A day before last Halloween, as his Jackson State squad continued its march along a season of unprecedented success, Deion Sanders was unable to travel with his team for its game at Mississippi Valley State.
Sanders still engaged the program that day, as his Tigers won 28-19 en route to their 11-win season.
Recently, completing a vow he had made to a chief rival, Sanders traveled to Mississippi Valley State.
“Guess what I did today,” Sanders asked on video. “I told my dear friend coach Vincent Dancy of Mississippi Valley State I was going to pull up. Guess what I did? I pulled up. Met his whole entire staff, I got to kick it with them, talk to them, showed me his training room, showed me the equipment room, showed me all kind of rooms.
“Then we went out to that place, I was injured, I was in the hospital, I wasn’t able to make it to this game but it was a tough game, a great game.”
Sanders said Dancy shared with his rival coach the obstacles at hand for the Delta Devils’ football program, located in Itta Bena, Mississippi, some 100 miles north from Jackson.
“He talked to me about some of the trials and tribulations that they have at Mississippi Valley State,” said Sanders, who shared video from inside MVSU’s Rice-Totten Stadium. “I asked him where is the practice field. He showed me the game field, I said where is the practice field, shouldn’t it be right there.
“He said I’m going to take you there. It’s about a mile away from our complex. You mean to tell me, stop the dern tape, this is the practice field. We got to do something about that.”
Sanders on video cracked a joke about the practice field for MVSU being like something from the vintage “Children of the Corn” horror flick, continued his tour of the area with Dancy and then made a vow to assist the Delta Devils’ program.
“He showed me around their wonderful, beautiful campus. It’s my objective to help Coach Dancy, and his staff, and those wonderful athletes there.
“We’ve got to build them a game field. It’s not going to be turf, it’s going to be a grass field. I need you to help me maintain it, keep it beautiful and green so they excel. Then we’re going to work on a practice field. I’m going to need your help financially, I’m going to need your help in Itta Bena, we need your help. I need you to get at me as soon as possible. Help me help them, coach Dancy is my dude. God bless you.”
Dancy has made steady progress in his four seasons atop the MVSU program; the former Jackson State assistant – well before Sanders’s time atop the program – helped MVSU to three wins in the Southwestern Athletic Conference last season.