Jerry LeVias

Jerry LeVias, born September 5, 1946, was an American professional football player who played wide receiver in the American Football League and the National Football League. Born in Beaumont, Texas, he played quarterback for the city's all-black Hebert High School. Listed at 5'9" and 177 pounds, he measured closer to 5'7" and 140 pounds out of high school, but compensated for his size with great speed.

LeVias received more than a hundred scholarship offers, though none came from Grambling, Alcorn State, Southern, Prairie View, or the other traditional historically black college football powers he had expected to play for; those schools deemed him too small to offer a football scholarship. In the spring of 1965 he was recruited to Southern Methodist University by coach Hayden Fry, and he went on to play college football for the SMU Mustangs. LeVias was the first African American scholarship athlete and the second African American football player in the Southwest Conference.

He played professionally in the AFL with the Houston Oilers, and in the NFL with the Oilers and the San Diego Chargers, serving as a wide receiver throughout his career.