ATHLETICS STAFF

34th year University of Montevallo, ‘67

Dr. Jack Hawkins, Jr., a native of Mobile, Alabama, was named Chancellor of Troy University Sept. 1, 1989. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Montevallo and his doctorate from the University of Alabama.

Upon completion of his bachelor’s degree in 1967, Hawkins was commissioned a lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps and served as a platoon leader during the Vietnam War. For his combat duty, he received the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart and a citation from the Korean Marine Corps.

Hawkins has overseen an era of change and growth at TROY, as he led the merger of the worldwide Troy State University System into the unified Troy University, an initiative called “One Great University.” More than $350 million has been invested in capital improvements by the Hawkins Administration, including new academic buildings on all four of TROY’s Alabama campuses. Chancellor Hawkins served as the catalyst for the University’s evolution to an international institution, as TROY has attracted record numbers of students from other nations and established teaching sites around the world. During his tenure, academic standards for admission have been increased, new degree programs were established in all academic colleges, and intercollegiate athletics joined the highest level of NCAA competition.

Hawkins’ professional background includes his service as an assistant dean at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (1971-1979) and as president of the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind in Talladega (1979-1989).

In 1985, he was honored by the University of Montevallo as Distinguished Alumnus of the Year, and was the recipient of the 2003 AllAmerican Football Foundation’s “Top College President” Award. In 2005 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Murphy High School in Mobile, Alabama. In 2007 he was recognized as the “Alabama Citizen of the Year” by the Alabama Broadcasters Association. In 2011, Dr. Hawkins was recognized with the Chief Executive Leadership Award presented by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and as the March of Dimes River Region Citizen of the Year. In 2012 he received the Distinguished Public Service Award from the Secretary of the Air Force for his service on the Air University Board of Visitors from 2004-2012. In 2014 he was one of nine university presidents/chancellors worldwide— and the only one in North America—to receive the World Confucius Institute’s Individual Performance Excellence Award. In October 2016 Dr. Hawkins was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor.

Three buildings are named in his honor: the “Jack and Janice Hawkins Chapel” at the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind, the “HawkinsAdams-Long Hall of Honor” and “Jack Hawkins, Jr. Hall” which serves the College of Education of Troy University. Hawkins was profiled as part of two books published in 2004: “Above and Beyond: Former Marines Conquer the Civilian World” by Rudy Socha and Carolyn Darrow and “The Entrepreneurial College President” by James L. Fisher and James V. Koch.

Hawkins serves on the board of directors of the Daniel Foundation, the Bennie Adkins Foundation, Business Council of Alabama, the American Village Trust, College Football Playoff Board of Managers, and Troy Bank and Trust Company. He has served as chairman of the Governor’s Committee on Employment of the Disabled, Board of Visitors of Marine Corps University, Better Business Bureau of Central Alabama, and past President of the Sun Belt Conference. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), as Chairman of the Council of University Presidents in Alabama, as President of the Southland Football League, as chairman of the Air University Board of Visitors, as a trustee of Talladega College, the Helen Keller Eye Research Foundation, and the American Foundation for the Blind. He is a member of the Troy Rotary Club.

Dr. Hawkins is married to Janice Hawkins and they have two daughters, Katie, a former officer in the USAF who is married to Air Force Col. Dan Beall; and Kelly Godwin, an attorney and member of the Troy University faculty who is married to Adam Godwin, a former professional baseball player and a member of the Troy University baseball staff. Dr. and Mrs. Hawkins are the proud grandparents of Noah and Ellyotte, who live in Maryland, and Micah Mae, who lives in Montgomery.

Now in his fourth year, Troy Director of Athletics Brent Jones has overseen a restructuring of the department’s external and internal teams that has led the department to set records in academics, fundraising, licensing, revenue generation, attendance and season ticket sales and in addition during Jones’ tenure over $40 million has been dedicated to capital projects. Jones leads the department under his W-4 mantra – Winning in the Classroom, Winning on the Field, Winning in the Community and Winning in the Stands.

Jones currently serves as vice chair for the Sun Belt Conference Athletics Directors, chair of the Sun Belt Conference’s Baseball and Softball committee, the co-chair of the Sun Belt Conference’s Marketing, Communications and Branding Committee, was appointed to the Sun Belt’s Name, Image and Likeness Committee and began a four-year term on the NCAA Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct in the spring of 2021. He will assume the chair role of the Sun Belt Conference Athletics Directors for the 2023 season.

On the court, the Troy women’s basketball team has won three Sun Belt Conference championships and appeared in the NCAA postseason twice (missed one year due to COVID-19), the volleyball team has posted three straight winning seasons for the first time in program history, the women’s track & field turned in its two best finishes at the Sun Belt Championship in program history, soccer finished second in the Sun Belt in 2019 and the softball team earned an at-large selection into the 2021 NCAA Tournament – Troy’s first postseason appearance in 25 years. The women’s cross country also posted its best-ever finish at a Sun Belt Championship meet and the men’s basketball team returned to the postseason and won 20 games in 2022 following a six-year hiatus.

