By: Rece Allen, Associate Sports Producer

Morehouse Alumnus and retired NFL player, Alex Percival, attended the Morehouse Maroon Tigers first home football game on Oct. 14 against Miles College. Percival came back to his alma mater as a representative of Morehouse for the Morehouse College National Alumni Association (MCNAA) and their community outreach program, The First Five Hundred. 

Percival, in 1977 became the second player from Morehouse ever to be drafted into the NFL by the Cincinnati Bengals in the 12th round. 

During his collegiate career, Percival set the school record for most receptions with 134 until the record was broken in 2000. Percival was also a four-time All-SIAC selection at wide receiver in consecutive years and a Golden Helmet Award winner as the most outstanding player in 1974. 

The achievements of Percival’s playing days at Morehouse, led him to be inducted into the SIAC Hall of Fame Class of 2023 at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, Georgia. 

“All 134 catches I made helped me to get here [SIAC Hall of Fame] and I’m glad because I’m still on the shoulders of the guys I played ball with, my teammates,” Percival said in an interview with SIAC Sports. “I appreciate what they did to help me achieve this goal because without them I wouldn’t be here.”

Percival chose to attend Morehouse because of his father. His father was a friend of Rosa Parks, who was friends with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a Morehouse Alumni. Parks told Percival’s father about Morehouse which led to his decision to sign.

“I wasn’t going to go to Morehouse, I was going to go to a Big East school,” Percival told the Maroon Tiger. “But my father was kin to Rosa Parks, and Dr. King and Rosa Parks were very good friends. She told my dad about Morehouse College and that’s how it started. I came to visit, and I didn’t see things I wanted to see, however I wanted to please my father, so I signed with Morehouse.”

Percival loves and appreciates Morehouse and claims that it helped mold him into the man that he is today. He believes Morehouse provides students with the best professors, and community, as well as helps students to find their purpose.  

In his early years at Morehouse, Percival dealt with a lot of adversity, but the biggest was the death of his mother. This tragedy motivated him and was the key to his success as a student athlete. 

“I promised my mom I would get my degree,” Percival said. “My mother died my freshman year in college and that was a tragedy because I made some promises to her and one was to get my degree, and I did. As well as when I got drafted, it made me feel like I owed that to her.”

Percival’s advice to student athletes at Morehouse is to “come in with a mission in mind and know what your purpose is. Be serious about your students and try to achieve excellence on and off the field.”

Percival is ensuring that students understand, Morehouse has a great history and legacy. Students should not sell the school or themselves short of anything less than greatness.

Copy Edited By: Kobe Scales, Sports Editor