Purdue’s Devin Mockobee on donating money to youth football league
Devin Mockobee was in his hometown of Boonville Sunday. He came with a significant donation to help youth football.
BOONVILLE − Before Devin Mockobee was chasing Purdue football records, and even before he was breaking Boonville High School marks, he was a member of his hometown’s youth football league.
Where Mockobee is today, a star running back for the Boilermakers, derives from those early days.
And he never forgot it.
On Sunday, Mockobee repaid the youth program that introduced him to the game with a $10,000 donation to Pioneer Junior Football and Cheer out of his own pocket from NIL (name, image and likeness) earnings.
“When I was growing up, I got put into the youth league and actually going up through the youth league, my dad was the president of our youth league,” Mockobee said. “Every Saturday when we were coming out for football, it was getting here at 7 or 8 a.m. and we were setting up and we were staying there until 6 or 7 at night to tear it down. Every week in my life was football. It’s where I fostered the love for it.
“Some of these kids out here, they might be wearing some of the same helmets and shoulder pads I did when I was a kid. I want to be able to give them something.”
Mockobee was referring to a line of youngsters at Boonville High School’s Bennett Field on Sunday afternoon there to meet their hometown hero and get autographs and photos with the player former Boonville head coach Darin Ward called, “probably the all-time best to come through Boonville High School.”
Conrad Mockobee was president of Pioneer Junior Football and Cheer for five years. Fundraising was often one of the toughest challenges for the league’s board.
“We would draw up this thermometer and we’d keep filling in red trying to hit that $10,000 mark,” Conrad Mockobee said. “I don’t know if that is what made an impression, like an imprint on a figure.”
Mockobee eventually became a two-way starter for the Boonville Pioneers and parlayed that into a walk-on role at Purdue. As a freshman, Mockobee was elevated to starting running back after a rash of injuries in Purdue’s backfield during the 2022 season, earning him a scholarship moving forward.
He enters his final season 1,169 rushing yards behind Mike Alstott’s Purdue career record.
“He’s a very down to earth, a very genuine human being,” said Boonville head football coach John Batts, who was promoted last month after eight years as an assistant coaching the secondary. “He grew up through Boonville youth programs. Boonville means a lot to him and that means a lot to us.”
Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on X and Instagram @samueltking.