Wells also worked to end segregation at the university and to make his views known that racism would no longer be tolerated. For example, Wells ended segregated seating at IU Commons, the student dining facilities in the campus's Indiana Memorial Union building. He also worked with IU's black alumni and the university's college coach, Branch McCracken, to recruit Bill Garrett, the first African American to play as a regular player on IU's basketball team. (Garrett was also the first African American to regularly play on a Big Ten Conference basketball team.) In 1947, when the local barbers union refused to cut black students' hair in their off-campus shops during regular business hours, Wells leased the Indiana Memorial Union's barbershop to a barber who agreed to accept black and white students as patrons. Soon, the local barbers changed their position and cut black students's hair during regular business hours as well.