MOBILE, Ala. – Joey Jones has received several honors throughout his playing and coaching career, perhaps none as important to the Mobile native as the one he garnered to start the week.

The University of South Alabama head football coach was included in a group of six individuals introduced as this year’s inductees into the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame at a 2 p.m. press conference Monday at the RSA Battle House Tower.  The 2011 induction class also includes former NFL offensive linemen Willie Anderson and Chris Samuels, Antonio Lang — a member of back-to-back national championship squads at Duke in 1991 and ’92 — former LPGA golfer Susie Redman and All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player Dolly White.

“To be honored in the town I grew up in is probably one of the biggest honors I’ve ever received in my life,” Jones stated.  “When you look at the people who have been inducted into the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame, it’s a very, very impressive list.  I feel humbled and honored just to be considered a small part of that.”

The induction banquet will be held Thursday, April 21 at the RSA Battle House Tower.  Tickets to this year’s Mobile Sports Hall of Fame Induction Banquet sell for $75 each and can be purchased through the Hall of Fame’s website at www.mobilesportshalloffame.com or by calling (251) 344-2000.  Full table and event sponsorships are also available by contacting The Mishkin Group at (251) 300-2233.

An all-Southeastern Conference selection as a senior wide receiver at Alabama in 1983 after making 31 catches for 468 yards and five touchdowns, Jones was later voted to the Crimson Tide’s All-Decade Team for the 1980s.  He finished his four-year career with 71 receptions, 1,386 yards and 15 scores, as he still ranks among the top 10 in the school’s career record books in both touchdowns and receiving yards.

After playing professionally with the Birmingham Stallions of the USFL and the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, Jones returned to the state and entered the coaching ranks at the high-school level.  In 13 seasons — three at Dora High and 10 guiding Mountain Brook H.S. — he posted a 125-38 (76.7%) overall mark while collecting four region championships and advancing to the quarterfinals of the state 6A playoffs on three occasions.

Since 2006, Jones has helped start two collegiate programs in Alabama, beginning when he was hired as the head coach at Birmingham-Southern.  The Division III Panthers took the field under his direction in the fall of ’07 for the first time since 1939, winning three contests that season, before Jones returned to Mobile to take the reins of USA’s start-up program after the school’s Board of Trustees voted to add football as the 17th sport in the athletic department in December 2007.

In two years on the field, Jones has helped lead the Jaguars to a 17-0 record.  USA won all seven contests its initial season against a schedule that featured mainly prep school and junior-college opponents, then finished 10-0 in the fall with each victory coming over a four-year institution; that included four wins against current or future members of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level.

Jones prepped at Murphy High in Mobile.

Dedicated to honoring Mobile's many sports heroes, the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame also seeks to preserve the area’s unique sports heritage by offering future generations the forum in which to learn about and take pride in Mobile's rich sports history.  Jones is the seventh individual with ties to South Alabama Athletics to be enshrined — this class will bring the total number of inductees to 96 since the first class entered in 1988 — joining Beth Barry (2009), Cliff Ellis (2003), Steve Kittrell (2004), June Mayson (1999), Eddie Stanky (1990) and Turner Ward (2007).

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com.  Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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