Valerye Boyer-Wells finally finds her place in Sun Devil Athletics Hall of Fame

(Photo courtesy Sun Devil Athletics)

Outside of a restaurant in downtown Phoenix, on a bench tucked away in the back corner of a backyard-like area sits Valerye Boyer-Wells.

It’s a sunny October Tuesday in Arizona. The temperature is upward of 95 degrees, but a slight breeze blows, sending loose leaves spiraling to the ground around her.

On the bench amid a noisy downtown environment, Boyer-Wells sits peacefully with her eyes closed. Her mind, however, is racing. Literally.

In her head, it’s the late 1970s or perhaps the early 80s. She’s on an oval-shaped track somewhere preparing to step into her starting blocks and put on a memorable display of speed and dominance.

“I’m visualizing how my feet are placed on the blocks,” Boyer-Wells says. “How my hands are on the line, how I’m leaning forward about to fall over, but not, but being in control. I’m thinking of the power that I want to push off [with], and how I want to glide easy up and not just pop up. I’m thinking about my arms, my hands. How are they placed? How am I holding them? Fast arms, fast legs…

“I’m running it over and over and over in my brain, so that when I do it, it’s just second nature, and it just happens. If I can catch somebody, I’m going to catch them. If they’re trying to catch me, they’re not going to catch me.”

Visualization was an important part of Boyer-Wells’ success during her athletic career. From her time running in her youth all the way through her collegiate career at Arizona State, Boyer-Wells planned her races out in her head. She pictured what she needed to do and then went out on the track and did it.

However, in all her time racing, what Boyer-Wells didn’t picture was being one of the best Sun Devil sprinters of all time.

Yet, on Oct. 5 at the ASU football game versus Kansas, 43 years after her career had ended, that’s what she was recognized as. Along with several other legendary ASU athletes, the six-time All-American and two-time national champion was inducted into the Sun Devil Athletics Hall of Fame.

“To be on that field with that many people, and my family, for [the school] to say, this is what she did with what she was given, was so surreal,” Boyer-Wells said. “It was like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe we’re here right now in this moment.’ … It was humbling. It was a celebratory moment.”

When Boyer-Wells first found out about her induction she didn’t believe it. ASU Senior Associate Athletic Director of Media Relations Doug Tammaro was the one to share the news. Tammaro mistakenly contacted Boyer-Wells’ husband instead of her, who passed along the message that Tammaro wanted to speak with her. She called him back later that day and he informed her of her pending induction.

“I said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ He goes, ‘No.’ I said, ‘This is not somebody punking me, like you’re punking me, right?’ He goes, ‘No, no, no … I am with ASU media, and you’ve been nominated to go into the hall of fame.’ I said, ‘You need to tell my husband this because if I tell him, he’s not gonna believe me … and he says to my husband, how would you feel about your wife going into the ASU Hall of Fame?’”

Her husband’s response: “It’s about time.”

“I told Doug … ‘I am speechless and I am extremely humbled, because this was the one thing that I always wanted and never had, and I just left it up to God.’ And he goes, ‘Well, now you have it.’”

Boyer-Wells’ husband wasn’t the only person in her life with strong feelings about her deserved enshrinement. Brenda Calhoun Cash, one of Boyer-Wells’ former teammates and a 2003 Sun Devil Hall of Fame inductee echoed the sentiment.

“I said, ‘It’s about damn time,’” Cash said. “That was my exact words. I thought, ‘Wow, it has been a long time.’ I had gotten inducted in [2003], and I felt like Val was also one of the team members that could have been inducted at that same time or even earlier than me. So I was really, really excited for her.”

Boyer-Wells got into track when she was just 10 years old. She started running when Jim Ciccarello, her physical education teacher, recruited her to his team, the Duke City Dashers in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

As Boyer-Wells improved and showed promising talent, opportunities were opening up for female athletes around the country thanks to the enactment of Title IX. Once Ciccarello informed Boyer-Wells that she could have the opportunity to attend college for free thanks to her athletic prowess, that became her No. 1 goal on the track.

“​​My mom was a single parent [who] raised seven kids,” Boyer-Wells said. “I’m the second to the youngest, and I knew she was not going to be able to afford to send me to college. So at that point, I decided, I’m going to run track and I’m going to go to college for free. I liked running, and I figured if I worked hard enough, it could happen. I really wasn’t a superstar, but I was okay. I had a lot of dedication, a lot of heart.”

