Jo-Jo Jamiel and West Warwick’s Buddy Alves hold the Rhode Island football seasonal scoring record with two hundred and six points each.

Jo-Jo followed in the footsteps of his brothers Francis (“Tut”) and Nick, who helped lead Warren High School to an undefeated Class C Championship in 1972.  Not to be outdone, he was the star running back on championship teams in 1973, 1974, and 1975.  In the process Warren’s string of consecutive league wins rose to thirty-two. 

Rhode Island began holding Super Bowls at the end of the 1974 season, and Jo-Jo’s kickoff return for a touchdown was the key play in Warren High’s first Super Bowl triumph, a 12-8 senior year win over East Greenwich.

He was named All Class C in 1973 and All Class B and All State in both 1974 and 1975.  Jo-Jo set the state regular season scoring record with one hundred and sixty-four points in 1974 and tied the state season scoring record with two hundred and six points in 1975.  For his three-year career, he scored seventy-six touchdowns and rushed for almost three thousand yards.

(Jo-Jo’s main sport was football, but it should be mentioned that his .500 batting average won the Little League Baseball hitting title in 1970.  In the Warren Softball League he was its third leading hitter in 1976 and the home run champion in the following year.) 

At Brown University Jo-Jo was one of the Bruins’ leading running backs and kick returners from 1977 to 1979.              In 1977 he led the East and was seventh in the nation in kickoff return yardage.  (He was named one of the University’s top fifty football players in history in 2003.)

(In the last game of the 1974 season Jo-Jo was attempting to tie or break the state regular season scoring record.  He had a very frustrating first half, topped off by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for having kicked the ball after dropping a pass in the open field.  At the half coach Pat Abbruzzi “read him the riot act” about discipline and team play.  He came out in the second half, led his team to victory, and coincidentally broke the record.)

Picture from Hall of Fame archives