Jerry Rice, Walter Payton and the 30 best HBCU football players of all time

28. Rayfield Wright, offensive tackle, Fort Valley State University

There have been some pretty good basketball players turned football players, ask Antonio Gates. If Wright is not the best of them, he is close. Wright was a standout basketball player at the newly integrated Griffin High School in Griffin, Georgia.

Ironically, Wright did not make his high school football team. Instead, Wright went to Fort Valley State on a basketball scholarship and was discovered by football coach Stan Lomax.

Lomax made Wright quit his summer job at a mill to get ready for the football season.

Because Wright was such a good athlete, Lomax put his diamond in the rough all over the field. Wright played free safety, defensive end, and even punter during his time at Fort Valley State. However, tight end is the position that he excelled at in college.

The Cowboys drafted the man known as “big cat” in 1969. By 1971, however, Wright was languishing on the Cowboys’ depth chart as a backup tight end. Fortunately for Wright, legendary head coach Tom Landry saw in Wright the same thing Lomax saw, an athlete who could play anywhere.

Landry saw that Wright was agile, solid and a hard worker. “I looked at him with amazement because I never played tackle before in my life, Wright recalled. “I said, Coach, are you sure?” He said, “Yeah, you’ll make a good tackle.

It turns out Landry was right. Wright helped open holes for Dallas’ first five 1,000 yard rushers on his way to six Pro Bowls and two Super Bowl rings.