Boyer-Wells started as a middle-distance runner, specializing in the 800m. After coming in fifth at nationals when she was 13 years old, she decided to switch to sprints to be like her friends on the team. When she was 16, things started to click. She found a new specialty in the 200m and her times kept dropping. Her goal of going to college for free moved closer and closer to becoming a reality.

When it came time for Boyer-Wells to commit to a school she had plenty of options. Initially, she wanted to attend Tennessee State and follow in the footsteps of greats like Wyomia Tyus and her idol Wilma Rudolph. There, she could have joined forces with Olympians Brenda Morehead, Rhonda Brady and Chandra Cheeseborough. But Boyer-Wells’ mom, who grew up in Mississippi, had reservations about sending her daughter to school in the South in the 1980s. 

From there, Boyer-Wells pivoted and landed on ASU. She’d spent time in Tempe before due to the frequency with which her AAU team would travel to compete on the Sun Devils’ state-of-the-art track. Boyer-Wells’ participation in the 1976 USA-USSR Dual Meet Series and the 1976 Olympic Trials sealed her decision to attend ASU. 

While competing in both events, she met several other top competitors in her age group who were going to ASU, including Brady, who eventually moved from TSU to ASU. Boyer-Wells wanted to join their ranks and made her way from Albuquerque to Tempe in the fall of 1977.

One of those athletes who inspired Boyer-Wells’ decision was Cash. The two had bumped into each other at AAU meets growing up in addition to competing against each other in the summer of 1976. Although the two were fierce competitors, they became fast friends once they were on the same team. 

“[Valerye] was a wonderful person, down-to-earth,” Cash said. “Really easy to talk to, really cared about other people and what was going on with them, so we hit it off pretty well right at the beginning of meeting each other and getting into track and the practices and things like that… We were always pushing each other, like in the 100, and 200, and then just always being there for each other. I just really enjoyed having Val on the team.”

Although Boyer-Wells was at school to run, she took advantage of all the opportunities ASU afforded her off the track as well. She studied criminal justice with the intention of becoming a lawyer. She was a model student, dedicating herself to her studies as much as she did to track.

In her sophomore year, Boyer was a Fall ‘78 initiate of the Iota Kappa Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Her membership in Delta still plays a role in her life today and it’s something that remains close to her heart.

Boyer-Wells loved her time at ASU so much that she decided to double up on degrees from the institution, earning a law degree from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law in 1985. 

“​​My experience at ASU was everything it was supposed to be,” Boyer-Wells said. “The women on the track team were awesome, and running with them, working out with them, training with them, and encouraging each other was wonderful. … [I] made lifelong friends. You’ll make lifelong friends in college because you don’t just keep in one area. Whether it’s in academia or in sports, it was all there. … I love ASU. It helped me grow up. It taught me everything.”

While Boyer-Wells was finding everything she had hoped for and more off the track, her career on the track got off to a slow start. In her freshman season, she dealt with tendonitis in both knees, resulting in times that weren’t up to her standard. Still, she managed to help ASU’s 4x100m relay team win a national title, earning her first All-American recognition. Her freshman-year setbacks created a deeper motivation going into her sophomore season.

It paid off, and once again, she and the Sun Devils took home first place nationally in the 4x100m relay. She also picked up All-American honors in the 4×100-meter and 4×220-yard relays. Later that summer, Boyer-Wells made Team USA for the 1979 IAAF World Cup and competed in Canada that August. Just competing in the World Cup boosted her confidence. 

In 1980 she won her first individual conference titles, winning the 100m and 200m in the Western Collegiate Athletic Association. She was named an All-American in both events along with the 4x100m relay. She became one of just nine Sun Devils to earn three All-American honors in the same season.

“As far as Val goes, I just know she was the top sprinter,” Boyer-Wells’ former teammate Anna Battle said. “She was poised, professional, very helpful, kind. Her presence was admirable, and we looked up to her as incoming freshmen. … I appreciated the fact that [Valerye] had a great work ethic. She held herself as a young lady that really had a focus on both academics as well as what needed to be done and the work ethic needed for success in track and field. So she modeled leadership in a way that she walked the talk.”

In addition to her numerous accolades, Boyer-Wells set school records in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay and 4×440-yard relay during her four years competing for ASU. Her 100m time of 11.46 seconds still sits at 10th all-time and her 200m time of 23.36 sits at ninth.

