessee State University

• DE Chuck Gavin, 1960-63
• CB Bill West, 1972
• CB Randy Fuller, 1994
• DE Dan Williams, 1993-96
• CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, 2013

Texas Southern University

• LB Gene Jeter, 1965-67 (also played at Arkansas-Pine Bluff)
• CB Leroy Mitchell, 1971-73
• CB Lonnie Hepburn, 1974

Tuskegee University

• LB Ken Woodard, 1982-86