Rev. Jacqueline Brannon Giles (then Jacqueline Davis) walked away from her first encounter with Warren Wells, pondering he was cock-sure, bordering on conceited. Later, she found his unbridled confidence translated on to the success he loved on the job—enjoying vast receiver for the AFL/NFL’s Oakland Raiders within the late 60s and early 70s.
Giles and Wells have been then undergraduates at Texas Southern College, an HBCU situated in Houston. Then, a budding mathematician, Giles was requested by TSU soccer head coach Alexander Durley to tutor members of his group so they may stay academically eligible. It was on this setting within the mid-60s that Giles and Wells had their first verbal exchanges.
“Warren got here to one in all my tutoring classes,” remembers Giles, “and I used to be on the board doing the arithmetic, and Warren says, ‘Jackie, you do math on the blackboard, however I do math and physics on the soccer discipline.’ Nicely, I laughed and I informed the division, ‘That boy certain is cocky. However guess what? He might again it up together with his play.’”
And together with his classwork, in keeping with Eva Pickens, the previous TSU worker who organized the 2015 “Tigers within the NFL: A First and Aim Celebration,” an occasion honoring Wells and different former Tiger greats who have been NFL alums.
Pickens, who was a part of the TSU contingent that went to Canton, Ohio for the Michael Strahan Corridor of Fame induction, stated it was there that TSU and Wells stored arising.
“Folks stored telling us about these tales and about how nice Wells was, initially, as a scholar, an training main, and likewise as an athlete, and simply all-around good man,” stated Pickens, who returned to Houston decided to seek out and have a good time these Tiger/NLF alums, pondering it was only a handful.
“By the point we had completed our analysis in 2015, we discovered that 77 former TSU college students performed within the NFL. But it surely was Wells’ identify we heard probably the most.”
However lengthy earlier than Pickens’ discovery, Giles and Wells’s inauspicious starting grew right into a lifelong friendship; one the place Wells, upon turning into an Oakland Raider, invited Giles, then dwelling in New York, to attend a sport in opposition to the New York Jets on Dec. 6, 1970; a sport through which, the final of which got here on a 33-yard TD cross with eight seconds to go within the sport.
Whereas Wells labored his magic on the gridiron, Giles, a Houston native, graduated from TSU with levels in arithmetic and English, attended Brooklyn Poly (now NYU College of Engineering in Brooklyn) and earned a grasp’s in Pure Arithmetic from Texas A&M College. Giles additionally serves on two nationwide boards in arithmetic and teaches math at HCC and her alma mater TSU, in addition to gives free math tutoring to Okay-12 college students by means of SHAPE Group Heart.
Giles remained shut mates with Wells lengthy after his enjoying days, troublesome years that noticed the as soon as nice athlete fall on onerous instances fueled tremendously by financial challenges and alcoholism. And once more, Giles was on the scene tutoring Wells, this time on the method of getting his incapacity and retirement advantages from the AFL/NFL.
Eternally the mathematician, and fewer than a part-time soccer fan, Giles grew to become intrigued by the numbers Wells put up on the gridiron, particularly when in comparison with a number of the sport’s most well-known and revered vast receivers.
She found that in Wells’ first 5 years within the league, his numbers stacked as much as and most of the time, surpassed the TD and yards-per-reception numbers of greats like Professional Soccer Corridor of Famer Jerry Rice and others.
“I checked out Warren’s knowledge and as I recall, his yard reception common is 26.8. In case you sustain with vast receivers, even now, they seldom have that top a yards-per-reception common. His profession common, I imagine is 23.1. For years, he held the file for yards-per-reception, however then they modified the rule and a participant needed to be within the NFL for therefore a few years to get that form of recognition. However I argued that Warren had depth and integrity on that soccer discipline. He had strong knowledge, that’s knowledge that stands out even now, if you happen to have a look at different vast receivers,” stated Giles.
And when Giles found that almost all former gamers voted into the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame (HOF) did so with the assistance of journalists who made their circumstances for admission into the HOF for sure gamers by way of their articles, she grew to become a journalist pushing for Wells to be thought of for induction to what some name the best “group” ever assembled.
Comparable arguments have been used to push for operating backs Gale Sayers (Chicago Bears) and Terrell Davis (Denver Broncos) to be inducted into the HOF after solely enjoying for seven seasons.
“I would like Warren to be honored as a result of I assumed he was extraordinarily gifted and clever too. And I simply thought that as a result of they modified the rule, that was a approach to suppress recognizing him and different HBCU gamers,” stated Giles.
Thus, she got down to apply her commerce (mathematician) and fervour (journalism/writing) to make the case for Wells, writing a whole bunch of articles for the famend BleacherReport.com, a lot of which targeted on growing nationwide consciousness of Wells’ on-field accomplishments.
Pickens’ occasion helped have a good time Wells and different Tigers.
“Warren and the others have been so proud. However what I favored, I took a seat and I simply watched them congratulate each other… and simply listening to these tales and people highlights and the challenges they needed to overcome as Black gamers. It simply warmed my coronary heart. And the pleasure Warren had being a TSU tiger. His Beaumont residence was painted maroon and grey—TSU’s colours,” stated Pickens.
And although the Raiders honored Wells after his passing in 2018, Giles continues to combat to get Wells the Corridor of Fall recognition she contends Wells’ on-field stats deserve.
“I do know there have been another challenges in his life, however that had nothing to do together with his efficiency on the soccer discipline. And I feel he should be honored for his distinctive efficiency on the soccer discipline.”
