By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SPENCER — North Rowan graduate Javon Hargrave turned 31 on Wednesday, as a San Francisco 49er and as one of the best — and best-compensated — defensive tackles in the National Football League.

Hargrave’s road to unfathomable riches, eight NFL seasons, two Pro Bowl selections and his second consecutive Super Bowl appearance got started at North Rowan where he sported quite a few different jerseys — 32 and 52 in football and 33 and 24 in basketball. The Cavaliers probably should retire all of them. He made five of the Post’s All-Rowan County teams, three in football and two in basketball, before moving on to the college ranks.

While Halls of Fame are usually for retirees, Hargrave (6-foot-2, 305 pounds) already is a member of three — Salisbury-Rowan, South Carolina State University and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

It began for Hargrave at North with the 2007 football season, the last one for head coach Avery Cutshaw. The Cavaliers were respectable, a break-even team in the 2A Central Carolina Conference. But in a county where West Rowan and Salisbury were steamrolling and East Rowan, which beat the Cavaliers 27-14, was having a huge season, North didn’t get much attention.

The story goes that Hargrave began his freshman football season as a jayvee because he hadn’t dominated in practice, but when the lights came on for that first jayvee game, he was a special athlete and quickly demonstrated to coaches he should be playing on Fridays, not Thursdays.

After he was elevated to varsity, he recorded some sacks, but his first major notation in the Post’s record book was a fumble recovery in Week 5, a 23-20 loss to Thomasville.

As a sophomore in the fall of 2008, Hargrave played for one of the least successful teams in a proud football program’s history. In the record book, the Cavaliers are 1-10, but that win was a forfeit by Salisbury after the Hornets had trampled North 52-8 on the field. That was the season that opened with a 60-0 thrashing by West Rowan and was followed by a 36-0 loss to Carson, the first football game that Carson, in its third year of competition, ever had won. North’s offense averaged a meager 7 points per game for the season, although the defense, led by Hargrave, was pretty good.

It wasn’t easy to stand out on a team that lost every week, but Hargrave did. He made All-Rowan County for the first time. He scored two touchdowns, including the first one of his career on a fumble recovery against Forbush. He got 18 carries as a running back that season, and he produced a 31-yard touchdown run against East Davidson. He ran for a 2-point conversion against Ledford.

In the fall of 2009, Hargrave’s junior season, things were looking up for coach Tasker Fleming. NCHSAA realignment had placed North in the 1A Yadkin Valley Conference. That meant some longer road trips, but it also meant more victories. North went 5-7 overall and finished third behind Albemarle and West Montgomery in the YVC. Hargrave broke the county record with eight fumble recoveries. One of those recoveries resulted in a 32-yard return for a touchdown at East Montgomery. He made all-county for the second time.

East Montgomery players and fans may still be having Hargrave nightmares because as a senior he scored the first two TDs of the home game against East Montgomery. He had a 37-yard scoop-and-score and then added a second TD on a blocked punt.

That destruction of East Montgomery came in the second week of Hargrave’s senior season. On opening night, he had a 19-yard fumble return touchdown that sealed a 12-0 victory against South Stanly. His fourth touchdown that season came when he smashed into the end zone from the 1-yard line against West Montgomery. That touchdown with 3:11 left in the game helped the Cavaliers win a thrilling game.

Albemarle beat North 44-14 that season, but when Albemarle had to forfeit several games, the Cavaliers were the YVC champions. Hargrave, who had seven more fumble recoveries on his way to his county career record of 18, was All-Rowan County for the third time.

Hargrave’s final high school effort came in the East-West All-Star Game in Greensboro in the summer of 2011 as a member of the West squad coached by Salisbury coach Joe Pinyan, who was thrilled to finally have Hargrave on his team. Hargrave had a fumble recovery and three tackles for loss and was named the game’s Defensive MVP.

While Hargrave gradually figured out that his thick, 6-foot-2 frame was best suited for football, his earliest dreams of athletic success were on the basketball court, where he had an excellent career for the Cavaliers.

North head coach Kelly Everhart kept Hargrave on the varsity to begin the 2007-08 season. He scored his first two points on opening night against Carson, but he had a quiet hoops season for a struggling squad that went 7-16. Hargrave scored a modest 37 varsity points as a freshman.

