This Saturday will mark the inaugural HBCU Legacy Bowl — an all-star game compiled of the most talented draft-eligible college football players who attend Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes is involved through his foundation, pledging a multi-year commitment to help these players showcase themselves in front of NFL evaluators.
In recent years, it has become a rarity when a player from an HBCU is selected in the NFL draft. The 2021 NFL draft, for instance, had no players selected from HBCUs. In fact, only 18 players from HBCUs made initial 53-man rosters in the 2021 NFL season — the most notable being Indianapolis Colts LB Darius Leonard.
When the AFL was formed in 1960, HBCU talent helped to populate the fledgling league. The Chiefs were one of the teams to help break down remaining racial barriers by selecting Buck Buchanan at No. 1 overall in the 1963 AFL draft. As things currently stand, almost a tenth of NFL Hall of Famers played college football at an HBCU.
With the HBCU Legacy Bowl on our doorstep, our friends over at Touchdown Wire recently revisited their list of the 51 greatest HBCU players in NFL history. A total of five Chiefs players made their list, including one player ranked in the top 10. Here’s a quick look at those players and what was said about them:
