Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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64 MARCH 2018 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2018 FOOTBALL RECRUITING ISSUE BY DAVID MCKINNEY Joseph Wilkins Jr. carries the name of a man he never met. Before he was born, and before his mother 's pregnancy with him had even been discovered, Wilkins' op- portunity to know and love his fa- ther was violently taken from him when Wilkins Sr. was killed after a close friend repeatedly shot him in the head in the parking lot of Chinese restaurant in Tampa, Fla., on June 8, 1999. Wilkins was born seven months later, named to honor his slain father, who was viciously murdered at the age of 21 by a man his unborn child would later describe as his father 's "best friend." According to The St. Petersburg Times, the murder was carried out because of a "continuing dispute" between Wilkins and his killer, Dan- iel Harris, who is currently serving a life sentence without possibility of parole. On Jan. 22, 2018, Wilkins turned 18, just three years younger than his father was at the time of his murder. At the age that most see as the transi- t i o n t o a d u l t - hood, Wilkins reflected on h i s c h i l d - h o o d a n d t h e t i m e s not having a f a t h e r i n his life burdened him the most. "I never built a relationship with him, and I never met him," Wilkins said. "When I was in middle school, I would go over to friends' houses and see them with their fathers. And even now, I'll go to my friend's house and him and his dad are going fishing on Sunday, or him and his father have a ritual that they do. "It's just little things like that. Now that I'm older, I can see where I missed out on having a dad." A tragedy like the one that struck Wilkins' family would take a con- siderable toll on anyone, espe- cially someone who was met with that reality the moment they opened their eyes and took their first living breath. Wilkins never got to play catch with his dad in their backyard, never got to get coached by his dad in pee- wee football, or even look him in the eye, give him a hug or shake his hand. "He didn't even know he was go- ing to have me, and my mom didn't know either," Wilkins said. "He died, and three months later my mom started getting signs that she was pregnant. He didn't even know he was going to have a kid." With the father of her future child dead, Wilkins' mother, Kristina Woodley, was alone and pregnant. From the moment Wilkins was born, his mother made it clear that the tragedy that befell his father would not define their lives. "I looked up to my mother," he said. "She plays both roles and she does it well. She can be stern as a father should be, but she can also be sweet, kind and loving like a mother can be." Woodley was entirely responsi- ble for Wilkins' life and well-being, and the Notre Dame signee said he watched his mother work almost non-stop to keep things afloat. "I was raised by my mother my entire life, and we struggled," he said. "We weren't dirt poor, but we weren't wealthy or rich by any means. I watched her struggle with bills to pay, food and everything." While his mother worked tirelessly to keep the lights turned on have food on the table, Wilkins did the same on the football field and in the weight room. If the thought of tak- ing a play off or skip- ping a rep ever creeped into his mind, Wilkins thought of his mother and what she'd been through to give him a good life. " I w a t c h e d h e r struggle," h e said. "Seeing that, it made me grind harder to make sure that she never has to struggle ever again." The first box to check on that list was mak- ing sure the fi- nancial burden Joe Wilkins Jr. Went From Tragedy To Triumph PHOTO COURTESY RIVALS.COM