Joseph Wiley Gilliam Jr. was a professional football quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). Gilliam was born on December 29, 1950, to Joseph Gilliam Sr. and Ruth Gilliam in Charleston, West Virginia. The family moved to Nashville, Tennessee where he attended Pearl High School (Now MLK Magnet School) where he played on the school football team and led his team during Nashville’s first season of integrated football.
Gilliam then attended Tennessee State University where his father was also defensive coordinator for the Tennessee State University Tigers Football Team. Gilliam played for the team as quarterback under coach John Merritt. One of his teammates was future NFL player Edward “Too Tall” Jones. In 1970, Gilliam led the Tigers to a 10-0 regular season record. The Tigers then played in the Grantland Rice Bowl in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where they defeated the Southwestern Louisiana Bulldogs 26-25 and became Black College National Champions that year. The following season, Gilliam and the Tennessee State University Tigers Football Team had 9-1 regular season record and returned to the Grantland Rice Bowl to face the McNeese State University Cowboys defeating them 26-23.
Gilliam declared himself eligible for the 1972 NFL Draft and was selected by the Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) Steelers in the 11th round as the 273rd overall pick. Gilliam saw limited playing time as backup quarterback to Terry Bradshaw and Terry Hanratty. He entered games only to relieve either quarterback when injured or underperforming during games.
In the 1974 NFL Season, Steelers coach Chuck Noll named Gilliam starting quarterback after he outperformed both Bradshaw and Hanratty in the preseason. This made Gilliam the first African American quarterback to start in a season opener. However, Gilliam lost his starting position to Bradshaw after a poor performance in several games and for ignoring team rules and game plans. Gilliam, however, felt he lost the starting position because of his race. In an interview with The (Nashville) Tennessean, he said, “I thought if you played well, you got to play. I guess I didn’t understand the significance of being a black quarterback at the time.”
Some of his teammates disagreed with him, including Steelers wide receiver John Stallworth and linebacker Charles Andrew Russell. Both stated that he lost the job because of his poor performance on the field. Bradshaw remained Steelers starting quarterback for the rest of the season and led the team to Super Bowl 9 where they defeated the Minnesota Vikings, to win their first Super Bowl Championship.
Gilliam remain with the Steelers until the 1976 season when he signed with the New Orleans (Louisiana) Saints. He was released from the Saints a year later. For the rest of his football career, he played semi-professional football with the Pittsburgh Wolf Pak, Baltimore Eagles, New Orleans Blue Knights, Denver Gold, and Washington Federals.
In 2000, Gilliam returned to Nashville where he started a football camp for teens at Tennessee State University. Here he earned the nicknamed “Jefferson Street Joe.” Tragically, by this point Gilliam battled heroin, cocaine, and alcohol addictions, which contributed to his death on Christmas Day, December 25, 2000. He died from a cocaine overdose after watching a football game between the Dallas (Texas) Cowboys and Tennessee Titans at his home in Nashville, Tennessee. He was 49.
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“Joseph Wiley Gilliam Jr,” ESPN, https://www.espn.com/page2/s/wiley/010111.html; “Joseph Wiley Gilliam Jr,” Still Curtain, https://stillcurtain.com/2021/05/27/legacy-steelers-oe-gilliam/2/; “Joseph Wiley Gilliam Jr,” HCBU Gameday, https://hbcugameday.com/2020/09/04/remembering-jefferson-street-joe-gilliam/.