As a sophomore in 2008-09, he again opened the season with two points against Carson, but by December he was turning in his first outstanding games. He scored 13 against Davie, 16 against Ledford, then 19 against Central Davidson, a series of new career highs.

As a junior, Everhart could count on Hargrave for double figures every night and North, which had shifted to the 1A ranks, had improved drastically with the addition of talents such as Pierre Givens, Oshon West, Sam Starks, Malik Ford and TJ Bates. The Cavaliers went 20-6 in what would be Everhart’s final season. Hargrave bumped his career high up to 22 points and made his first All-Rowan County team.

In 2010-11, Andrew Mitchell returned home to North Rowan to become the head coach, and the Cavaliers went 27-5 and won the 1A state championship.

Hargrave had a 24-point game that season against his old friends from East Montgomery for a new career high.

He produced two memorable playoff games. He scored 12 in a tough and low-scoring, third-round game against Monroe. Then he scored 19 in the epic, 92-85, two-overtime win against Winston-Salem Prep in the regional final. Hargrave finished his high school career with 903 points and his second All-Rowan County selection for hoops.

There were detours and setbacks in Hargrave’s search for a college home in the late summer and fall of 2011, due to test anxiety which made it difficult for him to make a qualifying ACT score. After months of being holed up in his room, eating, sleeping and worrying about the future, he finally got the necessary score. South Carolina State, an HBCU school in Orangeburg, was the one school that still wanted him, and he reported for the second semester.

He arrived on campus out of condition from months of inactivity and got shoved around in his early workouts, but once he got in shape, there was no stopping him. In 2012, he became a productive starter.

In 2014, he had the breakout game that put him on the NFL radar. He had six sacks to devastate rival Bethune-Cookman. He amassed 16 sacks that season and had 13 more in 2015. In both seasons, he was named HBCU Defensive Player of the Year. He had 37 sacks in his college career.

He performed well in postseason all-star games and impressed coaches at the NFL Combine. But there were still  plenty of doubters. In the 2016 NFL draft, he was the 89th player picked. The Pittsburgh Steelers, his favorite team, took him in the third round, a dream scenario for him.

It wasn’t long before he was starting for head coach Mike Tomlin’s Steelers. He got the first two sacks of his pro career. He recovered a fumble for a touchdown against the Cleveland Browns.

He gave the Steelers four solid seasons, from 2016-19, with 14.5 sacks, while being paid about $4.4 million.

When he hit free agency, the Philadelphia Eagles signed him for $39 million for three seasons (2020-22). Even at $13 million per year, he proved to be a bargain as a run-stopper who also contributed 23 sacks. He made the Pro Bowl in 2021.

In 2022, he had 11 sacks, and while he didn’t make the Pro Bowl, he did help the Eagles get to the Super Bowl, where they lost to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. That was Hargrave’s final game for the Eagles.

A free agent for the second time, he was considered one of the best players on the market last March, and the 49ers, who haven’t won a Super Bowl since 1995, saw him as a difference-maker. They landed him for an astounding $84 million for four seasons. That’s $21 million per season, making him one of the highest paid linemen in the game. He delivered on that  huge contract with seven sacks and his second Pro Bowl nod, and Sunday, with his new team, Hargrave will get another chance against Mahomes and the Chiefs. Hargrave contributed five tackles, but he didn’t get a sack in the Super Bowl for the Eagles last season, while Mahomes was throwing three touchdown passes.

Hargrave has faced Mahomes quite a few times, including an eye-opening 2018 meeting in Pittsburgh when Hargrave was a young Steeler and Mahomes, who lit up Pittsburgh that day, was still virtually unknown. Now Mahomes is a legend and is playing in his fourth Super Bowl in seven seasons.

Hargrave, who wore 79 with the Steelers and 97, his old South Carolina State number with the Eagles, is now sporting 98 as a 49er.

Hargrave is the 14th player from South Carolina State to play in a Super Bowl. That list includes stars such as Pittsburgh safety Donnie Shell and New York Giants linebacker Harry Carson, but Hargrave will be the only player from any HBCU school playing in today’s game.

Super Bowl LVIII is scheduled to kick off at 6:30 p.m. at Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders. The game is on CBS.

“We know it’s going to take everybody,” Hargrave said earlier this week. “When you make it to these games, it’s good on good. It’s doesn’t matter how much talent you have because talent won’t win this game. It’s whoever plays the best.”