New era in JSU football

The Anniston Star

Commerative edition Saturday, September 11, 2010 • 1E

Today, JSU football enters a

NEW

ERA Photo by Stephen Gross/The Anniston Star/File

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The Anniston Star

Page 2E Saturday, September 11, 2010

what’s in a

Stephen Gross/ The Anniston Star

W hen that name is Burgess, well ... a lot

B

▶ Please see burgess ❙ Page 3

I’d be lying if I sat here and told you

“

ill Burgess was seeing the football field soon to bear his name from a new perspective Tuesday.

The ex-Jacksonville State coach took in the panoramic through the window in Suite 609, which will be his perch for today’s JSU-Chattanooga game.

Joe Medley The new, three-level structure containing suites and the stadium club gave Burgess an elevated view, high enough to see the campus and hills well beyond JSU Stadium’s confines.

“This is beautiful,” Burgess said while touring the $17 million stadium improvement for the first time.

“Just beautiful.”

But not as beautiful as it will look today, when JSU fans — stoked over the Gamecocks’ shocking upset of Ole Miss last weekend — pack the bleachers and seats for the home opener.

And nothing could complete the vision better than seeing Burgess, 14 years removed from his last game at JSU, walk onto the turf for the dedication of Burgess-Snow Field.

It’s going to happen, finally.

it didn’t make you feel good.

It makes you proud, and everything.

— Former Jacksonville State coach Bill Burgess on today’s stadium dedication in his honor

11A

The Anniston Star

Saturday, September 11, 2010 Page 3E

B ill B u r gess biog r aphical sketch Burgess graduated from Jones Valley High School, and went on to Auburn, where he lettered in football . Burgess got into coaching just after of college as an assistant at Banks and then landed his first head coaching job at Woodlawn in 1967.

In 1971, Burgess began a 14-year tenure as head football coach at Oxford, kicking off his coaching legacy in Calhoun County. His Oxford teams were 107-41-4 and reached the Alabama High School Athletic Association playoffs eight times.

In 1985, Burgess was named head coach at Jacksonville State and during his 12-year stint amassed a record of 8449-4 and won the 1992 NCAA division II National Championship. He won four Gulf South Conference crowns, earned five straight invitations to the NCAA Division II playoffs and got to the title game three times.

Burgess was a three-time Gulf South conference Coach of the Year selection and was named the 1992 NCAA Division II National Coach of the Year.

He was inducted into the Jacksonville State University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Calhoun County Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.

— From staff reports

Year by Year results Year

W

L

T

Win%

1985

3

6

1

.350

1986

5

4

1

.550

1987

5

4

1

.550

1988

10

2

0

.833

1989

13

1

0

.929

1990

9

3

0

.750

1991

12

1

0

.923

1992

12

1

1

.893

1993

3

7

0

.300

1994

4

7

0

.364

1995

7

4

0

.636

1996

1

9

0

.100

84

49

4

.628

Totals

Postseason and League honors 1988 Gulf South Conference Champions (lost in the semifinals) 1989 Gulf South Champions, NCAA Runner-up 1991 Gulf South Champions, NCAA Runner -up 1992 Gulf South Champions, NCAA National Champions.

Stephen Gross/The Anniston Star

While at Jacksonville State, coach Bill Burgess (above) led the Gamecocks to a NCAA Division II National Championship in 1992 and amassed a career winning percentage of .628.

You won’t find Paul Snow’s name in Jacksonville State’s football record book or its list of football lettermen, but his name is all over the JSU football program.

The football stadium has carried his name alone since 1961 until earlier this summer when the school’s board of trustees voted to rename the facility Burgess-Snow Field at JSU Stadium to honor national championship-winning coach Bill Burgess and keep its options open for the selling of stadium naming rights.

But just who was Paul Snow?

He was a 1933 graduate of Jacksonville State Teacher’s College described as an “enthusiastic alumnus” in his biography in the JSU football media guide.

