Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson has been open to talking about his background. Wilson even talked about the details of his lineage in a public forum. Though the 34-year-old was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, he attended high school in Virginia before going to play baseball and football at North Carolina State. Wilson transferred to Wisconsin for his final season of college football.
Along with being a third-round pick by the Seattle Seahawks, Wilson was selected twice in the MLB Draft. The Orioles picked Wilson as a second baseman in the 41st round of the 2007 Draft. After playing at North Carolina State, the Rockies selected him in the fourth round. He played minor league baseball for two seasons.
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Russell Wilson’s Parents’ Background
Russell’s father, Harrison, played football at Dartmouth before going to law school at Virginia. Harrison Wilson tried for an NFL career before becoming a lawyer. He died at 55 in 2010.
Russell’s mother, Tammy, started her career as a registered nurse in the early 1980s and had a long career in the medical care industry.
She has degrees from Virginia, Xavier, Cincinnati, and Ohio in communications and nursing.
Wilson Shares With the Public
Wilson joined historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., who is the host of the PBS show “Finding Your Roots,” in 2016. The event was shown on PBS and was held in front of 4,500 people at the Richmond Forum.
Gates told Wilson that his lineage dated back to 524 AD and Saint Arnulf of Metz, a Frankish bishop. Gates also told Wilson he could be traced back to an English king.
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Gates also revealed that Wilson’s great-great-great-great-grandmother had a white mother but had to sue for over two decades for her freedom.
Wilson told Gates, “Sometimes,” he said, “you have to forget what a person looks like, forget what a person believes in, forget what a person does or does not have. You have to look deep inside and love.”
Wilson’s paternal grandfather, Harrison B. Wilson Jr., who was a former president of Norfolk State University, played football and basketball at Kentucky State University.
Wilson said in 2015 on social media that he has Native American heritage. He provided no other details about this part of his background.
Wilson Wins a Super Bowl
Wilson and the Seahawks defeated the Broncos in 2014, and he became the second African-American starting quarterback to win a Super Bowl.
After winning the game, Wilson wrote the following for Sports Illustrated: “But it was interesting that no one talked about the black quarterback thing — at least to me — until our team visited the White House in May.”
President Obama said something about it that day: “Russell became only the second African-American quarterback ever to win a Super Bowl. And the best part about it is nobody commented on it, which tells you the progress that we’ve made, although we’ve got more progress to make.’’