Off the field of play, Jones has led Troy Athletics to extraordinary levels as academic performance continues to establish new benchmarks. This past academic year, twelve of Troy’s 16 athletic programs had team grade point averages that surpassed the 3.0 mark, with eight of the Trojans’ nine women’s programs hitting that threshold. All told, 57 percent of Troy’s student-athletes finished the spring semester with a 3.0 GPA or greater, while 34 percent of Troy’s student-athletes recorded a 3.5 GPA for the semester and 53 Trojans earned a perfect 4.0 in the spring.

Jones has led the search for five new head coaches during his tenure as Athletics Director with the addition of Jon Sumrall (football), Skylar Meade (baseball), Eric Newell (softball), Robert Lane (soccer) and Forrest Schultz (men’s golf). In Meade’s first season, Troy swept Louisiana (first time in program history) and Indiana and improved its RPI 35 spots from the previous season, while Shultz’s Trojans played nine rounds under par as a team, combined for 50 individual rounds under par, and posted a 97-53-2 record. Last year, Troy had one team round under par, 21 individual rounds under par and a 21-79 overall record.

Troy’s facilities have also been upgraded with more than $40 million dedicated to capital projects including the North End Zone facility for football, a massive renovation of Riddle-Pace Field scheduled to be completed in time for the 2023 season. Additionally, Jones has overseen new turf in The Vet, a new sod turf for soccer, a new court design in Trojan Arena and a state-ofthe-art volleyball playing surface. Additionally, the volleyball and track & field offices in Trojan Arena have gone through a rebranding process. Troy’s tennis courts underwent a rebranding effort with a new scoreboard and the playing surfaces receiving upgrades, while the Troy Soccer Complex received new turf prior to the 2021 season. Prior to the 2021 football season, Troy released a new premium seating area in the South End Zone of The Vet -- the Ultra Lounge -- which sold out a month prior to the season. It was expanded in 2022 and subsequently sold out again.

During the summer of 2020, Jones worked with Troy’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee in the creation of Troy CARES, which operates under the core values: Communicate, Action, Respect, Educate, Social Responsibility. Troy CARES is a program to promote a culture of Jones led a renegotiation on Troy’s multimedia rights deal with Playfly Sports, which has increased revenue for Troy Athletics for years to come. Additionally, Troy secured a new partnership with Affinity Licensing, which significantly amplified Troy merchandise volume in the marketplace in addition to increasing revenue and better serving Troy’s fans and merchants.

Thanks in part to a new partnership with IMG-L Ticket Solutions, the Trojans set numerous benchmarks during his time at Troy, including record-breaking attendance numbers for Troy football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, volleyball, softball and baseball. Men’s basketball season ticket sales increased by 400 percent during his first season in the AD chair, while a record number of season tickets were sold for football, baseball and women’s basketball. Troy led the Sun Belt in both men’s and women’s basketball attendance for the 2021-22 season, the first time in program history, and sold the most baseball tickets in more than a decade.

Troy has seen crowds of 20,000-plus at Veterans Memorial Stadium in 22 of the last 24 games (not counting reduced capacity season of 2020). Six of the top nine singlegame crowds have occurred since the start of the 2017 season, and Troy led the Sun Belt Conference in total attendance for the first time in school history in 2018 and ranked second in 2019 and 2021.

The restructuring of the overall athletics department led to increased production across the board including an establishing of best practices by the internal operations department to best maximize staff and transitioning development to the external operations team, which led to a significant increase in giving and major gifts. Troy’s philanthropic giving increased nearly 70 percent year-over-year from 2020 to 2021, while 2020’s giving was up 17 percent from 2019, and giving hit record-setting numbers in 2022. Jones launched the Drive to 1887 and Football Excellence Fund over the past 12 months and both fundraising projects exceeded their stated goals ahead of schedule.

In the spring of 2021, Troy Athletics announced a dynamic partnership with DeMarcus Ware which provides Troy University students, fans, employees and alumni with free access to Ware’s D2W fitness app and put officially licensed Troy jerseys with Ware’s name and iconic No. 94 in the Troy Bookstore and online store.

Jones, who was introduced as Troy’s Director of Athletics on June 12, 2019, took over the role following a two-year stint as Troy’s Deputy Director of Athletics for External Operations. In his role as Deputy Director of Athletics, Jones had oversight of marketing, communications, advertising, ticket sales, Troy Sports Properties, broadcasting, promotions, fan engagement, fan experience, branding, licensing and trademarks. He served as the sport administrator for the baseball program and oversaw football scheduling.

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