Snow played football with JSU great Barto Hughes, but he became instrumental in his post-collegiate days in helping recruit the Jefferson County area for students and establishing scholarships for freshmen men.

In 1955, he was appointed to the state Board of Education and was the JSU Alumni president from 1955-56. He remained in his state board post until his death in 1957, at age 48.

“Few graduates of Jacksonville State have returned more to the institution than Paul Snow,” former JSU president Dr. Houston Cole said.

Face lifts

1946 College Bowl opens as new JSU football stadium; it gets dedicated at 1947 Homecoming game against Pembroke.

1961 Stadium renamed to honor longtime JSU supporter Paul Snow.

1965 Seating expanded from 5,000 to 8,000 and new press box installed on north side.

1978 Field house construction completed, student section added, increasing capacity to 15,000 2005 Playing surface replaced with Pro-Grass artificial turf 2007 Two new scoreboards and video replay board installed 2010 Stadium opens its part of a $65 million stadium/dorm project with expanded seating to 24,000 and three floors in the stadium towers that include press box and 33 luxury suites.

Burgess Continued from Page 2E It took a persistent, years-long fight from Burgess’ former players, but it will get done.

The bitter separation between Burgess and JSU in 1996 no longer carries sway. The far more numerous good memories over 12 seasons, including a Division II national title in 1992, are having their say, and Burgess will have his day.

At a time of record enrollment and giddiness over the biggest victory in JSU’s Division I era, the school can tie the opening of its expanded stadium with acknowledgement for Burgess.

There might have been a time when things were this right for JSU, but it’s hard to imagine things more right.

Press Burgess a step beyond his standard-but-heartfelt deflection of credit to all who played for him or worked around him, and even he acknowledges how right it feels.

“I’d be lying if I sat here and told you it didn’t make you feel good,” he said while seated on the home-side bench, after his Tuesday tour. “It makes you proud, and everything.

Sure it does.”

And then he circles right back to the point dearest to his 69-year-old heart.

“But the field wouldn’t be big enough to put all the names on it that I’d like to see out there, but that’s OK,” he said. “I feel like I represent all of them in this naming of the field, and I really feel that.”

The “field” to which Burgess refers is now artificial, but it occupies the same space as the grass field on which his teams won so many games.

Though he never saw it as his field, he saw it as his to maintain. To recall the day when he drove a tractor onto it brings a chuckle.

It was soon after JSU hired Burgess away from Oxford High School.

He saw the field needed cutting, and — like he would at Oxford High — he fetched a tractor and started to cut it.

That’s when he met the grounds crew.

“They came running out there going, ‘What are you doing?’” he said.

“I said, ‘Cutting grass.’ They said, ‘Coach, we cut the grass, and we’ll line the field off.’”

Looking over the crowned turf that now serves as JSU’s field, Burgess begins to remember the big games.

Playoff games against North Dakota State in 1989 and New Haven in 1992 jump immediately to mind.

They were playoff games played at

W ho was Paul Snow?

Jacksonville State University photo

home, a right then and still earned on JSU’s level of play.

Bill Burgess coached the last playoff game JSU ever hosted, a 46-35 victory over New Haven in the 1992 Division II semifinals. The Gamecocks moved up to what was then called Division I-AA — now Football Championship Subdivision — in 1993.

JSU has played just two playoff games since, losing at Western Kentucky in 2003 and at Furman in 2004.

Ironically, “progress” undid Burgess at JSU. He had just one winning season after the move up to Division IAA and was fired after the 1996 season — a separation that included his lawsuit for pay due him over the remaining term of his contract.

Burgess hasn’t attended many JSU games since then. He has occasionally snuck in and sat in a section with his former players, but “not much.”

“I didn’t feel like I needed to be there,” he said. “Now, I’d listen to them on the radio and watch them on television, if they were there.”

The long campaign by a group of former players called the Burgess Boys won their former coach the honor of having his name attached to JSU’s latest progress in football.

