OPINION: Approaching the SWAC and national championships in the tradition of JSU’s 1962 National Championship Team

Sixty-Three years ago, on December 8, 1962, the Jackson State University (JSU) football team defeated the Florida A&M University (FAMU) football team 22 – 6 in the Orange Blossom Classic, becoming recognized as the national champions of Black College Football. The victory came as a shock to many, especially since FAMU had handily won the previous year (14-8) and was heavily favored again.

What many outsiders did not realize was how much talent had been recruited and developed by JSU’s coaching staff. As quietly as it is kept even today, however, the 1962 Jackson State Tiger football team was perhaps the most talent-laden in the history of college football, bar none. 

From that team, 12 members have been inducted into the JSU Sports Hall of Fame – Vernon Biggs, Harold Bishop, Harold Cooley, Roy Curry, Leslie Duncan, T.B. Ellis III, Edgar Chico Jordan, Ben McGee, Louis McRae, Gloster Richardson, Willie Richardson, and M.C. Taylor. That is more than any of the other great JSU teams. It is also impressive, given the limited number of players inducted there each year.

Should one be tempted to think JSU’s Hall of Fame is not the most reliable measure of talent when it comes to its own players, we can point to at least three other sources to validate the measure of talent on the 1962 team. 

The Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame has inducted three players from that team – Verlon Biggs, who his JSU and Moss Point schoolmates knew as Vernon Biggs, T.B. Ellis III and Willie Richardson. That may not be an earth-shaking number, but it is more than any other single team in state history. It is further impressive because of the selection process for inclusion in the state’s hall of fame. 

Beyond meeting the rigorous standards of those halls of fame, three players from the 1962 national championship team have been ranked among Mississippi’s 100 Greatest Football Players of All Time. They include Verlon or Vernon Biggs at number 59, Leslie “Speedy” Duncan at number 61, and Willie Richardson at number 75. Yes, it bears repeating that no other team has had that many players ranked that highly in Mississippi’s history.

As impressive as are the facts that the 1962 JSU Tiger team fares so well when it comes to rankings on the campus and in the state, it becomes even more compelling to trumpet its talent and to proclaim the team’s greatness when one considers another set of data. 

From the 1962 team, seventeen players were considered by professional football officials to be talented enough to play professional football. Those players include: Lander “Coy” Bacon, who joined the Los Angeles Rams; Vernon Biggs (aka) Verlon Biggs, who joined the New York Jets; Harold Cooley, who joined the Montreal Alouettes; Ben Crenshaw, who joined the New York Giants; Roy Curry, who joined the Pittsburgh Steelers; Leslie “Speedy” Duncan, who joined the San Diego Chargers; T.B. Ellis, who joined the Green Bay Packers, but then left for medical school; Albert Greer, who joined the Los Angeles Rams; Edgar “Chico” Jordan, who joined the Buffalo Bills; Louis McRae, who joined the St. Louis Cardinals; Ben McGee, who joined the Pittsburgh Steelers; Willie Frank Molden, who joined the Baltimore Colts; Taft Reed, who joined the Philadelphia Eagles; Gloster Richardson, who joined the Kansas City Chiefs; Thomas Richardson, who joined the Boston Patriots; Willie Richardson, who joined the Baltimore Colts; and Johnny Robinson, who joined the Detroit Lions.

Those 17 players, constituting more than 1/3 of the team roster, were selected by those teams at a time when it was very difficult for Black players to get into professional football. They clearly had the talent to go all the way to the top in Black college football that year, defeating such traditional powerhouse Black teams as Grambling (45 – 31), Tennessee State (36 – 6), Prairie View (41 – 7), Texas Southern (26 – 13), and Florida A & M (22 – 6). They, when the occasions arose, helped their professional teams rise to similar levels. 

Others on the 1962 team (not already mentioned) included: Nathaniel Avery, Johnny Bender, James “Big Daddy” Carson, Alonzo Clark, Alvin Coleman, Joe Cooley, Robert Cowherd, L.V. Donnell, R.T. Harper, James “Poppa” Hayes, Arthur Holman, Harold Lane, Sherman Matthews, James McCloud, Lonzo McHuley, Bobby Minard, Daniel Pride, William Robertson, Otis Spann, Philon Wallace, Julian Walton, Thomas Williams, Robert Woodard, and Otis Young. While they did not become professional players, most of them were quite capable players, rising above the average college football player while playing at JSU and/or subsequently as coaches.

In addition to that large pool of talent, the 1962 team was playing under the guidance of legendary coach John Merritt. ESPN ranked Merritt at 71 among the top 150 coaches in the then 150 years of college football history, that’s college football, not just Black college football. Merritt and his assistants, Joe Gilliam, Alvin Coleman, Harrison Wilson, and Allen Smith, knew how to utilize the talent with which they had been favored. 

While it can be debated as to whether or not that team was JSU’s greatest of all times, in hindsight, no one can dispute that it was indeed the most talented, and that its talent and spirit won out. Coach T.C. Taylor and the 2025 Tigers can continue that winning tradition, given their prideful spirit and their possession of more than their share of talented players and competent, caring coaches.