When Sunday’s Super Bowl XLV kicks off from the House that Jerry Built in Arlington, Texas, one Vicksburg native will be watching with pride as a former player takes the field.

Vicksburg High football coach Alonzo Stevens beams when he talks about his greatest recruiting coup from his days as an assistant coach at Alcorn State, Green Bay Packers wide receiver Donald Driver.

Stevens convinced Driver, who was also a standout track athlete, to spurn hometown schools Houston and Rice in 1994 for an opportunity in Lorman, miles away figuratively and literally from the hardscrabble streets of Driver’s youth.

The key pitch was allowing the man known as “Quickie” the chance to excel in both of his disciplines, football and track.

“We knew that he was a great athlete, football-wise,” said Stevens, who doubled as Alcorn’s track and field coach at the time. “But we also knew getting him would be a win-win situation. He may have gone to a big school, but he might not have been able to do both (track and football).”

Driver had a tough childhood in Houston. His family was evicted from their apartment and forced to spend nights in cheap motel rooms, the family car and even a U-Haul trailer.

Going to Lorman was a dream come true for Driver. The young man who had to live out of the moving trailer now had a true home.

“Mama wanted him out of Houston, the environment and everything,” Stevens said. “But he always had that work ethic. He got down to Lorman and fell in love with it, the friendliness, the closeness of the campus. From then on, he was a Mississippi boy. It was a good fit.”

He was a standout football player for the Braves and finished his career ranked sixth on the Braves’ career receiving list with 1,933 yards and No. 5 on the touchdown reception list with 17. In his senior season alone, Driver caught 55 passess for 1,128 yards and 10 touchdowns.

He won SWAC indoor and outdoor track championships three times, planting himself in the Southwestern Athletic Conference record books in the long, triple and high jumps. His 7-feet, 6½-inch high jump was enough to qualify him for the 2000 Olympics, but he passed on the chance for the NFL.

He was a seventh-round pick of the Packers in the 1999 Draft — the final round, where teams fill the bottom rungs of the depth chart and the practice squad. Driver persevered. He gave the first-team defense fits on the practice squad thanks to unflappable faith in himself and that second-to-none work ethic. Defensive coordinator Ed Donatell became Driver’s biggest backer and the Packers finally got him on the field in a bigger role at the start of the 2002 season.

Driver formed a bond with former Packer Brett Favre as his go-to wide receiver, catching 70 passes for 1,064 yards and nine touchdowns. He became the lowest-drafted Packer to go to a Pro Bowl in 2002 and he’s made two more trips since then, in 2006 and 2007.

Driver has gone from being an afterthought seventh-round draft pick to a 12-year career, where he ranks first on Green Bay’s all-time list for receptions with 647 and second with 9,050 career yards.

While he might be nearing the end of a legendary career, it’s hard to count out Driver, who has outlasted nearly all of the skeptics.

“If Driver is in the ball game, blocking, catching and bringing his energy, you’ve got to go with him,” Stevens said. “He’s primetime. He’s a fighter. I’ve watched this kid come out of an environment where he wasn’t the kind of person he is, he wouldn’t have made it.”

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Steve Wilson is sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. You can follow him on Twitter at vpsportseditor. He can be reached at 601-636-4545, ext. 142 or at swilson@vicksburgpost.com.