BATON ROUGE (April 23, 2024) – Trailblazing Alcorn State University fullback John Robert "Jack" Spinks, the first African American football player from Mississippi to be drafted into the NFL, will posthumously receive the Roscoe Nance Lifetime Achievement Award here on May 18, 2024, during the Annual Southwestern Athletic Conference Alumni Association Legends Awards and Roast.
The event, which will honor several individuals who have made their marks on the landscape of college sports, will be held at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Baton Rouge, starting at 7 p.m. Tickets to the event have already sold out.
Spinks, a native of the small town of Toomsuba, Miss., located east of Meridian, Miss., etched his way into the records book when he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1952, becoming Alcorn State's very first NFL draftee and the first Black player drafted by the Steelers. Becoming a professional football player, however, was likely not on Spinks' radar early on because his high school did not even field a football team.
"What a lot of people don't know is Spink's first-time playing football was at Alcorn," said Walter Reed, also a native of Toomsuba and a former Director of Athletics at Jackson State University and Florida A&M University. "Our high school (Stevenson Vocational High School) didn't have a football team and his first chance to play football was at Alcorn.
"Spinks was a big guy (6'2 230) who could really run," continued Reed. "He was a great athlete who played basketball in high school and baseball in the summer."
Despite Stevenson Vocational not having a football program, the school's principal drove Spinks to Alcorn State after graduation with the intent of him playing college football. He quickly made his mark on the gridiron.
His first year at Alcorn, Spinks played on the defensive line. With his size and tremendous speed, he was moved to fullback his sophomore year and he went on to rush for over 1,000 yards each of his final two years in college, earning All-SCAC and Black College All-America honors twice.
In that historic 1952 NFL Draft, Pittsburgh selected Spinks in the 11th round, making him the franchise's very first Black player to be drafted. He received notification of his selection via telegram.
"He was so happy about being drafted," said Reed. "He came to my room at Jackson State and told me 'Look what I got' and he showed me the telegram."
Spinks played five years in the NFL with the Steelers (1952), the Chicago Cardinals (1953), the Green Bay Packers (1955-1956) and the New York Giants (1956-1957). He got a championship ring with the Giants.
After leaving the NFL, Spinks returned to Alcorn State as an assistant coach, joining the Braves' coaching staff the same year as Marino Casem. Casem was promoted to head coach in 1964 and Spinks remained on the staff until retiring in 1985. The Braves won several championships during his coaching tenure.
Alcorn State's football stadium was dedicated as Jack Spinks Stadium in 1992, two years before he passed away on September 29, 1994. The name of the stadium has since changed to Spinks-Casem Stadium to also honor Casem, the school's winningest coach and the man for whom Spinks worked for two decades.
Spinks was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 1985. He is also a member of the Alcorn State Sports Hall of Fame and the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Sports Hall of Fame.
The SWAC Alumni Association's Legends Awards and Roast annually honors former student-athletes as well as former or current coaches, athletics administrators or staff members who have had positive impacts on the historic conference. Proceeds from the Legends Awards and Roast benefit the Association's Degree Completion Scholarship Fund, which provides financial support to student-athletes in the conference whose eligibility has expired and who are within 30 hours of graduating.
ABOUT THE SWAC ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
The purpose of the SWAC Alumni Association, which was founded on December 10, 1999, in Birmingham, Ala., is to support Southwestern Athletic Conference events, promote the conference's athletics heritage and help preserve its legacy of competitive excellence. Former student-athletes from any SWAC-sponsored sport and from all member institutions are eligible for membership, as are current and former coaches, athletics administrators, and staff members as well as game officials, employees of the conference office and supporters of SWAC athletics.