“I don’t even know if I ever looked at myself as a superstar,” Boyer-Wells said. “It’s only when I look back and 10 years later, I’m still in the top 10 fastest women at ASU, and here we are, [43] years later, and I’m still in the top 10 fastest women at ASU, and that blows my mind. It didn’t calculate to me at the time that I was fast… I don’t think I saw myself as a superstar. I just saw myself as I ran well enough to get this scholarship and earn it and make good enough grades that I could get accepted to law school.”

The main reason for Boyer-Wells’ induction is her accomplishments on the track, but her legacy is comprised of other components that truly display how deep of an impact she’s had on ASU Track and Field and in the Phoenix Metropolitan area.

After getting her law degree and passing the bar exam, Boyer-Wells became a judge at the Mesa Municipal Court in 1988. Her journey to the bench was a challenging one. Boyer-Wells applied the same work ethic to law school as she did to track, but it wasn’t always enough.

As a Black woman studying law in Arizona, she faced several hardships. She recounts stories of a professor discriminating against her, telling her she didn’t belong. She went on to get one of the highest grades in his class. A different professor consistently gave her a hard time in class to prepare her for the battles she would have to fight in the courtroom as people underestimated her.

On one occasion, Boyer-Wells got to see a moment come full circle. A judge who had badgered her in court while she was a prosecutor came into her courtroom years later when she was serving as a judge, presiding over a case that involved his grandson.

“​​He’s got to come to court and call me your honor,” Boyer-Wells said. “And I called him Mr. I didn’t call him Your Honor. I called him Mr. … And that was some sweet revenge.

“Being a black woman, you always have to show your A game, no matter what. No matter to who, you always got to show up and do more than what’s required for anybody else to get an opportunity, and God takes care of the rest.”

Boyer-Wells also remains active in the ASU track and field community. She’s become a mentor to senior sprinter Adriana Tatum, who is also an Albuquerque native. The two met when Tatum was a freshman in high school at an event recognizing Boyer-Wells and several other Albuquerque athletic greats.

Although Boyer-Wells mentored Tatum throughout her high school career, she did not influence Tatum’s decision to follow in her footsteps and attend ASU. 

“[Valerye] never pushed ASU on me,” Tatum said. “She was always just very supportive of [me]. Like, ‘Make the best choice for you,’ and ‘Make sure you’re asking the right questions and make sure you get what you need because you’re there for your education first because you’re a student-athlete, not an athlete student.’ So that was a big thing, and she was just always supporting me, but she never pushed it on me. It was, I guess, fate that I ended up coming here.”

In the time Tatum and Boyer-Wells have known each other, their bond has strengthened. Boyer-Wells encourages Tatum to be her very best both on and off the track, emphasizing the importance of education. Tatum also looked to Boyer-Wells when she needed advice on navigating life and its obstacles as a student-athlete.

“[Valerye] really helps me process things,” Tatum said. “She’s not judgmental. She helps you get through things. She’ll make sure to tell me if I’m in the wrong. She’ll let me know. She will find ways to help me better myself, so she is helpful in all avenues. Because after I talk to her, after I get help from her, or anything, I will always come out a better person.”

With Boyer-Wells’ support, Tatum has forged her own path in her first three seasons as a Sun Devil, setting school records in the 100m and 200m under all conditions. With the Sun Devils’ first meet of the indoor season slated for Jan. 10, Tatum is gearing up for a stellar senior season. She’ll do it all with Boyer-Wells’ looming legacy pushing her to strive for excellence.

“Oh, [Valerye] definitely set the bar high, “ Tatum said. “But it’s definitely a good thing that she set the bar like that because I feel like we should all strive to be as amazing as that because the impact that she had on and off the track is just amazing, and I feel like all of us as Sun Devil sprinters, we should want to leave a lasting impact and have a legacy [like that].”

As for Boyer-Wells’ take on her legacy, she believes it remains to be seen. Her only goal is to do right by those she crosses paths with. Whether it’s with people who came into her courtroom, young girls in Delta’s youth mentorship programs or promising athletes at ASU that Boyer-Wells is working to inspire and raise money for, she wants to do her part to make people better.

“When I meet someone like Adriana Tatum,” Boyer-Wells said. “And she says I impacted her life [with] my life, when I was doing my life, I didn’t know there was an Adriana Tatum to be impacted. … At the time that I’m doing stuff, I don’t know I’m making that difference. … You just don’t know what you’re doing until after it’s all over. … You do what you do, and you hope and pray that it makes a difference.” 

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