Deron L. Cherry

Deron L. Cherry, the former Rutgers gridiron star, has risen steadily in the professional sports and business worlds. He played defensive back for the Kansas City Chiefs, is a successful entrepreneur, and is one of the first African Americans to co-own a professional NFL football team. A native of Palmyra, he was MVP and co-captain of the Scarlet Knights in 1980. Rutgers inducted him into its Football Hall of Fame in 1993, and in the same year, the Rutgers Alumni Association named him a Loyal Son. After his 1992 retirement from pro football, he bought a stake in the Jacksonville Jaguars, becoming one of several partners in the NFL team. In 1996, he was inducted into the Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame. Ranked one of the finest free safeties ever to play football, he also played in the Pro Bowl six times. Today, Cherry is the general managing partner of United Beverage Company, an Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship in Kansas City, Missouri. He is known for his generous public service; through his Devon Cherry Foundation, he helped create the Score 1 for Health program, which provides free health screenings to children living in Kansas City’s urban core.