SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Former Slippery Rock University All-Americans Henry Litwin and Roland Rivers III inked professional football contracts in the last week with Litwin signing for the Ottawa Redblacks of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and Rivers signing for the Pittsburgh Maulers of the United States Football League (USFL).
 
Litwin, a wide receiver from Linesville, Pennsylvania that wrapped up his career at SRU last fall, signed a free agent deal with the Chicago Bears after the NFL Draft, but was released from the team after the Bears signed veteran NFL receivers in free agency. Following his release, Litwin signed with Ottawa late last week and reported to training camp.
 
Rivers, a quarterback from Ellenwood, Georgia, played his final season of collegiate football at The Rock in 2019. He spent rookie minicamp with the Pittsburgh Steelers the following season, but was not signed after minicamp as the Steelers had four quarterbacks under contract. The USFL deal marks a new opportunity for Rivers in the upstart pro league that made its return to play this spring.
 
Litwin and Rivers combined to shatter every single-season passing and receiving record at Slippery Rock in 2019 on their way to both being named first team All-Americans. Rivers would end up winning the 2019 Harlon Hill Trophy as the Division II Player of the Year, becoming the first SRU player to do so, while Litwin would go on to follow up that season with another All-America campaign in 2021 that saw him become a Harlon Hill finalist.
 
Rivers started two seasons at SRU in 2018 and 2019 and led the team to the NCAA quarterfinals in 2018 and the semifinals in 2019. Despite playing just two seasons, he set SRU career records for passing touchdowns (80), completion percentage (63.3 percent), passing efficiency (164.1) and total offense per game (326.1 yards per game). Rivers went 23-3 as the SRU starting quarterback and a perfect 14-0 in PSAC Western Division games. He finished his 26-game SRU career with 7,181 passing yards with 80 touchdowns to go along with 1,297 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns.
 
His breakout year came in 2019 in his senior season when he set the Division II single-season record for points responsible for with 370 and tied the Division II single-season records for touchdowns responsible for (61) and games with at least three passing touchdowns (11). Rivers also shattered the SRU single-season records for completions (322), passing yards (4,460), passing touchdowns (52) and total offense (5,160). His 52 passing touchdowns were the fourth most in Division II history in a single-season and he became just the fourth player in Division II history to top 5,000 total offensive yards in a single-year.
 
Litwin pulled down nearly a third of Rivers' 322 completions in 2019 to shatter SRU single-season records with 103 catches for 1,509 yards and 21 touchdowns on his way to earning All-America honors. He would follow that up with another 1,000-yard season in 2021 with 67 catches for 1,042 yards and 13 touchdowns.
 
Over three seasons in the starting lineup, Litwin shattered the SRU career records for receptions, yardage and touchdowns. He led all players in Division II over that stretch with 221 catches for 3,392 yards and 42 touchdowns.
 
Litwin and Rivers continue a trend of Slippery Rock players getting chances to play professionally. The Rock have had eight players at least reach an NFL minicamp since 2015 and currently have three players playing professionally as Litwin and Rivers join 2018 SRU running back and single-season rushing record holder Wes Hills, who is currently under contract with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the CFL.
 
The USFL season is currently entering week seven of the season with the Maulers set to play Sunday at 2 p.m. (ET) with the game airing on Fox. All games this season for the USFL are being played in Birmingham, Alabama. The CFL will open preseason games this week and are set to begin the regular season June 10.
 


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