Former Buccaneer and Super Bowl-winning NFL player helps next generation on and off the field
TAMPA, Fla. - A former professional football player is helping Bay Area students see the benefit of getting a college education.
Visiting students at the NFL Yes Center in West Tampa brings back fond memories for Tyrone Keys.
"From the root to the fruit there. That's what people know us as because we stick with students from the beginning to the end," he said.
Keys is the founder of All-Sports Community Service, a grass-root youth scholarship mentoring program he started in 1991.
Tyrone Keys and students at the NFL Yes Center.
"We help the high school students develop a game plan beyond high school. We move with them every year to graduation, to career, and then they come back and they keep it going. And now we want our third generation of students," he added.
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Keys was born in Jackson, Mississippi and was a star player at Mississippi State University.
"I was an all-SEC performer there and now Hall of Fame. Not only within athletics but also in the Education Hall of Fame. And then most recently received a lifetime achievement award for the state of Mississippi for the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame," Keys shared.
Keys was born in Jackson, Mississippi and was a star player at Mississippi State University.
After reaching the top of the NFL world in 1985 by winning the Super Bowl with the Chicago Bears and also playing for the Bucs, Keys knows it takes teamwork to win on the field and is paying it forward to win in the community.
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"It was a dream come true for me when I got a chance to go to the Chicago Bears to be with somebody that took me up under their wings and mentor me to the do's and don'ts of a big city like Chicago," Keys explained.
Tyrone Keys has helped thousands of students get into college.
Now, he's following suit helping thousands of students get into college. His All-Sports mentoring program was recently inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame. He took the money that came with the honor and donated it to Blake High School's Football program.
"It's just a blessing what he does for young people and how he motivates us," stated Blake High School’s Head football coach Richard Cowans.
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Jamal Jefferson was a high school student when he first met Keys. Now he's the site supervisor at the NFL YES Center.
Tyrone Keys' All-Sports mentoring program was recently inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame.
"He's been a person that I look to when I need guidance," Jefferson shared. "Me, myself, professionally, personally. So it's just, you know, like I said, ‘It's been it's been a blessing for me to know Mr. Keys.’"
Keys says mentoring has to come with an open, selfless heart.
"And knowing that your gratification has come from seeing the person that you're working with fulfill their dreams, and then not only fulfill their dreams, but come back and help the next," Keys stated.
A joy that he's hoping to hand off to others for years to come.