Jerry Rice, born on October 13, 1962 in Starkville, Mississippi is a former American wide receiver. Rice grew up in Crawford, Mississippi and was the son of a brick mason. He attended Mississippi Valley State University as it was the only university that offered Rice a scholarship. As a high school player, he became an All-State end and defensive back, but wasn’t good enough to get scholarships from many universities. He attended Mississippi Valley University from 1980-1984, where he became a standout receiver and was given the nickname “World” because it was said that there wasn’t a ball in the world that he couldn’t catch.

In 1982, during his sophomore year, Rice caught 66 passes for 1,133 yards and 7 touchdowns. He played alongside with Willie Totten, and together they were called ‘The Satellite Express’ and set a number of NCAA records. Rice was called the first-team Division I-AA-AII-America, in the record setting 1983 campaign, which included NCAA marks for receptions -102 and receiving yards-1,450. He broke his own Division I-AA records in 1984, for receptions-112 and receiving- 1,845. Altogether, during his time in college, Rice caught 310 passes for 4,856 yards and 51 touchdowns in 42 games.

Rice was picked 16th in the first round draft by the San Francisco 49ers, in 1985 when he started his professional career. Rice impressed the National Football League in his rookie season after a 10 catch, 241 yards games against Los Angeles. Rice was called the NFC Offensive Rookie when he recorded 49 catches for 927 yards. In 1987, Rice only played in 12 games, despite of which he was named the NFL’s MVP by the Newspaper Enterprise Association and the Pro Football Writers Association. He was awarded the Offensive Player of the Year by the Associated Press. In these 12 games, he managed to score 1,078 receiving yards and an NFL-record 22 touchdown reception. This record was broken in 2007 by Randy Moss.

Rice played for 49ers from 1985-2000, during which he won the Super Bowl in 1989, 1990 and 1995. In 1995, he led