Black History Month is one of my favorite times of the year. While there is no bad month to reflect on and commemorate the many contributions and achievements of Black Americans, there remains something special about making a meaningful effort to spread the word of oft-uncelebrated icons.
Twenty-one-year-old Hunter is a “two-way” player, meaning he plays both offense (as wide receiver) and defense (as cornerback), for the University of Colorado, and excelled at both. Considered the No. 1 recruit out of high school, he recently culminated his college career by winning the Heisman Trophy, the most prestigious award in college football. Anyone paying attention to the sport could have seen that coming, given that he is also the first player in college football history to win both the Chuck Bednarik and Fred Biletnikoff awards, two similarly prestigious honors.
What makes his story so compelling, though, is not where he is today, but how he got here. When he was in the 8th grade, Hunter and his family moved to Georgia, where he enrolled in Collins Hill High School in Suwanee. At the same time that he was making a name for himself in high school football, he and his family were going from sleeping on the floor of a friend’s house to living in a hotel.
He had no shortage of support as he navigated his burgeoning football career, with his family coming together to make his dream possible. His grandmother, Shirley Hunter, was the one who signed up Hunter to play football for the first time. He was following in the footsteps of his father, Travis Sr., who played in the Florida Football Alliance and the Southern States Football League, winning the latter’s Offensive Rookie of the Year award in 2007.
When it came time for Hunter to choose where to go to college, he could have gone just about anywhere based on his athletic prowess alone. In a decision that no doubt shocked everyone who expected him to attend an SEC or Big 10 school, he opted for somewhere a little different – Jackson State University.
Photo credit: Julia Roberts
Jackson State is a public historically Black university in Jackson, Mississippi, and one of the largest HBCUs in the U.S. When Hunter won the Heisman Trophy, he made history, as no HBCU had ever launched a Heisman winner since the award’s inception in 1935.
While he initially committed to attending Florida State University, his decision to ultimately sign with Jackson State was described by the director of national recruiting for 247Sports as “the biggest signing day moment in the history of college football.”
HBCUs have long been a center of Black excellence but have rarely been viewed as a platform from which to launch a legendary athletic career. Hunter has already proven that students need not choose between the two anymore, and a lot of credit for that must be given to Deion Sanders, the Jackson State football coach at the time with whom Hunter has described having an “unbreakable son and father bond.” Hunter even transferred to the University of Colorado when Sanders took the coaching job there.
Hunter’s decisions and experiences have changed the game. At a time when so many stories about Black Americans are still rooted in division, he has shown us what is possible when you combine personal integrity, strong family ties and the drive to get the ball to the other side of the field. He is aware of what his decisions mean, as well, both for him and those who might hear his story.
“I know it’s a bit of sacrifice,” he recently said in an interview with podcast The Pivot. “But one day my brothers and sisters might not go D1. So, I still have to shine a light on someone else. And that was my main focus, and that’s what I did.”
Hunter could be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft. So the question now isn’t if he will continue making history, but how. I, for one, can’t wait to find out. 
Tharon Johnson can be seen Sunday mornings on The Georgia Gang on Fox 5 Atlanta. He received a Green Eyeshade award in journalism in 2023.