Terrell Owens

High school

Benjamin Russell High School

College

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Pro team(s)

San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys, Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals

Terrell Eldorado Owens was born on December 7, 1973, in Alexander City, Alabama (Tallapoosa County), and attended Benjamin Russell High School before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga — a Division I-AA program. The San Francisco 49ers selected him in the third round of the 1996 NFL Draft, and over 15 seasons in professional football, Owens assembled one of the most statistically dominant receiving careers in NFL history. He finished with 1,078 career receptions for 15,934 yards and 153 receiving touchdowns — all among the highest totals in NFL history and sufficient by any analytical measure to place him among the two or three greatest receivers the game has ever produced. He was a six-time Pro Bowl selection, a Super Bowl champion candidate in multiple seasons, and a player whose combination of size, speed, hands, and physical dominance after the catch made him virtually unstoppable at his peak. His exclusion from the Pro Football Hall of Fame for many years — primarily due to off-field controversies and the perception of his conduct in team environments — is regarded by most football analysts as the most glaring injustice in the history of the Hall. He was finally inducted in 2018, and his induction speech — which he delivered himself at a ceremony at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga rather than in Canton — was characteristically and unforgettably Terrell Owens. Born and raised in Alexander City, Alabama.