Injury sparks successful career as sports artist
Injury while trying out for the Stamps led Wells to another path
Vernon Wells Jr. flew from his home in Texas to Calgary in the spring of 1978 eager to launch a successful professional sports career.
Little did he know the vocation he coveted as a receiver with the Canadian Football League’s Stampeders would suffer a major blow when he separated his shoulder, diving for a Craig Juntunen pass in the end zone, in the first exhibition game against the Edmonton Eskimos.
Despite his short tenure with the Stampeders, however, Wells did indeed accomplish what he set out to do.
He was asked to make a penandink drawing of a Stampeders’ helmet for the cover of the team’s training camp guide and it turned out to be his first published work in what has become a highly- regarded, lucrative career as a sports artist.
“The way I remember it, it was a spur of the moment thing. I had never taken an art class but the team found out I had some talent, so they asked me,” Wells recalled in a recent interview. “Whatever I got paid, I know it was not much and took me little time to do it. It could have been for a couple of extra rolls of tape. They had to save money.”
He has since done paintings for the likes of boxer Muhammad Ali, Hall of Fame football quarterbacks Terry Bradshaw and Warren Moon ( his opponent playing his first game with the Esks that fateful day), as well as Derek Jeter and just about every other high- profile baseball player in the past 30 years.
His works command up to $ 20,000, and he has no shortage of potential clients. He has cranked out nearly 2,000 pieces of art in three decades. Virtually all, he said, are done from photographs.
Wells was also was given permission by the Stampeders to re- visit the team and do paintings for anyone who was interested. He said one of those who wanted him to do a painting was Tom Forzani, a brief teammate in 1978. He did one after Forzani retired from his playing career in 1983.
Prices were “way cheaper” back then, Wells recalled.
“It’s always been on my wall, but now I’ll have to move it to the middle of the room instead,” Forzani told the Herald. “When you mentioned his name, I remember, but I didn’t realize he had become so famous.
“Mine would have to be up there with one of his first. If the helmet was the first, mine wouldn’t be far behind. I’d like to put it beside one of Muhammad Ali.”
Three other team staff still with the Stampeders from 1978: Stan Schwartz, then an assistant coach and now vice- president; John Hufnagel, then the starting quarterback and now head coach-general manager; and George Hopkins, then and still the equipment manager. All recall his name but little else. All are impressed with the success he made coming out of a disappointing situation.
Of course, Wells has done a number of paintings of son Vernon Wells III, who starred for many years with the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees. His son’s mother was pregnant with him during the 1978 training camp.
Wells said he has only come back to Calgary once, but only because he had been asked to do portraits of a couple of players, including Forzani. He’d like to return some day.
His craziest recollection of the Stampede City was having a foot of snow one spring day and it all melted away within 24 hours.
“The one painting I didn’t do in Calgary, but should have done, was of Craig Juntunen. He’s the reason I got hurt,” Wells recalled, with a chuckle. “We connected on a couple of passes and he threw a pass he shouldn’t have thrown. I tried to make him look good diving for it and hurt my shoulder.
“Actually, I owe him a lot. Literally. That injury wasn’t life- or careerending, but it was life changing. For the better. Many of my peers from football don’t move too well anymore. Any who may have been a tick faster than me ... aren’t anymore. I still play centre field on ( baseball) teams with players 20 years younger ... No regrets.”
Wells said he was confident he would have made the Stampeders that year. He wasn’t so sure until he asked head coach Jack Gotta why he was the only receiver whom the coach hadn’t talked to. He said Gotta told him he hadn’t been offered coaching because he hadn’t done anything wrong.”
The now 60- year- old artist, who lives in Haltom City, Texas, still plays baseball with 40+, 45+ and 52+ leagues in the Dallas- Fort Worth area, as well as teams from around the U. S. with many former professionals. He has won 29 world championships rings in annual World Series tournaments in Arizona.
Wells said it was a tough decision when he chose football over baseball back in the 1970s. He had been signed by the Kansas City Chiefs as a free agent after the draft, but was released as the final cut in 1977. He was asked to return in 1978, but declined and came to Calgary instead.
It was a no- brainer for his son when it came to choosing baseball over football, where he had been an all- state quarterback.
“It was easier for him to make a decision between football and baseball,” said the proud father. “When somebody offers you $ 1.6 million out of high school, you take it.”