It might be hard to calculate how much monetary progress comes from it. The naming of Burgess-Snow Field

at JSU Stadium, announced this summer and to be made official Saturday, didn’t win JSU officials the rights fees they wanted.

Then again, one wonders how much good-will money might flow in because of the gesture. How much will it help to have a group like Burgess’ former players drumming up support?

The timing of Saturday’s dedication couldn’t be more fortuitous. It’s part of the script for JSU’s first home game in the expanded stadium, but no one could have scripted JSU’s 49-48 upset of SEC member Ole Miss in double overtime.

“Boy,” Burgess said, “that’s like a jar full of vitamins.”

It likely means that Burgess, his family and the Burgess Boys will see the Chattanooga game with something approaching 24,000 of their best friends.

JSU officials hope for such crowds at subsequent home games, but they can count on one regular. Burgess said he plans to attend more home games and tailgate with his former players.

“I can come back now and feel better about it,” he said. “… I’m looking forward to it.”

Joe Medley is The Star’s sports columnist. He can be reached at jmedley@ annistonstar.com and 256-235-3576 or follow on Twitter @Jomedstar.

Stadium statistics 233-93-8 Jacksonville State’s all-time record at the stadium.

53-8-2 Jacksonville State’s all-time homecoming record at the stadium.

16,851 Largest crowd to ever watch a game at the stadium. It came in 2002 against Alabama A&M in the season opener. JSU won 20-17.

64-0 The largest margin of victory for the Gamecocks in the stadium.

It came against Liberty Baptist in 1981.

32 Consecutive homecoming wins by the Gamecocks starting with a 14-7 win over South Georgia in 1952. The streak was snapped by Mississippi College in 1984 with a 28-0 loss. It’s the only shutout the Gamecocks have ever suffered on homecoming.

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The Anniston Star

Page 4E Saturday, September 11, 2010

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The Anniston Star

Page 6E Saturday, September 11, 2010

M emories Some of their fonde s t

Jeh Jeh Pruitt

Ken Bodiford

Gene Inglis

Hearing the hits

Halftime, interrupted

T he rise at midfield

Former JSU player and WBRC-TV sportscaster Jeh Jeh Pruitt has been invited to the President’s box for today’s game, but he admits he won’t stay long.

“I’m honored, but I’m an old head,” he said. “I’ve got to be up close. I’ve got to feel the wind on my face.”

For Pruitt, closeness to the game has always been one of the strong points of Paul Snow Stadium. When Pruitt was sitting on the sidelines, there were always students sitting right behind him — so close that players could hear everything the fans said, and vice versa.

“When somebody got hit, you heard it,” he said. “You could hear the coaches yelling. You can hear the sounds that you don’t get to hear at a school like Alabama, where the fans are five yards away from the sideline.”

Admittedly, the crowds weren’t as big at the old stadium, but Pruitt still likes the fact that the fans could get close enough to see the marks on players’ jerseys. Close enough, he said, to smell the players.

“That was our job, to entertain that faithful 15,000,” he said. “The old Paul Snow was great for that.”

Now JSU has room for the faithful, plus 9,000 more. Pruitt believes that, even with the new renovations, you can still find that in-your-face football experience. But the new construction, he said, will offer something new for folks who like their pigskin under glass.

“They’re going to get a new experience, with the new side,” he said.

“Some people like the box, and I’m glad there’s a place for them. But the best seats in the house, to me, are down there where the players are.”

— Tim Lockette

Ask anyone with JSU’s Marching Southerners to recall a memory of Paul Snow Stadium, and many would think back to a game against Troy State. The once-heated rivalry between the two teams was often even hotter when the bands took the field at halftime.

But Ken Bodiford, JSU’s director of bands since 1994, doesn’t have Troy’s Sound of the South in mind when he thinks of the Trojans’ final 2000 visit to Jacksonville. It’s the referees he remembers.

