0:05

Hey, nice guy. What's easy now? Rambo 59. Get on the ball Rambo. Welcome to the Forgotten quarterbacks, hosted by W Earl Kitchens. Our podcast is dedicated to preserving the legacies of black quarterbacks who've. Played the game of American football, and now here's your host, w Earl Kitchens. Hello again and welcome to another edition of the Forgotten Quarterbacks. I'm your host of your old kitchens, and we are always happy to bring you another episode of information about black quarterbacks who've played the game of American football. This month we've been talking about the quarterbacks who have played in the Arena Football League and the indoor football leagues, and we wanted to continue that. With our third party in this series. So before we go into these gentlemen, do you know that in the National Football League there is only one black quarterback in the NFL Hall of Fame? Only one In almost 70 years or more, only one guy has been inducted. That gentleman is Warren Moon. Warren Moon had a great career, not only in college at University of Washington, uh, outstanding career in Edmonton in the Canadian Football League, where he won five gray cups, but when the NFL finally took note of Warren Moon, he was. A guy who had an opportunity to get his starts with the old Houston Oilers, now the Tennessee Titans. But the Houston Oilers was the franchise he started with, went on to play for the Minnesota Vikings, where he had an outstanding career there and finished up with the Seattle Seahawks. But isn't it interesting that. There has only been one black quarterback in the NFL to make it into Canton, Ohio, where so many outstanding NFL Legends are recognized for their talents in the NFL. So what we're going to do is bring you the four. Black quarterbacks who are in the indoor football leagues, hall of Fame, only four, you know, the indoor league slash Arena league. You know, no matter how you overlap them, they basically all have that one common thread. They play indoors, they play in arenas in some city throughout America. Now I'm, I'm curious as to if this particular segment of football will catch on in other parts of the world, uh, specifically because it is played indoors. Now, I'm not sure about countries and whether or not they have arenas like that, but you know, as the game continues to grow. Perhaps this aspect of American football will grow in other parts of the world. It definitely gives you an opportunity to have a team without the maybe so-called expense of having a full football stadium. Or if you've got an arena, you can adapt it to fit. But our four gentlemen that we would like to bring note. For their induction into the indoor football League Hall of Fame. We want to go ahead and give you that information. Now, some of the well-known teams from some of the arena football leagues moved to the indoor football league between 2020, I'm sorry, 2014 and 2022. This transformation basically, or transition was a business decision, but it had little effect on the achievements of several players. Who were inducted into the IFL Hall of Fame, uh, four black quarterbacks, as I stated earlier, have earned this prestigious honor. Those players are Houston Lillard, Jamil Sewell, Chris Dixon, and Terrence Bryant. Our first quarterback we'd like to recognize is Houston Lier. He played his collegiate football at Southeastern Missouri and he went on to play for the Tri-Cities Fever during his five year career. He led the fever to two consecutive conference championships in 2011 and 2012 while earning all IFL Honors for those two seasons. After his career ended, lillard ranks third in IFL history and passing touchdowns with 208. And fourth in passing yards, 9,102, uh, with 1,360 attempts. Houston Lillard. The next guy is Jamil Sewell, a two time league MVP. During his six year career, the former University of Virginia Star. He began his career in the IFL in 2011 as a member of the Green Bay Blizzard, and his playmaking ability made him a strong dual threat quarterback. And as we talk about quarterbacks in this era of American football, which probably is that era, let's just say starting in 2000, the dual threat banner is. Highlighted more and more and more guys nowadays with this arena, indoor Canada, NFL, the dual threat banner is now being a part of their title simply because as the game continues to get faster, especially on the defensive side of the ball, quarterbacks have to. Yeah, find ways to escape the pressures that defenses put on them. So Sewell was another one of these Playmakers, one of these phenomenal dual threat Playmakers. So he started with the Green Bay blizzard, and then he joined the Nebraska Danger in 2012 and led the team to three consecutive United Bowl championships in 20 13, 14, and 15. In thir 2013 Sewell was named the I-F-L-M-V-P after leading the league in passing yards with 2,531 and Russian yards with 654. He earned the honor again in 2015 after leading the danger to the United Bowl championship game, and Sewell now ranks third all time in IFL history in rushing touchdowns with 88 fifth in rushing yards with 2000. 