By Malcolm Butler
Wenford Wilborn wishes the late E.J. Lewis could be there.
His mom and dad, too.
More than five decades after Lewis took a chance on an undersized defensive back from East Texas, Wilborn will take his place among Louisiana Tech’s all-time greats Oct. 9 when he is inducted into the Louisiana Tech Athletics Hall of Fame.
It’s an honor that means plenty to the former Bulldog. It’s also one that will be a little bittersweet.
“I hate that Coach Lewis is not here to see it,” Wilborn said. “He would really be excited. That’s the only part I really hate about it. He’s not here, and my parents are not here. Both of them, they would have thought it was the ultimate.”
Lewis was much more than the Louisiana Tech assistant coach who recruited Wilborn to Ruston.
“Coach Lewis was like a second father to me,” Wilborn told longtime sports journalist Nico Van Thyn in a 2015 story on the integration of Louisiana Tech football.
And in the early 1970s, Lewis saw something in Wilborn that plenty of other college coaches apparently didn’t.
Wilborn had starred on both sides of the football at White Oak High School in East Texas, rushing for nearly 3,000 yards during his final three seasons while earning All-East Texas honors on offense and defense.
Yet his recruitment had all but dried up.
“The thing I remember about it is it was kind of hectic before then, and then all of a sudden things just died down until Coach Lewis showed up,” Wilborn said. “When Coach Lewis showed up, everything took off again.”
Wilborn thought he was headed to Stephen F. Austin, but that opportunity fell through. Junior college appeared to be next.
Then Lewis entered the picture.
Wilborn’s track coach at White Oak knew Lewis and suggested the Tech assistant take a look at the 5-foot-9, 160-pound athlete.
“He couldn’t understand why I didn’t already have a scholarship,” Wilborn said.
Former Tech defensive end David Wilkins remembers hearing the story of Lewis’ evaluation of Wilborn. According to Wilkins, Lewis called Tech head coach Maxie Lambright and described an athlete who could “motor,” was fast and agile and “hits like a freight train.”
Lewis loved everything about him but told Lambright there was one issue: Wilborn was Black. Wilkins remembers being told there was silence on the other end before Lambright responded.
“Sign him,” said the legendary Hall of Fame Tech coach.
Wilborn became one of six young Black men who arrived in Ruston in the fall of 1971 as the first African-American football players in Louisiana Tech history, joining Fred Dean, Gerald Eddings, Larry Griffin, Roland Harper and Charles McDaniel.
It was a historic moment for Louisiana Tech, although it wasn’t something Wilborn spent much time thinking about.
“It wasn’t difficult or anything,” Wilborn said. “I was kind of used to it because I started at White Oak probably three or four years before that, and we were integrated. So it wasn’t such a big deal with me.
“I was in sports most of the time. That’s what I concentrated on. Everything kind of worked out for me.”
Wilkins was already an established player in the Tech program and remembers the newcomers being pretty quiet — at least until Saturdays.
“They didn’t say much, but on Saturday, they played, and their presence was felt,” Wilkins said.
Wilborn didn’t need much time to make an impression.
“This guy was ready-made,” Wilkins said. “I mean, right out of high school. … He’s like all great players. You don’t need to coach them too much. He was just ready-made.”
Wilkins also remembers Wilborn and Dean, a future Pro Football Hall of Famer, settling a debate over who was faster by racing after practice.
“They ran a couple of them, probably two out of three,” Wilkins said. “Fred Dean beat Wenford. Now Wenford may say, ‘Nah, that didn’t happen.’ But from my recall, if he didn’t beat him, he stayed stride for stride. That’s how fast those guys were.”
Wilborn put that speed to good use during his freshman season.
Tech led Eastern Michigan 7-3 in the third quarter of the 1971 Pioneer Bowl in Wichita Falls, Texas, when the Eagles punted. Wilborn was standing inside his own 10-yard line and knew he was supposed to let the football go.
He caught it anyway.
“I wasn’t supposed to catch the ball because I was inside the 10,” Wilborn said. “But I went on and took a chance anyway.”
Wilkins still remembers watching Wilborn take off.
“When he ran down that sideline, he was like a racehorse,” Wilkins said. “I went, ‘Man, he’s gone.’”
Ninety-one yards later, Wilborn was in the end zone, helping Tech secure a 14-3 victory. The return set an NCAA College Division record at the time and remains the second-longest punt return in Louisiana Tech history.
ABC-TV selected Wilborn as the game’s Outstanding Defensive Player and awarded a $1,000 scholarship in his name to Louisiana Tech.