Because both bands were to perform that day, university officials had asked for the normal 20-minute halftime to be extended to 25 minutes, but no one passed that along to the stadium’s clock operator. With the clock nearing zero, referees and the teams’ captains walked onto the field, occupied by the

still-performing Marching Southerners.

There were allegations a referee shoved a drummer.

“I remember the whole crowd was just ready to rip him to shreds,” Bodiford said.

No one was hurt, and Bodiford said he later received a letter of apology.

The Southland Football League, JSU’s conference at the time, wrote a new rule after the incident, forbidding referees from entering the field while a band is performing.

The fallout of the incident is a reminder of how much the Marching Southerners matter at JSU, something Bodiford knows well. He played 20-J (the Southerners’ model of tuba) as a student in the 1980s, and also served as drum major.

— Ben Cunningham

Montressa Kirby

Gene Inglis made plenty of music in Paul Snow Stadium, as a drummer for the Marching Southerners before he graduated in 1973. He’s collected many more memories since, bringing his own music students to JSU for band events.

One of his first jobs after school was as a band director at West Rome High School in Georgia. One day in the mid1970s, he brought a group of junior high students over for JSU’s annual Band Day. Inglis sat on a bench on the south sidelines. Wooden bleachers rose behind him, where thousands of new concrete seats and luxury suites now stand. His young students were across the field, closer to the north sideline.

“The field had such a rise to it in the middle, when I went and sat on the bench, I could not see their heads,” Inglis said. “When they started marching across, it was like soldiers marching across the battlefield.”

Now the director of Saks High School’s band program, Inglis has had the opportunity to see all three of his own children march on the same field.

His son, Tony, played trombone. One daughter, Gena, became drum major.

The youngest, Allison, was a Marching Ballerina.

Inglis and his wife, Shenley, met as students at JSU, and they’ve settled there now after years in Rome.

“Jacksonville’s an important part of our lives,” he said.

— Ben Cunningham

Trent Penny/Associated Press

Malcolm Street Jr.

Goliath sacked Circuit Judge Malcolm Street Jr. has a hard time separating his memories of JSU from his memories of his family.

Street recalls making the trip to Paul Snow Stadium on weekends at age 7 or 8. The campus was different then — there was a forest behind the western goal post where the athletic complex now stands — but JSU’s stadium was still the biggest and best around, Street said.

With a smaller student body, crowds weren’t so big. But they were vocal.

“It was more intimate, but they made a noise,” he said. “There has always been a hard core of Gamecock fans.”

Street’s father became known as “the voice of the Gamecocks,” after working as the team’s announcer. The son followed in his father’s footsteps, and on more than one occasion, JSU fans heard their games in the voices of two announcers named Malcolm Street.

Street stayed in close touch with the university, graduating from JSU and teaching criminal justice there during the Charlie Pell years, when many of his students were on the team. But he still says his fondest memories of Paul Snow involve working there with his father.

Another fond memory was forged last Saturday, but not at the stadium.

Street and his wife were at home watching on ESPN when the Gamecocks beat Ole Miss 49-48.

“We were delighted,” he said.

“David conquered Goliath. It’s the story we love in America, the story that the little guy can prevail some of the time.”

Street hopes the win can bring a wider fan base to a football team he has always seen as underappreciated.

“In Calhoun County, we’ve never really appreciated what a class of football we’ve had, right here, just waiting for us to watch,” he said.

— Tim Lockette

View from the sideline Montressa Kirby left a lot of marks in the Jacksonville State record books in his time as the Gamecocks’ starting quarterback in the later half of the 1990s. But his biggest Paul Snow Stadium memory is of a game in which he never set foot on the field.

It was 1995, the Gamecocks’ first year of full-fledged Division I membership. The team, led by head coach Bill Burgess, had fought its way to a respectable 6-3 record by the time Western Illinois came to town for a mid-November date.