157 and six in passing touchdowns. 151. He was twice named first team, all FIFL and that fifth and Russian yards. It's Russian yards for quarterbacks. I wanna make sure we note that Jamele Stewart. The next quarterback we wanna recognize is Chris Dixon. Dixon is considered the greatest player in IFL history. I. After a stellar career at Humboldt State University, Dixon began his indoor career in 2005 and over a five year period, he won five United Bowl championships in his first year of existence in 2009. Dixon Got it. The billings outlaws. To the first ever IFL United Bowl Championship and again, in 2010 he signed with Sioux Falls. I'm sorry. He signed with the Sioux Falls team in 2011, spending three seasons with the storm from 20 11, 20 12, and 2014, and compiled a 40 and two regular season record. And three additional United Bowl championships winning a total of five United Bowl titles. Dixon is a three time league, MVPA four time United Bowl MVPA four time offensive player of the year and a five time all IFL team selection. His career passing yards includes regular season and postseason IFL records. Career completion percentage of 68.6. He passed for 12,963 yards in his career and had 323 touchdowns. What a phenomenal player this guy was. And of course, you did not hear about a guy like a Chris Dixon because you did not hear a lot about Humboldt State. And you know, guys from the. A, in the FCS or from the division two level, they really fly up under the radar as the major media is concerned. However, when they get opportunities to use their talents and skills and abilities, a Chris Dixon comes out of the crowd and stands tall. So Chris Dixon, congratulations. And then finally our last IFL Hall of Famer is Terrence Bryant. He played at Ohio, I'm sorry, he played at Oregon State. He had a seven year career with the Sioux Falls storm from 2005 to 2011. He led the storm to five United Bowl championships, uh, between 2005, 2008. And in 2013 and was named the United Bowl MVP in 2 0 0 6 and 2013, Ryan was an All American selection during the 2006, 2007, 2008 seasons, and was named League MVP in 2006 for his career. Bryant passed for 15,000, 11 yards and 280 touchdowns. He gathered the storm to a seventh United Bowl Championships winning that title in front of the home fans, and was named the Games MVP. So those are the four outstanding quarterbacks who, while you may not know them from the major media markets. If you are a fan of a team in the IFL Indoor Football League and had a chance to go see these guys play, you are familiar with who they are and what they did. You know, you look at a guy like a, a Terrance Bryant passing for 15,000 yards in a seven year career. Ha. From Miami, Florida. Uh, Chris Dixon. From Richmond, California, almost 13,000 yards, 323 touchdowns. And you know, they run those scores up in, in, in indoor football league and arena football league's pretty good. So it's not hard for you to imagine guys getting that many touchdowns in their career. Jemele Stewart was from Richmond, Virginia, and then Houston Lillard was another California product. From the Bay area of Oakland, California. So we salute these outstanding quarterbacks who cut their teeth in this league and stood tall and stood strong in giving it all they had for the time they played. And we just wanted you to know that we are happy that they were able to prof be inducted. And, and the, again, the IFL has not been around long, but already the number of black quarterbacks in that Hall of Fame already surpasses what is it had, what they have in the NFL, I mean four in the IFL three, I'm sorry, one in the NFL. When the cream rises to the top, talent will be found. Well, we hope you've enjoyed another edition of the Forgotten Quarterbacks. We hope that you'll join us next Sunday for our final Part four in this series about the quarterbacks from the Indoor Football League and the Arena Football League. If you are interested in keeping up with more about what we do here at Quarter five Back, check us out. Go to our website@quarterfiveback.com. You can also tune in Monday nights for our TV podcast where we talk to quarterbacks from the past and the present from middle school all the way up through the pros. And if you're interested in just finding out more, you can also order my book, the Forgotten Quarterbacks. Until next time, I'm w Earl Kitchen saying Take care. And so. Thank you for joining us here on the Forgotten quarterbacks with Host w Earl Kitchen. Join us as we discuss more about the legacies of black quarterbacks who've played the game of American football.