Jerry Rice grew up in Crawford, Mississippi, where he caught bricks tossed from scaffolding by his father during summers long before he became the NFL’s all-time leading receiver.
The Hill at Portola
Jerry Rice ran up the steep dirt trail of a county park on the San Francisco Peninsula known simply as The Hill every single offseason while league peers rested.
Jerry Lee Rice grew up the sixth of eight children born to Joe Rice, a brick mason, in Crawford, Mississippi, a town with a population of about 600. Born in nearby Starkville in October 1962, he spent summer days standing on scaffolding to catch heavy clay blocks tossed up from the ground, building the hand-eye coordination that later defined his career.
He did not play organized football until his sophomore year at B.L. Moore High School. A vice principal tried to catch Rice cutting class, watched the teenager sprint away, and told the football coach what he saw.
The Satellite Express
Archie Cooley, head coach at Mississippi Valley State University, deployed a no-huddle offense with four receivers that utilized the entire field. Quarterback Willie Totten and Rice formed a combination fans called the Satellite Express.
Rice caught 27 touchdown passes during his senior season in 1984, setting an NCAA record across all divisions. He left the school with 18 NCAA records and earned the nickname World because any pass thrown near him seemed destined for his hands, and the university later renamed its facility Rice-Totten Stadium.
San Francisco Dynasty
The San Francisco 49ers selected him with the 16th overall pick in the 1985 NFL Draft. After an ordinary rookie season, Rice led the league in receiving yards and touchdowns in 1986, then caught 22 touchdown passes in 12 games during the strike-shortened 1987 season.
He won Super Bowls following the 1988 and 1989 seasons with Joe Montana throwing passes. In Super Bowl XXIII against the Cincinnati Bengals, he caught 11 passes for 215 yards and won the most valuable player award.
When Steve Young succeeded Montana as the starting quarterback, Rice experienced little drop-off. He played much of Super Bowl XXIX against the San Diego Chargers with a dislocated shoulder and caught three touchdowns, and he set a single-season record of 1,848 receiving yards in 1995 that stood until Calvin Johnson broke it in 2012.
Rice Overcame Knee Injuries to Maintain High Yardage Totals
Durability anchored his methodology until the opening game of the 1997 season, when he had not missed a single game in high school, college, or the NFL outside of three weeks canceled by player strikes. Warren Sapp of the Buccaneers grabbed his facemask on a reverse play and tore two ligaments in his left knee.
Rice returned after 14 weeks, earlier than team doctors preferred, scored a touchdown, and promptly fractured his kneecap on the very same catch. He still surpassed 1,000 receiving yards at age 36 and repeated the feat at age 40.
San Francisco Released Rice During the Rise of Terrell Owens
San Francisco released him in June 2001 to clear salary cap space as Terrell Owens prepared to step into the primary receiver role. Rice had already expressed frustration when Owens used the final home game of Rice’s 49ers tenure to set a franchise single-game reception record.
The league had actually banned the adhesive before he entered professional football, and after fellow Hall of Famers Cris Carter and Michael Irvin disputed his account, Rice retracted the remark and insisted he never used it.
Post-Football Life
The Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrined Rice in 2010 in his first year of eligibility, and the 49ers retired his number 80 that September. Retirement brought appearances on Dancing with the Stars, where he finished as runner-up with Anna Trebunskaya, and a missed cut at a Nationwide Tour golf event.
He co-authored memoirs titled Rice and Go Long. In July, at the American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe, he confronted a heckling spectator on the course and told reporters that week that he believes the 49ers will end their Super Bowl championship drought this season.
Tom Brady served as executive producer for a four-part AMC documentary series titled Rise of the 49ers that placed Rice alongside Montana, Young, and Ronnie Lott at the center of the franchise dynasty.
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