The Tech coaches weren’t thrilled when he initially fielded the punt.
“They were fussing at first because I was taking it inside the 10,” Wilborn said.
That changed 91 yards later.
“It went from no to yes,” Wilborn said.
Another play early in the 1972 season at Southern Miss remains etched in the memory of former Tech teammate Roy Waters.
The Bulldogs had just scored when the ensuing kickoff took a high bounce. Wilborn went after it.
“I remember that ball got about 6 or 7 feet off the ground, and Wenford, that little bitty thing he was, went and dove over everybody,” Waters said. “I remember him laid out flat. He was parallel to the ground, 6 feet off the ground, snagged the ball in the air, tucked it and went down.”
The Tech sideline erupted.
“We went nuts,” Waters said. “It was like, if that guy will lay it out like that, we can do this.”
Tech defeated Southern Miss 33-14 that night.
“It gave us that confidence like we could take on anybody,” Waters said. “That play right there just inspired us for that season. We went on undefeated that year.
“I think he had as much to do with that as anybody.”
Tech finished 12-0 and was recognized as co-national champion by the National Football Foundation following a 35-0 win over Tennessee Tech in the Grantland Rice Bowl.
A year later, the Bulldogs won the NCAA Division II national championship. Wilborn helped them get there by intercepting three passes, including two in the end zone, in an 18-13 first-round playoff victory over Western Illinois.
Waters remembers another part of Wilborn’s game — his fearlessness. In fact, the hard-hitting cornerback had a nickname.
“We called him the Stamp,” Waters said.
“You may catch the ball and all that stuff, but he didn’t grab you and try to drag you down. He’d come up and tattoo you. I suspect receivers got tired of getting tattooed.
“But the guy was fearless. I mean, he’d put it to them.”
Wilborn finished his career with 15 interceptions, leading Tech in that category in 1971, 1973 and 1974, while earning All-Southland Conference honors his final two seasons.
When told recently that Wilborn had recorded 15 career interceptions, Waters sounded surprised.
“Is that all he got?”
There probably would have been more if opposing quarterbacks had been more willing to challenge him.
“Some teams hardly ever threw to my side of the field,” Wilborn told Van Thyn in 2015.
He was just as dangerous with the football in his hands. Wilborn’s 91 career punt returns remain the most in program history, while his 742 punt-return yards rank third.
Funny thing is, returning punts wasn’t necessarily his idea.
“I was kind of forced into that job,” Wilborn said. “Coach Lewis thought I should be returning punts.”
Lewis apparently knew what he was doing.
“He made E.J. Lewis very happy,” Wilkins said. “I’m telling you, E.J. started smiling a lot after Wenford came to Tech.”
There was plenty to smile about. Louisiana Tech went 44-4 during Wilborn’s four seasons, winning four Southland Conference championships and three consecutive national championships from 1972 through 1974.
Yet more than five decades later, ask Wilborn what made those teams special and he doesn’t start with the championships, the talent or the Hall of Famers. He starts with the people.
“I think we had about 10 guys that turned out to be ministers or preachers,” Wilborn said. “Those guys were true to what they said, and they kind of brought the rest of us together.
“Everybody really cared for each other. You had each other’s back.”
That bond carried onto the football field.
“The main thing about it was everybody did their job,” Wilborn said. “The defensive backs knew what the linebackers were doing. The linebackers knew what the line was doing. It just all kind of came together for us.”
Waters remembers Wilborn as much for the person as the player.
“He was always smiling,” Waters said. “I never saw him get upset.”
More than 50 years later, those memories and relationships remain.
“I look at these guys on the wall that I have here in my room,” Wilborn said. “It’s meant a lot to be with those guys. They were good guys.
“We looked after each other and cared about each other.”
Many of them will be there Oct. 9 when Wilborn takes his place in the Louisiana Tech Athletics Hall of Fame. Waters plans to be one of them.
“I love that guy, man,” Waters said. “He was just incredible.”
Lewis won’t be there. Neither will Wilborn’s parents.
But all three played a role in getting him there.
On a recruiting questionnaire Wilborn completed as a freshman at Louisiana Tech, he was asked who had been the biggest influence on his life. His answer was simple: his mom and dad.
“(My parents always) stuck with me,” he wrote.
On that same questionnaire, the 18-year-old freshman was asked what he hoped to achieve through football.
“The feeling of being a champ.”
Four Southland Conference titles, three national championships and now a spot in the Louisiana Tech Athletics Hall of Fame.
Some feeling.
