According to his autobiography Rice, his mother did not allow him to play football during his freshman year. When Rice was a sophomore, the school's principal caught Rice being truant. After Rice sprinted away, the principal told the school's football coach about Rice's speed, and he was offered a place on the team.

Rice attended Mississippi Valley State University from 1981 to 1984. He became a standout receiver and acquired the nickname "World" due to "his ability to catch anything near him."

Together with QB Willie Totten, Rice set numerous NCAA records in the spread offense of coach Archie Cooley, nicknamed "The Gunslinger".

As a senior in 1984, his 27 touchdown receptions set the NCAA record for all divisions and caught the attention of NFL scouts.

The Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers both showed interest in Rice. Dallas had the 17th selection in the first round, and San Francisco, as Super Bowl champion from the previous season, had the last. On draft day, 49ers head coach Bill Walsh traded the team's first two picks for the New England Patriots' first-round choice, the 16th selection overall, and selected Rice before the Cowboys were able to pick him.

Although he went 17th overall in the NFL Draft, Rice was prized more highly by the United States Football League (USFL), where the Birmingham Stallions selected him with the No. 1 overall pick of the 1985 USFL Draft, but the league folded after its 1986 season.

One of the best known examples of Jerry Rice's dedication and work ethic may be "The Hill", a long, steep hill in Edgewood County Park & Natural Preserve, that is two and a half miles up. "The main thing for me was conditioning, and it started with this hill," Rice would say after his retirement. "We did this, and it's what made us capable of outdoing everybody else during the football season. It was about being able to put your body through pain. His cool down--ten 100-yard "Easy Stride-Outs" up the first leg of the hill--was more intense than some players' entire workouts. "I was always surprised," he said, "because there were a lot of professional players that would wait until training camp to work themselves into shape."

During his sophomore season, he caught 86 passes for a league-leading 1,570 yards and 15 touchdowns. It was the first of six seasons in which Rice led the NFL in receiving yards and touchdown receptions.

Originally developed by Bill Walsh during the 1960s while he was an assistant with the Cincinnati Bengals, the West Coast Offense is based on the idea of throwing a lot of quick, timed, high-percentage passes in order to keep control of the ball. While other teams had used ball-control offenses before, they were usually built around the running game. Walsh's strategy was unique in that it maintained the ball-control aspect, yet allowed for big plays as well since it was designed so that wide receivers could pick up large chunks of yards after the catch.

After catching 67 touchdown passes from the great Joe Montana, Jerry Rice caught an additional 92 touchdown passes from Steve Young.