Travis Hunter Jr. honors dad watching the Heisman ceremony on TV

On By Littum

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In his acceptance speech Saturday night, Colorado Buffaloes two-way star Travis Hunter acknowledged the efforts of all the coaches, family members and supporters who helped him on his way to winning the Heisman Trophy.

But Hunter mentioned one person in particular who was not there in New York for the splendid ceremony.

“I want to say something to my dad. He’s not here and wasn’t able to make it, but I know you’re watching TV,” he said. “Dad, I love you. For all the things you went through man … Now look at your oldest son. I did it for you, man.”

Hunter Jr.’s emotional words didn’t even begin to convey the struggles his family experienced before his moment of triumph.

Why wasn’t Travis Hunter Jr.’s father at the Heisman Trophy ceremony?

Travis Hunter Sr. found out his son had won the Heisman, as most of America did, on television.

“I don’t want to go,” he said in a recent interview with the Palm Beach Postpart of the USA TODAY Network. “I want to be there when he gets married and when he is appointed. I want to watch this from home.”

Hunter made his comments to the Post on Dec. 5, the day he was released from the Palm Beach County West Detention Center in Belle Glade, Florida. Travis Sr. was sentenced in late September to 90 days in connection with an arrest in 2023. He was released about three weeks early.

After watching his son win college football’s most coveted award, Hunter told the Post that was always part of the plan.

“I really don’t feel any different because I always know he could win if he set out to win,” he said. “He’s always had that … since he started playing football when he was 4 years old.

“At the end of the day, I’d always tell him he’s the best player anyway, so he’s got to go out there and play like that. Every time I’d tell him he’d go out there and play like whether he was the best player in the world.”

Who is Travis Hunter Sr.?

Now 39, Travis Sr. was a football and track star for Boynton Beach High School in Florida in the early 2000s.

As a 15-year-old middle school student in 2001, he ran the 100 meters in 10.82 seconds. A star football player on offense, defense and special teams, he had dreams of playing in college and perhaps the NFL.

“I just want to play ball. I was supposed to go to Dodge, Kansas (for junior college after graduation), but I had two kids, so I couldn’t leave them,” he told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in 2008.

He starred in a semipro league in Florida, but never reached that level.

In that context, Travis Hunter Jr. making it to play college football at Jackson State and then Colorado became even more special. Travis Sr. often attended his son’s matches, but could not in the second half of this season. Instead, he watched them on TV in the detention center.

So it was no surprise that his son got a little emotional in his acceptance speech.

“All the times you didn’t get to see me or the times you came to see my games. From not seeing two games in high school to watching me on TV every weekend and coming to see me. It means so much for me,” Hunter Jr. said.

“I know you wanted to be here and you can’t, but trust me, I got you. I’m taking home the trophy. I love you.”

Contributors: Eric J. WallacePalm Beach Post