The Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils are the

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

team representing the

Mississippi Valley State University Mississippi Valley State University (MVSU, The Valley or Valley) is a public historically black university in Mississippi Valley State, Mississippi, adjacent to Itta Bena, Mississippi.NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision. Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic ...

as a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC).

Jerry Rice Jerry Lee Rice (born October 13, 1962) is an American former professional football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 20 seasons. Known primarily as a member of the San Francisco 49ers, winning three championshi ...

and

Deacon Jones David D. "Deacon" Jones (December 9, 1938 – June 3, 2013) was an American professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) for the Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Chargers, and the Washington Redskins. H ...

, considered two of the greatest

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

players of all time, spent their college days playing for the team.

History

Classifications

* 1953–1972:

NCAA College Division The NCAA College Division was a historic subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) consisting of member schools competing at a lower level of college sports. The NCAA initially divided schools into a College Division and a ...

* 1973–1979:

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

* 1980–present: NCAA Division I–AA/FCS -

Conference memberships

* 1953: Independent * 1954–1961:

South Central Athletic Conference The South Central Athletic Conference (SCAC) was an intercollegiate athletic conference of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) that existed from 1935 to 1961. The conference's members were located in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi ...

* 1962–1968: NCAA College Division independent * 1969–present Southwestern Athletic Conference

College Football Hall of Fame members

Doug Porter Douglas T. Porter (born August 15, 1929) is a former American football coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head coach at Mississippi Valley State University (1961–1965), Howard University (1974–1978), and Fort Valley S ...

Willie Totten Willie "Satellite" Totten (born July 4, 1962) is an American football coach and former player. He is the assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach at Mississippi Valley State University, a position he had held since 2019. Totten played college ...

Alumni in the NFL

Over 25 Mississippi Valley State alumni have played in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL), including: *

Carl Byrum Carl Edward Byrum (born June 29, 1963) is a former American football running back who played three seasons with the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Bills in the fifth round of the 1986 NFL Draft. He play ...

James Haynes James Almand Haynes (10 November 1933 – 6 January 2021) was an American-born figure in the British "underground" and alternative/counter-culture scene of the 1960s. He was involved with the founding of Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre, the pape ...

Ted Washington Sr. Theodore Bernard Washington (born February 16, 1948) is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL). He played eleven seasons with the Houston Oilers, playing outside linebacker. Was ...

* Vincent Brown * Ashley Ambrose

References

External links

* American football teams established in 1953 1953 establishments in Mississippi {{Mississippi-sport-team-stub