Travis Hunter gives emotional, amazing speech after Heisman win

Travis Hunter’s speech about winning the Heisman was almost as outstanding as his two-way play on the field, as the star of the Colorado Buffaloes broke down in gratitude as he accepted college sports’ biggest award in New York City on Saturday.

Hunter thanked his fiance and mother for their unwavering support since his early days of college and then shouted out Deion Sanders and Shedeur Sanders. Keeping it the family, he showed love for his little brother and spoke of the example he wanted to set for him. Hunter thanked college coaches, teachers, and teammates from both Jackson State and Colorado. Most of all, Hunter dedicated his success to his father, who couldn’t be in the Big Apple.

Before the speech started fellow Buff Chris Fowler for ESPN encouraged Hunter to lift the actual trophy he’ll be taking home to Boulder. Hunter let out a giant “Let’s go,’ before composing himself profusely thanking God.

Watch the full speech below, a full transcript of the speech is also below:

Travis Hunter's speech after winning the 2024 Heisman Trophy 👏 pic.twitter.com/7tPL7tw4Rt

— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) December 15, 2024

“Thank God, thank God. Man. Never thought I would be in this position. It’s crazy. Your beliefs take you a long way. It’s actually crazy, man. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. First I want to thank my fiance and my mother. They’ve been with me since the first time I had surgery in my first year of college. They never took a step away from me all the hard hours, all the hard days, all the time, I didn’t want to wake up and even watch my phone, get on my phone, look at football. Y’all stay with me. I’m very thankful for y’all. I’m thankful, I’m thankful, I’m thankful. Thankful for my mother. You know, she took me out of Florida, a bad area, always getting in trouble. Thank you. I want to thank Coach Prime Shedeur, man, y’all changed my life forever. That one simple phone call should do it look where I’m at. Man, that’s crazy, bro, it’s crazy. I’m trying to not get emotional because I know our last game coming up soon. Thankful for both of y’all, Coach Prime I’m gonna whoop you on that lake (fishing) tomorrow or whenever we get the chance. But thank you, man, you changed my life forever. I told you that multiple times. I really appreciate it. (Lil) Wayne, you don’t know how you came here, came into our life, man, my fiance. Love you. I didn’t know none of your songs. Until she let me know, because I don’t listen to music, she let me know. She told me you got you got to listen to this. If you don’t listen to music, listen to Wayne. And from that day on, that’s all I listen to pregame music. Those are songs I listen to when I get that TRX and I blast that music. I’m listening to Wayne. It’s crazy. Six foot, seven foot, eight foot, that’s my song, I’m telling you. Man, that goes crazy. I respect you for coming out here, coming to support me. Man, you know Coach Ray. I know you over there, trying not to get emotional. Well, bro, it’s them hard hours, and sleepless nights that we had, making the final decision to even come back and go with Coach Prime and Colorado. I mean, it’s crazy how far it took us. I’m just shocked to be on this stage right now. I can’t even get everything out that I want to say, but man, I love you. Thank you, for everything that you have done for me. Thank you, my brother. Where are you at? Trayvis? That’s my dog. Man, you know, I do this for you, bro. We’ve been doing this for a long time. You was always next to me, even the times I ain’t want to take you. My mama made me take you, bro. I’m doing this for you, bro. I’m doing it for all my siblings. Man, I thank y’all for keep looking up to me. I’ll make sure I keep taking the right steps in the right direction for y’all. Relay that to all of them, even if I don’t get to talk to them or don’t see them tonight. I’m thankful for y’all being behind me and looking up to your big brother. I will never let you down. I’ma keep going. Never let nobody tell you what you can’t do. Always do it and keep your foot on the gas. My cousin, we used to play the game 24/7 I never thought we’d be out in this moment, be here on this stage. We were always making create-a-players and making them 99s. And we play that game all the time. Man, appreciate you being here. And my grandma, you’re the person that got me to start playing football. That means so much to me. You’ve seen the vision before I even seen the vision at four years old, you told me to go put on some pads go out in the front yard, and play with your cousins. Y’all see how small I am. Just imagine me at four years old trying to put on shoulder pads. It’s crazy, you know. I thank you. I thank you. I know you up there crying. I rarely talk to you, but I’m telling you right now. I love you. Thank you for everything you have done. And I want to say something to my father. He is not here to be able to make it, but I know you watching on TV, Dad, I love you. All the stuff you went through. Man, I look at your oldest son, I did this for you. Man, all the times that you didn’t get to see me when the time you came to see my games, from not seeing probably two games in high school to seeing me on TV every weekend and coming to see me, man, that means so much to me. I know you wanted to be here. You can’t, but trust me, I got you. I’m bringing the trophy home. I love you. I got one more thing I want to say, you know all the coaches that helped me when my mom took me and my brother to move away from Florida to Georgia, I thank y’all so much. Coach Fallon, I appreciate you. You took me every practice. You took me to go get my first pair of cleats in high school. You took me to every training session that I had two times a day, every day of the week in the off-season. You made sure you made sure I had the good grades to get through high school. Thank you so much. I know you’re back home watching this right now. I hope you don’t cry, but I’ma cry for you. Thank you all my homies, coaches, and teachers. I thank y’all. Y’all shine the light on me. Y’all helped me get everything I needed and everything I wanted out of football. Thank y’all. Last but not least my Colorado Buffaloes, I appreciate y’all so much. I know y’all somewhere out here in New York. Nobody knows y’all here, but now they know baby, now they know. I thank all the brothers, all my brothers through college. You know, Jackson State included. That was my learning ground. That was my Proving Grounds. I had to start somewhere, and I started there. Thank y’all at Jackson State, but Colorado, I know y’all somewhere. And we got just after party is going to crazy. Hey, appreciate y’all, man, I love y’all. I put y’all on the flight, but y’all the most people that made it. Thank y’all for making the flight. Holding my name down, holding the Colorado name down. Sko buffs, baby.”