Jerry Rice Biography

Jerry’s success started when he was young and decided he wanted to work hard enough to achieve what he wanted to achieve. Jerry Rice was born and raised in Starkville, Mississippi, as the son of a brick mason. He developed his hands while working for his father. Jerry caught bricks with one hand and two hands teaching him hand eye coordination at a young age. Another attribute to Jerry’s success when he was young he ran to school and home from school everyday. This was a 5 mile trip there and 5 miles back. One more story that was believed to be true about Jerry is one day in school the principle saw Jerry running in the hall. According to his book "Rice" (written with Michael Silver), the principal tracked him down for skipping class,[3] but when he called his name the startled Rice sprinted off running, after seeing him run, the principal decided to let him join the football team or be punished. Jerry decided upon football and the principal told the school's football coach about his speed. The truthfulness of this story has been questioned. This was believed to spark Jerry’s very successful football career. From hear on out it was like he was on a mission to basically define success and show people you don’t have to be the fastest or biggest you just have to strive for what you want with hard work and dedication. In High school Jerry caught the eyes of college scouts from numerous division 1-aa schools around his area. Jerry Rice attended Mississippi Valley State University from 1980–1984. He became a standout receiver and acquired the nickname "World", because there wasn't a ball in the world he couldn't catch. Statistics from his college career are sparse, but the College Football Hall of Fame website claims that Rice, as a sophomore in 1982, caught 66 passes for 1,133 yards and 7 touchdowns. That was his first season playing with redshirt freshman quarterback Willie Totten, nicknamed "Satellite". Together, Totten and Rice would become known as "The Satellite