With March Madness in full swing, it’s a good time to take a look back at college basketball players who found their ultimate success in the NFL. A good number of players have made the transition from the hardwood to the gridiron. Some, in fact, have done so well they have become Hall-of-Famers.
Otto Graham
Otto Graham was a great quarterback in the NFL, as in Hall of Fame. He also was a strong basketball player, entering Northwestern on a hoops scholarship. Graham was on a team that won the NBL championship with the Rochester Royals in 1945-46.
Jim Brown
The great Jim Brown played basketball his sophomore and junior years at Syracuse, averaging 13.1 points per game. He was a ferocious rebounder, and the best athlete on the floor. He scored 33 points in a game he did not start as a sophomore.
Julius Pepper
Julius Peppers played at North Carolina for both Bill Guthridge and Matt Doherty. As a sophomore, Peppers was North Carolina’s fifth-leading scorer and rebounder.
Donovan McNabb
Another top-flight Syracuse football player who dabbled in hoops was quarterback Donovan McNabb. A high school basketball star, McNabb was a reserve on a team that lost in the national championship to Kentucky as a freshman. As a sophomore, McNabb saw more playing time. Against Georgetown, he had a career-high 10 points.
Connor Barwin
Connor Barwin played two seasons of college hoops at Cincinnati. He did not see a ton of action. Playing in 34 games, Barwin 1.3 ppg and 1.8 rpg.
Quinten Rollins
Quentin Rollins was a pure basketball player who turned it into an NFL career. He played four seasons at Miami of Ohio. He played one season of football, but it was good enough to earn MAC Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2014 and make him a second-round pick of the Green Bay Packers in 2015.
Rico Gathers
Rico Gathers averaged double figures in his last two seasons playing basketball at Baylor. The 6-foot-8, 280-pounder pounded a double-double as a junior, averaging 11.6 ppg and rbg.
Terrell Owens
A Hall-of-Fame receiver, Terrell Owens played both football and basketball at Tennessee-Chattanooga. He saw sparse action, playing 38 games and averaging 1.5 ppg.
Terry Baker
Terry Baker won the Heisman Trophy at Oregon State and almost won an NCAA Basketball Championship. The quarterback played three seasons on the court in Corvallis and averaged 10.7 ppg. The Ducks lost in the national semifinal in 1963 and then fell in the consolation game.
Julius Thomas
Julius Thomas another player from the state of Oregon who saw action in the NCAA tournament. Portland State made the big dance in 2008 and ’09. He set school records for career games played (121), career wins (78) and career field goal percentage (.663). Thomas made a game-winning dunk in the final seconds of the 2009 Big Sky Championship. Thomas joined the Portland State football team as a walk-on in 2010, recording 29 receptions for 453 yards and two touchdowns and was chosen in the fourth round of the 2011 draft by the Denver Broncos.
Antwaan Randle-El
Indiana is a hoops haven. Antwaan Randle-El got a piece of the Hoosier hysteria in 1998-99. He played for Bob Knight and averaged 1.5 ppg on a team that went 23-11.
Mo-Alie Cox
Mo Alie-Cox played 142 games for VCU and competed in four NCAA tournaments. The hoopster turned tight end helped VCU 2015 A-10 tournament and a share of the 2016 A-10 regular season title. He averaged almost 8 ppg, 5 rpg and 2 blocks.
Vincent Jackson
Out of Northern Colorado, Vincent Jackson had a successful career in the NFL as a wide receiver. In college, as a walk-on forward, Jackson notched a career-high 18 points against Rutgers in 2004, and nabbed 11 rebounds against Denver that season.
Darren Fells
As a senior at UC Irvine, Darren Fells was a star in the Big West, ranking first in field goal percentage, third in rpg and ninth in ppg. Following his graduation, Fells played professional basketball overseas in Argentina, Belgium, Finland, France and Mexico, before starting his NFL career in the spring of 2013.
Tony Gonzalez
A Hall of Famer in the 2019 class, Tony Gonzalez was a pretty fair hoopster at Cal, too. He played three seasons for the Golden Bears and averaged around six points and four boards.
Martellus Bennett
Martellus Bennett played two seasons of hoops for Texas A&M. He saw action in 30 games and averaged 1.5 ppg. The TE only played in four games in his last season, 2006-07.
Jimmy Graham
The parade of tight ends who traded the gridiron for the basketball court continues with Miami’s Jimmy Graham. The Hurricane turned to football after playing four seasons of hoops. Miami made the NCAA tournament during Graham’s junior season as a No. 7 seed. Graham had nine points and seven rebounds in Miami’s first-round win over St. Mary’s before the team lost to Texas.
Antonio Gates
The great Antonio Gates has made himself from a basketball player into a surefire Hall-of-Fame tight end. Gates played hoops for two MAC schools, starting at Eastern Michigan before shifting to Ken State, where he averaged 16 ppg and 20.6 ppg over his last two seasons.