Kirby, just months removed from earning his Anniston High School diploma, had been splitting time under center with JeDarius Isaac. But on this day, he was recovering from a high ankle sprain, and could only watch from the sideline as the Leathernecks stormed back from 13 points down in the fourth quarter to take a 27-26 lead with 1:04 left in the game.

Once the Gamecocks got the ball back, Isaac directed the team 29 yards in five plays to the Western Illinois 42 yard line. With three seconds left, he launched a 40-yard pass that landed in the end zone, in the hands of wide receiver Patrick Plott, giving JSU a 32-27 win as the clock hit zero. The Homecoming crowd erupted.

“I just remember that, limping out on the field and jumping on the pile,” Kirby said of the players’ post-game celebration.

Kirby would like to have been in town today for the re-dedication of the field with the name of his former coach, Burgess. Instead, he’ll be on the sidelines as the quarterbacks coach for Tuskegee, as the Tigers take on Stillman.

“I kind of hate that, because I wanted to be a part of it,” he said. “Coach is very deserving of it.”

— Ben Cunningham

Banyon Allison

Help from the 12th man The massive sound of the Marching Southerners plays in the background of Banyon Allison’s fondest football memories.

Allison, who played on JSU’s 1992 championship team, remembers the way the Gamecocks took the field. Players ran out one at a time, greeting each other on the sidelines.

“We’d go out single file, and as we left, each one of us would slap the WIN sign,” he said.

“That’s what I remember most — going out onto the field with the Southerners playing.”

Allison said the Southerners were like a 12th player on the field — filling the stadium with sound and psyching out the other team.

If the JSU team had a position just for trash talk and braggadocio, the Southerners would fill it — without uttering a single word.

“What I liked about the band,” he said.

“They’d get fired up.”

The band’s big sound created the kind of home-team advantage you’d normally find only at a larger stadium.

“We didn’t seat 60,000 or 70,000,” Allison said. “But when the other team was on offense, the Southerners would always play loud to keep them from hearing each other.”

— Tim Lockette

Anniston Star file photo

Pictured: David Gulledge; Anniston Star file

Mike Parris

Plenty of options As JSU’s play-by-play radio announcer since the early 1980s, Mike Parris may be able to lay claim to more Paul Snow Stadium memories than most people living today.

He doesn’t hesitate when asked to pick his favorite memory. It’s of the 1988 game against Pennsylvania’s West Chester University. It was the first appearance for the Gamecocks in the Division II playoffs under head coach Bill Burgess, then in his fourth year.

The game was expected to be close, pitting the No. 7 Gamecocks against a second-ranked West Chester team.

But JSU’s wishbone offense produced a rout, piling up 566 rushing yards and a 63-24 victory.

“They knew nothing about the triple option,” Parris said of West Chester.

Three Gamecock backs finished with more than 100 yards rushing, but it’s David Gulledge’s 91 yards — including a 72-yard touchdown run — that Parris remembers.

“I don’t think they’ve stopped him yet,” Parris said.

A lot has changed in the booth since Parris called that game. For one, score updates from around the country now come over an Internet-connected computer, not phone calls from the radio studio across campus.

Parris is leaving behind the booth in the north-side press box and its firstfloor window, through which fans and friends often send smiles and waves.

Today he’ll call his first game from the new booth on the top floor of the massive new structure on the stadium’s south side.

“It’s going to be different,” he said.

— Ben Cunningham

11A

The Anniston Star

Saturday, September 11, 2010 Page 7E

Y ear s Through the

A timeline of the major games played at Jacksonville State Third game of 1946 First game in College Bowl, 26-0 win over Middle Georgia. They were the only points JSU scored at home that season.

Sixth game of 1947 Stadium dedicated during 48-0 Homecoming Day win over Pembroke.

