'He bled purple'

FLORENCE - Long before the University of North Alabama made its mark on the football field, Bill Jones put the school on the national map in basketball.

Under his guidance, the Lions were frequent visitors to the NCAA playoffs, winning the 1979 national championship.

More than that, however, friends and colleagues say Jones, who died late Tuesday night at age 72 after an extended illness, was the face of UNA athletics during his 20 years at the school as a basketball coach and athletic director.

"I'll never forget that when I got here, coach Jones was UNA athletics," said Billy Gamble, the school's golf coach who also was a basketball assistant to Gary Elliott after Jones stepped away from coaching basketball. "He bled purple. He just loved UNA so much. He thought everything should be painted purple, so to speak."

Gamble said that Jones fulfilled a lifelong dream when hired in 1974 to take over the basketball program. Jones was a 1958 graduate of UNA.

"He loved it when he went to school here, and it was the highlight of his coaching career when he came back to coach here," Gamble said.

Jones also was a showman on the sideline. His trademark was to rip off his jacket in the heat of the game and throw it onto the bench or into the front row of the stands behind the bench.

"He did a lot of stuff on the sideline or get a technical just to get the crowd involved," longtime friend and UNA trainer Johnny Long said. "When we weren't playing good, he'd take that jacket off and everybody would get fired up."

Long remembers one game at Jacksonville State when Jones shed his coat.

"The coat went way out onto the court, and his watch got caught up in the coat and went clear across the court," Long said. "Their crowd wouldn't give it back, either."

Ed Murphy, who coached at West Alabama, Delta State and West Georgia, was a close friend of Jones. He said receiving news of Jones' death was a phone call he has been expecting.

"He was a great friend and a great coach," Murphy said. "He was terribly sick, and now he's at peace."

Murphy said he and Jones forged a friendship through their days coaching against each other.

"Whenever I came up there or his team was in town to play us, we'd always go eat Chinese food at lunch the day of the game," Murphy said. "We wouldn't even have to call each other. One of us would show up to pick the other one up at lunch."

Murphy called Jones "a heckuva basketball coach."

"It was never personal with Bill Jones," Murphy said. "His teams were always tough. They were always ready to play, and it was a battle when you played against him. When the game was over, it was over. It was never personal."

Jones' legacy on the court includes the ability to motivate his players and as a teacher.

"Organization, motivation and his knowledge of defense were his strongest points," Elliott said. "When I first got hired, I would write down some of the things he would tell the team. He would put sayings on the board, and I though the were really good. He would say some crazy things, but it would always motivate the players."

Murphy said Jones had a way of connecting with the players.

"He was demanding but never abusive," Murphy said. "He was a really good teacher. Bill had a way of connecting with the players, and they would conform to his personality."

Jones left a lasting impression on many people, including former player Bobby Montgomery who is now the principal at Colbert Heights.

"I've had a lot of coaches, but only one that has made an impression on me like he did," Montgomery said. "Coach Jones was strict - you went to class, you got your grades or you didn't play. He had principals he went by and he stuck by. You didn't cut class either. One day a couple of the guys decided they weren't going to class, they cut and as they were walking across campus, who was the first person they saw? Coach Jones. That afternoon in practice I thought he was going to run them until they died. They didn't cut class anymore, none of us did."

Mike Galloway, former sports information director at UNA, said Jones was a good athlete.

"I remember playing 2-on-2 against him and Elliott and another guy," Galloway said. "I said I could guard Jones, but when we started playing he pulled out this hook shot from the 1930s. I never did stop him. He was as good of athlete as he was a coach."

Jones took over the Lions in 1974. In a rarity, Jones was replacing his namesake - Bill E. Jones, who went to rival Jacksonville State.

"I still accuse the president (at UNA) of hiring him (after I left) so they wouldn't have to change the name on the basketball letterhead," he said, laughing. "We had a lot of battles but we stayed friends the entire way."

Gregg Dewalt can be reached at 740-5748 or gregg.dewalt@timesdaily.com.

Tom Smith can be reached at 740-5757 or tom.smith@timesdaily.com.