Hall of Fame
Football (1989-1990)
Hunkie Cooper starred at every level – from Palestine Westwood High School — to Navarro College — to University of Nevada, Las Vegas — to a legendary Arena Football League career with the Arizona Rattlers. Cooper defined ‘all-purpose’ because he played with all purpose. He quarterbacked
Navarro to its first NJCAA Football Championship in 1989. Cooper earned NCAA All-American honors at UNLV, where he scored touchdowns four different ways in his debut. In two years for the Rebels, he played six positions: quarterback, running back, receiver, cornerback, kick returner, and punt returner — just a foreshadowing of his professional days to come.
In 1993, Cooper began his tenure with the Arizona Rattlers. After 13 seasons, the league MVP (1993) and Ironman Award Winner (1999 and 2000), led the Arizona Rattlers to two championships (1994 and 1997) while totaling over 20,000 all-purpose yards in the AFL. He was named the fifth greatest player in Arena Football League history by the league’s Silver Anniversary Selection Committee and inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame in 2011. A member of
the AFL, Southern Nevada Sports and UNLV Halls of Fame, Cooper’s #14 jersey is one of three retired by the Arizona Rattlers.
