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Texas Tech football Ring of Honor adds Wes Welker, Andre Tillman, Thomas Howard
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- Texas Tech football Ring of Honor adds Wes Welker, Andre Tillman, Thomas Howard
Wes Welker came into the Texas Tech football program and later the NFL without fanfare. He didn't sign with Tech until nine days after national signing day in 2000, because that's when the Red Raiders offered him a scholarship. Then after a prolific college career, he went into the NFL as an undrafted free agent.
Undersized and without eye-popping speed, he became the guy who lived, ate, breathed and slept football — unless a defender shut him down, that is.
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"If I ever got covered, I couldn't go to sleep at night," Welker said, "because that's all I thought about: What can I do the next day if he does that to me again? And having a plan for it and then trial and error, trial and error, to where I knew exactly what I was going to do. I think it was that focus and relentless attack to really understand something so fully to where you just made it happen in a split second."
Welker made the self-assessment Friday night from a stage at the Overton Hotel & Conference Center. The occasion was the induction ceremony for the Texas Tech football Ring of Honor . He was one of three inductees. Also inducted were Andre Tillman, an all-America tight end on Tech's 11-1 Gator Bowl champion of 1973, and Thomas Howard, an all-America linebacker on the Red Raiders' 10-2 Southwest Conference co-champion of 1976.
Welker played 12 years in the NFL, Howard nine and Tillman five.
Related: The Red Raiders at 1,000: Outside linebacker Thomas Howard
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A video tribute to Welker included comments from former teammates Kliff Kingsbury from Tech and Tom Brady from the New England Patriots .
Dana Holgorsen and Art Briles, both of whom coached Welker as assistants on Mike Leach's Tech staff, were in attendance.
Briles said Welker "changed the game from the inside receiver position."
"Honestly, a once-in-a-generation player, I think, for the way he's impacted the game," Briles said. "Not only with his playmaking ability, his stop-start ability, catch-ability, but his off-the-field ability, because Wes not only is a person who understood the game and played the game with a great passion, but he lived, he spoke and he led with great passion and great class. To me, he might be one-generational on the field, but off-the-field once in a lifetime."
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Now 21 years after his Tech career ended, Welker remains first in the school record book in all-purpose yards (5,730) and punt-return yards (1,761), second in career receptions (259), third in receiving yards (3,069) and tied for ninth in receiving touchdowns (21). In the NFL, he caught 903 passes for 9,924 yards and 50 TDs.
Wes Welker is shown before his induction into the Texas Tech football Ring of Honor on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, at the Overton Hotel & Conference Center. Welker is among the school career leaders in multiple receiving, punt-return and all-purpose yards categories.
Andre Tillman, Texas Tech football letterman 1971-73
Tillman never played tight end until he asked to play it at Tech. He'd been an offensive tackle and a defensive end who wore No. 75 at Richardson Lake Highlands.
Listed at 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds his senior year at Tech, Tillman was highly regarded as both a blocker and a receiver. He was one of 10 Red Raiders to earn all-Southwest Conference recognition that year, which ended with the Red Raiders beating Tennessee in the Gator Bowl and No. 11 in the final Associated Press ranking.
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The team is in the conversation for Tech's best ever.
"We may get challenged on that, because during the (Michael) Crabtree years, they had a very successful run," said Tillman, a McKinney resident. "The only thing we regret is we weren't able to beat Texas that year, but we were 11-1 and we had a very successful year. We were able to stay together as a cohesive group and that way we were able to finish our careers on a very successful, winning note."
More: The Red Raiders at 1,000: Best tight end, Jace Amaro
More: Former Tech star Tillman added to Southwest Conference Hall of Fame
Andre Tillman is shown after his induction into the Texas Tech football Ring of Honor on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, at the Overton Hotel and Conference Center. Tillman was a first-team All-America tight end on the Red Raiders' 11-win Gator Bowl champion team of 1973.
Thomas Howard, Texas Tech football letterman 1974-76
Tech established the football Ring of Honor in 2012, and Friday's class brings the total number inducted to 11. Howard, who went to Dunbar, joins the late E.J. Holub, who went to Lubbock High, as the only ones who were hometown players.
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The uniform numbers and names of the new Ring members will be unveiled on the west wall of Jones AT&T Stadium in conjunction with the Tech-North Texas game on Saturday.
"That's something I haven't given a lot of thought until this moment," Howard said. "I think it's going to be something that'll make me proud and that East 27th Street group proud also."
On the 1976 team that won its first eight games, and achieved a No. 5 national ranking, seven Red Raiders earned all-SWC recognition. Howard won the in-house team MVP honor and was named first-team all-American on the Kodak and Walter Camp Football Foundation teams.
Former Tech assistants and NFL head coaches Bill Parcells and Romeo Crennell were among those in Howard's video tribute.
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"Thomas was a very, very good linebacker for us at Texas Tech," Parcells said. "Tall with great speed and explosiveness."
Thomas Howard is shown after his induction into the Texas Tech football Ring of Honor on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. Howard was a first-team all-American linebacker on the Red Raiders' 10-win team of 1976 that tied for the Southwest Conference championship.
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This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football Ring of Honor adds Wes Welker, 1970s all-Americans
