Perhaps no one has captured the attention of college football fans more than Colorado two-way star Travis Hunter Jr.
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All he's done in two games under Deion Sanders is play 270 snaps — including 14 catches for 192 yards and a jaw-dropping interception in the Buffaloes' opening win against TCU.
"I'm not tired right now. I'm ready to go back again," he said after the TCU win.
As Hunter sets the football world ablaze, it's fair to wonder who created this specimen. His dad, Travis Hunter Sr., was a football star back in the day.
Travis Hunter Sr. Played at Lamar Jackson's High School
Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images
If you were curious where an athlete like Travis Hunter Jr. gets his talent from, well, the apple may not fall far.
Travis Hunter Sr. starred on the gridiron in the early 2000s for Boynton Beach High School in Boynton Beach, Fla., where he also ran track. According to The Tallahassee Democrat, he once returned a kick for an 82-yard touchdown and had a 46-yard pick-six to snap his team's 14-game losing streak. A search on Google's news archives reveals plenty more touchdowns during his heyday.
His speed was next-level, too. As a 15-year-old freshman, he ran the 100 meters in 10.82 seconds. He even was part of a relay team that set the school record, one that not even Boynton Beach HS alumnus Lamar Jackson could break years later.
Hunter actually planned to play college football, telling the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in 2008 that he would've played JUCO in Kansas after graduating if it weren't for his two children. He wound up playing semipro football in leagues like the Florida Football Alliance and Southern States Football League.
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"I am trying to chase a dream," he said in 2008. "I would be willing to go arena first and I'll go from there. I'll see who picks me up. I will go to the Canadian League, or the NFL, whoever wants me. I just want to play ball. I was supposed to go to Dodge, Kansas [after graduation], but I had two kids so I couldn't leave them."
Travis Jr. was born in May 2003 in nearby West Palm Beach. He's called his childhood "rough," though it's unclear why. His dad has been part of his football journey, as he posed with his son on the field at Jackson State. It's unclear if he's with his mother, Ferrante Edmonds, but she has been supportive as well.
Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images
Hunter Jr. moved from Florida to Georgia before high school, where he blossomed into the nation's top recruit at Collins Hill High School in Suwanee, Ga. A shocking decision to follow Sanders to Jackson State, an HBCU, and a move to Colorado after that have thrusted Hunter into the national spotlight.
Some two decades after his father's dreams were halted, it's Travis Hunter Jr.'s time to shine.
