It was a cold rainy night with stadium lights flashing across the high school football field of Homer B. Johnson Stadium in Garland. After two weather delays which lead to a late game start, two teams were up against each other on the turf. A young man crouched down in his stance, military like, focused on running his play. It was minutes before half-time and a sea of people were chanting for their home team from the wet stands. Little did they know moments before this young man would take his position: he was huddled in a circle with his mates getting prepped from his coach.
“Get ya ass over here! This shit’s on ya’ll, ya’ll need to make a fucking play. Especially you, Jordan, it’s all on you,” the coach pierced into the young man’s eyes, prompting him to reflect. He needed to execute this play perfectly for the game. Feeling like the veteran of this team, he wanted to make his coach proud.
Playing defensive end, his team was getting ready to do a pass rush move. As the play was going, he got up the edge of the hill ready to sack the other team’s quarterback. Three steps up the field, and he was shaking another player. One of his signature moves was him twisting around another person to get to the quarterback. This rainy day would be fatal to the young man though, as the turf seemed to be soaking wet. He felt something in his leg pop after trying to twist around the other player. He fell to the ground, but instinctively got back up. Never the type to garner sympathy or want a crowd reaction to an injury, he didn’t tell anybody he was hurt initially. All throughout half time he held the pain within himself. When he couldn’t run at all anymore at the start of a new half, a realization dawned on him. This game of rhythm he played hard for was about to be silenced.
Jordan James attended high school at Lakeview Centennial in Garland, where he had a promising football career. He had an early start playing football at the age of nine. His mother felt he was too energetic to be sitting at home during summer breaks, and felt it would be a good outlet for him to be productive. At first, a young Jordan recalls never wanting to play football, but years of discipline, sportsmanship, and teamwork helped fill a void that he had growing with the game.
James grew up in a household full of women in his mother, older and twin sister. His childhood was rooted in Dallas, living in neighborhoods on the south side. He had humble beginnings. Living in nothing but section 8 homes, food stamps were the main source of groceries to be eaten in his households. While most children get gifts for Christmas, James and his sisters didn’t receive any during holiday seasons because of their mother’s financial situations. The only time there was a glimpse of holiday cheer was when his mother would get her tax refund. There were some nights where James would come home and the water was off. Having those humble beginnings made James appreciate the little things though. He was grateful for most some people take for granted. Despite the reality of his situation, he was grateful to have a roof over his head and clothes on his back. His family went to church, and his relationship with God taught him the importance of trusting God when life didn’t make sense.
Growing up a kid without cable, basic channels were his main source of entertainment. On those channels running 24 hours was news. The highlight of his day was watching the news and seeing what was happening in the world around him. He would closely analyze how the anchors and reporters would craft their storytelling of real people. This became somewhat of an interest to him. He would also try to mimic and mock the people he’d see on the news loudly as a way to annoy his mother and sisters.
“Your mouth over loads your ass,” his mom would say. In fact, apart of James’s hyperactivity was his constant need to talk. He was known to talk your head off about any and everything. He recalls one time his mother made him wear a sock in his mouth just to shut him up. Being that football would become his main focus after age nine, news watching would eventually be out of view.
From there, nothing stopped him from dominating in different positions for any team every year until high school. So dead set on playing at the next level in college, James would describe his high school sports career as being “determined.” The joys of his high school experience were spent in early morning and late night practices with this team. He says a lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into every practice, every game. He was solely focused trying to get ahead as he prepared for “college scout season.”
James dedicated 10 years of his life to the game of football when he tore his ACL junior year and needed reconstruction surgery. Post surgery, he lays in a room with a TV on. Flashing across the screen is one of his favorite reporters covering a recent football game. Moments before, his doctors would inform him that football would have to be put on hold. For James, this meant that he would never play college ball like he always dreamed of. Almost instantly though, with this moment of silence except the reporter on the tv talking, James had an epiphany. This defining moment would come to him revealing a true calling he had secretly wanted all along. A calling that seemed to be in front of him every single day without him realizing it. A calling that took him back to those humbled days as a child indirectly perfecting a craft he tried to annoy his family with. A craft that even in annoyance, his family would say was pretty good for his age. If James couldn’t play the game of football, he knew, he, better than anyone he knew could report it.
During the events happening in Ferguson, James said his eyes were glued to the television screens as he watched how reporters handled the stories for different events. He marveled at their composure to tell a story while being out in the action of what exactly was going on. He wanted to know how they got all the information they knew about a topic. He wanted to know how they would approach a hard interview. He wanted to know everything there was to know about being that person in front of a camera with the responsibility of bringing the truth to people. He knew his path was clear, and he knew what he had to do in order to obtain that dream. After high school, James briefly attended a community college in Garland before transferring to the University of North Texas. His new focus was on attaining a Bachelor’s Degree in Broadcast.
Before his transfer, James would prove to be one hard working, strategic undergraduate. His hunger and drive for future success sets him apart from most of his peers. Even at community college, James shamelessly reached out to top sports anchors in the Dallas market to ask for advice in pursuing his career. His networks and connections gave him a quick leg up in what a career in his field would hold talking to seasoned veterans.
He knew UNT would be his next stop destination if he wanted to foster his dreams of one day becoming a sports anchor. He naturally loves sports and writes it as being the center of his life at one point in time. His first year here, James got involved in sports anchoring at the North Texas Television station. He auditioned for the spot first semester but wasn’t chosen. That only fueled his passion to keep going. James would practice his craft in the simplest way the rest of the fall, and he tried out again in the spring. He landed his spot at the desk, and has been a prominent personality for their Sports Zone show ever sense.
Being a multimedia journalist all around, he’s gotten involved in The National Association for Black Journalists, he became a producer for Mean Green Sports, and a news reporter for the regular nightly news at NTTV. His growth and maturity into this new era in his life can be best described by a friend of his, Gabby Reed: “If you take a gallon of self-determination, a quart of motivation, a cup of persistence, a dash of humor, a pinch of chill, and blend well with love, Christ, good intention, family, passion, fun, and selflessness, you’ll have something close to Jordan James. The secret ingredient is a splash of individuality, and unfortunately that can’t be purchased. Jordan James is truly original.”
Black excellence is something of an idea when it comes to really personifying the many achievements of Black Americans in this country. Boiling down to the black excellence in our own community, one wouldn’t have to look far. One new face could be that of University of North Texas student, Jordan James.