General 7/3/2020 8:00:00 AM Chris Brannick

Friday Features: UCO Athletics Bookended A Hall of Fame Career

Al Jones To Retire Nearly 60 Years After Arrival At Central

EDMOND – Al Jones, director of the University of Central Oklahoma athletic department's Stampede Club, as well as UCO's Athletic Hall of Fame, announced this summer his plans to retire, nearly 60 years after he first stepped foot on campus.

The Oklahoma City native decided to further his education at Central State College following his graduation from Crooked Oak high school in 1961. He's been a Broncho ever since.

"When I got to UCO the coaches all became my surrogate fathers," Jones said. "Guys like Steve Shepard Sr. saw something in me. John Smith and Al Blevins. I could work here for 100 years and never repay what I got out of this place. This place just means the world to me."

When Jones got to Central in 1961, he immediately went to work in athletics serving as a manager for the football team as well as working in other capacities for the Broncho coaches. He also helped the baseball team.

During what was his junior year in college though, Jones witnessed first-hand the greatest football team Central has ever sent to the field.

The Bronchos dominated from start-to-finish that fall, going a perfect 11-0, outscoring their opponents a combined 350-59, while recording five shutouts, and won the school's first ever national championship.

UCO had nine first-team All-Oklahoma Collegiate Conference performers and defeated Lenoir-Rhyne (N.C.) 28-13 in the NAIA national title game in Sacramento, California. Seven players from that team (R.L. Briggs, Billy Jones, Mickey Hoy, Mike Little, Ed Nowlin, Mike Rollins and Bobby Williams) are members of the UCO Athletic Hall of Fame and three (Briggs, Hughley and Williams) played in the National Football League.

Jones was there with them through it all.

"I remember when Bobby Williams came to campus for the first time and everyone knew how fast this kid was," Jones recalled. "So, one of the guys said, 'okay, let's race,' and they did. Bobby blew him away by 20 yards.

"But that team was special," Jones continued his recollection of the fall of 1962. "To go to Sacramento, California for the national championship and to fly out there. When the band started playing Oklahoma! In the tunnel before we ran out. To win it all. That was just special. There are 14 of us left from that team and we still have a great bond today."

Jones also has another unique claim. He saw the university through its two biggest transformations in its 130-year history. Upon his arrival in the early 1960s, the landscape at Central changed as it never had before. Not only was the Nigh University Center erected, but new dorm rooms popped up, as did Hamilton Field House and Wantland Stadium.

Then again in the late 2010s, UCO made another surge in the improvement of its landscape with the addition of new facilities. A softball field and a baseball field became stadiums. The Sports Performance Center and an indoor training facility, as well as an addition to Hamilton Field House that provides the wrestling team with the finest facility in the country and the basketball and volleyball teams with an auxiliary gym. Plus, the Central Boathouse, the Forensic Science Institute, the Don Betz STEM Center, the Liberal Arts and Mitchell Hall additions.

"To be a part of it here when both happened, it's hard to put into words," Jones said. "Can you imagine a college basketball game today in Wantland Hall? But that's where we played. And Hamilton Field House was the Mecca when it was built (in 1965). I remember too Thatcher Hall would have students watching the football games from their dorm room window. Seeing the transformation, to what we have now, it's been amazing."

Jones graduated from Central in 1966 with a bachelor's degree in education and got his first job teaching at Stillwater high school. He credits Emma Plunkett for the reference.

He began there in August of 1966. As he did, and even before he got the job, Jones also knew he was likely to be drafted to the United States military.

"I was drafted in February and I left the next day for Fort Lewis, Washington," Jones said. "I told them before I got the job I would be drafted, and they said it was okay and that I would have a job when I got back."

Jones then spent the next several years serving his country. He was a member of both the 45th Infantry Division Army National Guard and United States Air Force Reserves.

Jones returned to Stillwater and returned to teaching and coaching, which is really where he
began a lengthy career in education. Jones left Stillwater for Millwood High School in Oklahoma City, where after a year of teaching he became the school's first athletic director. He continued to work there until the 1990s, when he went through a short time in the private business sector.

While doing so, Jones also helped establish the UCO Athletics Hall of Fame in 1990.

"When we started it, we didn't have a banquet," Jones said. "We would just walk the new hall of fame class out to half court at a basketball game and that was it. Now we have a banquet and hundreds of people come to see. I'm so proud of what it has become and the great UCO men and women who are a part of it."

Today, the UCO Athletic Hall of Fame has more than 150 members, including Jones, who was inducted with the class of 2002.

After that time in private business, and a brief stint at Oklahoma Christian School in Edmond, Jones then returned to Central in 2008 to serve as the Executive Director and Membership Coordinator of Alumni Relations. He did that for another six years before returning to where it all began, in the athletic department.

In 2014, Jones became the Director of the Stampede Club, overseeing fundraising and booster club events for Central athletics.

Now Jones, 76, will officially hang it up. But don't be surprised when you see him at Broncho athletic events.

"There is no question I will be here supporting UCO when we are back on the field and the court and the mat," Jones said. "I have loved this place since the day I got here, and I will continue to give these young men and women my full support forever."

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