For many years my family heard stories about Y. A. Tittles' initials being Yelverton Abraham. We finally had an opportunity in 1998 to ask Mr. Tittle himself what his full name was.
Mr. Tittle was coming to Houston's Astrohall for an autograph signing at the annual sports card show. I asked my mother if she would buy an autograph football and a ticket so she could get his autograph. She agreed and I suggested a way to get him to sign his FULL name on the football. (If you've ever seen his autograph, he always signs Y. A.). I would provide my mom with a flyer describing my Yelverton web page and its purpose so she could show it to him before he signed. Everything was set.
Inside the Astrohall was a sea of people. My Mom, never having been to a sports card show, was overwhelmed with all the confusion. She stopped at a booth where a gentleman was selling his cards and asked him where the autograph signing was taking place. He told her and asked whose autograph she was going to get. My Mom explained that since our name was Yelverton, we wanted to get Y. A. to sign his full name. The gentleman rolled his eyes and laughed at her, stating that he was sure the name was not Yelverton but just Y. A.! Not to be deterred, she proceeded to the line. She was on a mission!
While in line, she met a couple (LSU graduates...Y. A. is an LSU gratuate too) who had driven from Louisiana to get Mr. Tittle's autograph, also. They were very interested in knowing the Yelverton connection as well. As my Mom reached the signing table she placed the flyer in front of Mr. Tittle. He looked down and said, "hey … that was supposed to be my name!" Excitedly, my mom explained the flyer. Mr. Tittle then started telling the story of how he got his name.
While Mr. Tittle spoke, the people in line gathered around my mother in order to hear. Mr. Tittle began by telling that he was named for his father. His grandparents wanted to name his father after a Yelverton uncle. At his father's birth, they named him Yelverton Abraham Tittle. Afterward, his grandparents noticed on his birth certificate that Yelverton was misspelled as Yelberton (All of us with Yelverton as a last name know that this error is #1 on our list of misspellings). Instead of going through the hassle of changing a birth certificate, they left it as it was. So that is how Mr. Yelberton Abraham Tittle, Jr. got his name. He signed the football, Yelberton Abraham Tittle, Jr. HOF '71.
Since my Mom didn't have a camera, the kind people from Louisiana took her picture with Mr. Tittle (the two above) and promised to mail her the picture when they got home. My Mom returned to the booth where the gentleman had laughed at her earlier. She showed the autographed ball to the man. He was speechless!
So, who had the last laugh?