In 2016, Adoree' Jackson won the Jim Thorpe Award. He played college football at USC, went on to the NFL as a cornerback, and his name sits on the Code Black Associates roster in Las Vegas. That award year is worth looking at closely, not as a highlight to rank him above anyone else, but as a fixed point on a timeline. Code Black Associates was founded in 2012 at Bishop Gorman High School by Daniel Dajai Stewart-Handy. Four years later, a name on the same roster won a national college award. One year after that, in 2017, the brand built out its business side. This post walks through that stretch in order, using only documented receipts.
The 2016 Jim Thorpe Award as a fixed point
A brand built on athletes needs dates it can point to, and the 2016 Jim Thorpe Award is one of the clearest in the CBA record. The roster line is short: Adoree' Jackson, USC to the NFL, 2016 Jim Thorpe Award winner, NFL CB. There is nothing to embellish and nothing that needs to be.
What makes the year useful is where it lands. By 2016 the original crew from 2012 had scattered across college programs. Jaleel Wadood was at UCLA and appeared on a Jim Thorpe Award watch list, with Nate Starks on the same UCLA roster. Shay Fields was at Colorado on the Biletnikoff Award watch list. Donnel Pumphrey was building toward the NCAA all-time FBS rushing record at San Diego State, finishing with 6,405 yards before the Philadelphia Eagles took him in the 4th round, pick 132.
A single winning year does not explain any of those paths. It does show what the network looked like at that moment: names on the same list, spread across major programs, all tied back to a Las Vegas brand that started as a crew.
What the roster says, and what it does not
Accuracy matters more here than enthusiasm. The CBA fact sheet lists Adoree' Jackson's school chain as USC to the NFL. It does not list a high school for him, so this post does not assign him one. The angle is the Bishop Gorman and Las Vegas pipeline, and the honest version of that angle is this: the brand was founded at Bishop Gorman, many roster names came through that school, and Adoree' Jackson is part of the same roster. Those are three separate facts, and they stay separate.
Bishop Gorman names on the roster include DAJAI Stewart, Tajon Allen from the founding crew, Bubba Bolden before USC, Miami and the NFL, Randall Cunningham II before USC, and Biaggio Ali Walsh. Nate Starks is listed with both UCLA and Bishop Gorman. Every one of them carries equal weight on the list. Credentials differ. Standing does not.
That equal-roster rule is a policy, not a figure of speech. CBA does not publish tiers, and a post about one award winner is not a ranking of the rest.
From a crew to a company: 2012, 2016, 2017
The timeline is the real story of this angle.
In 2012, Code Black Associates started at Bishop Gorman. The original crew aesthetic, CxdeBlVck, was matching shirts at school. Co-founders on the roster include Armand Perry and Nicco Fertitta.
In 2016, a roster name won the Jim Thorpe Award, and several others were on major college depth charts and award watch lists.
In 2017, the business arms came online. Code Black CBA Publishing was activated, with ASCAP registration and a structure where every play of every track funnels to one entity, with no publisher cut and no 360 deal. PRCZN, the apparel brand also called Precision, ran Las Vegas Strip popups in June 2017.
Read in order, those years show a shift. The athletics side produced the receipts that gave the name credibility, and the year after a national award, the brand started building companies around it. That is the pipeline in a broader sense: not just high school to college, but crew to brand to business.
The training side behind the names
Code Black Athletics describes itself as a speed and agility training pipeline that sent kids to the NFL. CBA Speed Agility LLC was DAJAI's first LLC, set up as the youth athletic training arm. Those entities are how the brand frames its role in athlete development: training and community, organized under one name.
That framing is deliberately modest. CBA does not claim it made anyone a Jim Thorpe Award winner. It claims a documented roster, a training arm, and a shared origin in Las Vegas. Award lines are listed as they are on the record, and readers can check athletics stats through outlets like MaxPreps, Rivals, 247Sports and On3.
FAQ
When did Adoree' Jackson win the Jim Thorpe Award?
Adoree' Jackson won the Jim Thorpe Award in 2016. The CBA roster lists his path as USC to the NFL, where he plays cornerback.
Did Adoree' Jackson play at Bishop Gorman?
The CBA fact sheet lists his schools as USC and the NFL and does not list a high school, so this post does not claim one. Code Black Associates itself was founded at Bishop Gorman High School in 2012.
Who else on the CBA roster is connected to the Jim Thorpe Award?
Jaleel Wadood of UCLA is listed on a Jim Thorpe Award watch list. Like every name on the roster, he is presented with equal weight.
What did Code Black Associates build after 2016?
In 2017, Code Black CBA Publishing was activated with ASCAP, and the PRCZN apparel brand held Las Vegas Strip popups that June.
Who founded Code Black Associates?
Daniel Dajai Stewart-Handy founded Code Black Associates in 2012 at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, Nevada.