CHARLOTTE – Duke’s Chandler Rivers took a seat for an ACC Kickoff media days interview. The vast third-floor conference rooms at the Hilton Charlotte Uptown were filled with returning stars discussing their team’s upcoming season.
The 5-foot-10, 180-pound cornerback belonged with the heavyweights. The senior is projected as high as a first-round pick in the 2026 NFL draft. A big senior season maybe helps the Blue Devils build on their 9-4 record last season.
Rivers earned 2024 All-American honors from four publications while allowing only 13 pass completions in 13 games. Amazing. He can maybe add MVP bowl honors in 2025 to his 2023 Birmingham Bowl MVP Trophy.
But no matter how brightly his trophy case glitters by the end of the season, Rivers regrets an empty spot on a shelf at home from his high school career at Beaumont United in the Houston area.
“I wanted to win the Willie Ray Smith Award,” Rivers said. “One hundred percent, I did. Every kid in Southeast Texas wants to win it.”
Some high school dreams stay with elite athletes even as they climb to new heights.
According to the Beaumon Enterprise newspaper, high school athletes in the area consider the Willie Ray Smith Sr. Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year Award the “Heisman Trophy of southeast Texas high school football.” The finalists are announced Heisman Trophy-like prior to the winner’s honored at a dinner.
“I remember when I was a sophomore and one of the seniors on our team was in the running for the award,” Rivers said. “They have a big ceremony. It’s really a major award. It’s second to none in Southeast Texas.”
The Willie Ray Smith awards were inaugurated by the Beaumont Founders Lions Club in 1992 to honor the high school football coaching legend. Smith coached at three Texas high schools during segregation, winning 235 games and two Black state titles. His last stop was for 18 years at Beaumont Charlton Pollard.
But Smith’s career as a teacher and coach stood for more than wins and titles.
At the end of Smith’s coaching career, he was appointed a liaison as the Beaumont Independent School District navigated the difficult process to desegregate campuses in the late 1960s. When Smith retired, naming a football field for him wasn’t enough. The district named a school – Willie Ray Smith Magnet Middle School.
An uncredited Smith legacy dating to segregation was his role as the chief engineer of Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty’s Underground Railroad. In 1963, Smith was unhappy with his oldest son Willie Ray Smith Jr.’s experience at Iowa. Willie Jr. re-injured his knee from high school as a freshman and felt isolated on a predominantly White campus.
Smith Sr. called Daugherty in 1963 and asked him to take his son, Charles “Bubba” Smith.
“And while you’re at it,” Smith told Daugherty, “you should take this guy we’ve been playing against for three years at Baytown, Gene Washington.”
Bubba, a defensive end, and Washington, a receiver, were both two-time All-Americans on Michigan State’s 1965 and 1966 national title teams. Smith was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in 1988 and Washington in 2012.
Willie Ray called Duffy because he was aware of Daugherty’s acceptance of Black athletes. Michigan State’s 1960s rosters were college football’s first fully integrated teams. Daugherty ignored the unwritten quota that limited Black athletes to a half-dozen or so. Others followed it until the late 1960s, including USC. The Trojans’ 1962 national title team numbered five Black players and their 1967 national championship roster seven.
Willie Ray Sr. continued to funnel players to Daugherty, eight in all between 1963 and 1967.
When Michigan State played Notre Dame in the 1966 Game of the Century, the Spartans lined up 20 Black players, 11 Black starters, two Black team captains, College Football Hall of Famers George Webster and Clinton Jones, and Jimmy Raye as the South’s first Black quarterback to win a national title. Notre Dame lined up one Black player, Alan Page.
Of Michigan State’s 11 Black players, three were Underground Railroad passengers Smith Sr. steered to Daugherty – Bubba Smith, Gene Washington and future NFL safety Jess Phillips.
Beaumont still turns out plenty of talent, but the 1960s decade was a golden age. On December 2, 1968, Southern Methodist All-American receiver Jerry LeVias of Beaumont appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson among six All-American players. Carson said Dallas had the Cowboys, Houston the Oilers and … LeVias added that Beaumont “has the NFL.”
In 1971, with 16 Beaumont high school alums playing in the NFL, Beaumont Mayor Ken Ritter proclaimed Beaumont the “Professional Football Capital of the World.”
Texas legendary coach Darrell Royal also credited Smith Sr. with helping him mend fences to recruit Black talent.
Years later Royal, who signed his first Black player in 1969, taped a testimonial that was played at the annual Smith Awards dinner thanking Smith for his gracious spirit.
“He could have adopted an attitude of, ‘Yeah, well, now you need me. I’ve been trying to do this for a long time – to heck with you. But that wasn’t his attitude at all. I sought his counsel, and he gave it to me freely. He told where the mistakes were made and what I needed to do to get things right.”
: Dre’lon Miller (right), a Colorado sophomore receiver in 2025, with his Willie Ray Smith Offensive Player of the Year Award for the 2022 high school season. Jayron Williams (left), who attended Lamar, won the Defensive award.
Rivers says he gained an added appreciation for Smith’s legacy through his parents. For many Gen Z kids, Jim Crow segregation is ancient history without realizing many people who lived through the disgraceful time in American history are still walking around among us.
“That’s one thing my parents have made sure I understand,” Rivers said. “My grandparents didn’t have the opportunities I have.”
Duke wasn’t on Rivers’ radar when then-coach David Cutcliffe knocked on his door, but Rivers said the attitude his parents instilled led to consider Duke for its football and academics.
“I realized there aren’t a lot of people walking around with a Duke degree,” Rivers said. “People everywhere know the value of Duke degree.”
Rivers committed to the Class of 2022 prior to his high school senior season on April 19, 2021.
Aside from academics, a football consideration he weighed was the depth chart and chance to play as a true freshman.
“I didn’t want to sit,” he said. “I wanted to play.”
By the time Rivers got to the Durham campus, he had a new coach – Mike Elko, the former defensive coordinator at Texas A&M (and now the Aggies’ head coach). If Elko overlooked Rivers’ talent – Texas A&M didn’t offer him — Elko recognized the talent Cutcliffe identified.
Rivers played in all 13 games and started six as a 2022 true freshman. He earned the Blue Devils’ rookie award and honorable mention freshman All-American from College Football News.
By the time Elko left following the 2023 season and Manny Diaz arrived as the new head coach 2024, Rivers was established returning junior.
On Thursday at the ACC Kickoff podium, Diaz wasn’t short on superlatives when asked about Rivers. A court stenographer was needed to keep up with Diaz.
“Well, he’s been extremely valuable because he affects winning in so many ways. I think with what we do schematically, I think he’s a great fit. Whether he’s playing outside on the corner and his ability to bump and run against the bigger receivers there or come out of the slot and shut down the slot receivers like he did last year in Raleigh.
“Where he’s also really special, he’s got a phenomenal knack for being a great blitzer, and not everybody will do that. Some guys will get back there, and they can’t find a way to make a play. As you know, we like to get after the quarterback in our system. You want him covering and blitzing on the same play. There’s only one of them on the field.
“That’s what I talk about in terms of we’re proud of what he’s done. We know he wants to step his game up to another level to reach some of those goals he has. Again, it’s more about what your standards are. But I also want him to inspire the younger guys in his room to take the same type of leap he did coming from his first to second to third year for us to really be a complete defense.”
Willie Ray Smith Sr., who died at age 81 in 1992, would be proud with or without the award named for him residing in Rivers’ trophy case.