Third game of 1961 First game in newly named Paul Snow Stadium, 32-15 loss to Delta State Fifth game of 1961 First win in newly named Paul Snow Stadium, 21-6 over Austin Peay Oct. 15, 1966 Ray Vinson returns a kickoff return 103 yards for a touchdown against Troy. It stands as the Gamecocks’ longest scoring play of all time.

Sept. 16, 1978 First game in renovated Paul Snow Stadium, 19-17 loss to Nicholls State Sept. 30, 1978 First win in renovated Paul Snow Stadium, 10-7 over Southeastern Louisiana Sept. 27, 1980 First televised game in Paul Snow Stadium, 24-14 win over Alabama State (ABC-TV regional) Nov. 27, 1982 JSU hosts first NCAA playoff game, beats Northeast Missouri 34-21 Dec. 2, 1989 Beats Angelo State 34-16 in semifinals to reach Division II national championship game.

The Gamecocks hosted all three rounds of the playoffs that year and currently have an active 11-game home postseason winning streak.

Nov. 3, 1990 Last time the Gamecocks beat longtime rival Troy at home, 21-10 Dec. 7, 1991 Beats Indiana (Pa.) 27-20 in the Division II semifinals Dec. 5, 1992 Beats New Haven 46-35 in semifinals en route to the Division II national championship.

Sept. 9, 1995 First home game in Division I-AA, a 25-22 win over West Georgia Nov. 11, 1995 Patrick Plott grabs a 42-yard “Hail Mary” pass

by JeDarius Issac on the final play of the game to give JSU a 32-27 victory. The play is forever etched in JSU lore as “The Catch.”

Sept. 6, 1997 Montressa Kirby throws for 417 yards and five touchdowns in a 47-42 loss to Southwest Missouri State that marked Mike Williams’ JSU head coaching debut.

Oct. 1, 1998 First Southland Conference win at home, 2216 over Stephen F. Austin Nov. 18, 2000 Last time the Gamecocks played longtime rival Troy at home, a 28-0 loss.

TOP: Jacksonville State University; ABOVE: Trent Penny; BELOW: Stephen Gross/The Anniston Star/File

ABOVE: Ashley Martin (center) is congratulated after becoming the first female in NCAA history to ever score in a football game. BELOW: Kory Chapman rambles for yardage in 2003.

Aug. 30, 2001 Ashley Martin becomes the first woman to score points in a Division I football game when she kicks an extra point in the first quarter of a record-setting 72-10 win over Cumberland.

Aug. 31, 2002 The Gamecocks beat Alabama A&M 20-17 in front of 16,851, the largest crowd to attend a game at Paul Snow Stadium.

Sept. 27, 2003 First Ohio Valley Conference home game, 4914 win over Eastern Kentucky Oct. 11, 2003 Kory Chapman rushes for 298 yards on 29 carries against UT Martin, breaking Boyce Callahan’s school record that stood for 33 years.

Sept. 1, 2005 Furman’s Ingle Martin throws a 9-yard touchdown pass on the final play of the game to send JSU to a bitter 37-35 defeat. Game officials put time back on the clock after it appeared the Gamecocks had successfully defended the final play of the game.

Oct. 3, 2009 Junior defensive back T.J. Heath of Alexandria returns two interceptions for touchdowns in the first six minutes of the game sending the Gamecocks off on a 52-7 rout of UT Martin. Heath intercepted three passes in the game.

Nov. 21, 2009 The Gamecocks defeat Eastern Kentucky 3426 in the final game of the season to post the best

You can’t have a football game in Jacksonville without Cocky, JSU’s mascot. Here’s a look at how he’s changed over the years.

Jacksonville State University photos

Evolution of a Gamecock |

record in the Ohio Valley Conference. They were ineligible for the league title, however, due to NCAA academic sanctions, but that didn’t stop tackle Curt Porter from hoisting a sign after the game proclaiming the Gamecocks the “real OVC champs.”

Unknown year

1967

1971

1984

Today

8E

The Anniston Star

Page 8E Saturday, September 11, 2010

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