Reception to honor 1st Shorter football coach
Phil Jones, who has coached football for over 45 years, will be recognized at an event Saturday at the Rome Civic Center.
Coaching football for over 45 years is bound to leave anyone with a host of relationships. And it’s those relationships and the man who fostered them that will draw dozens of former coaches and players of Phil Jones’ to the Rome Civic Center on Saturday.
The reception at 400 Civic Center Drive starts at noon and is in honor of Jones, who was the first head coach for Shorter University’s football program, coaching from 2005 to 2015. Jones coached at both the high school and collegiate levels.
Bill Peterson, an assistant coach under Jones and former athletic director at Shorter, said a free barbecue meal will be served until it runs out.
As attendees finish their meals, there will be a “big storytelling session” to “let Coach Jones know just how much we love him,” Peterson said.
“He was all about relationships,” he said. “A very, very strong Christian, but never was one to try to make somebody believe the way that he did.
“He always felt like ‘let me show them by the way I conduct myself. Let me show them why it might be something that they would have an interest in finding out more about,’ and in the process changed a lot of lives.”
When the program kicked off its inaugural season, Peterson said the team of 125 true freshmen had only one month to prepare for its first game.
“That’s amazing just to get them on the field, nonetheless, we won several games that first year,” he said of Jones’ ability to bring the young players together under a common cause despite the obstacles.
By his fourth year, Jones produced a “championship-caliber” football team, going 9-3 and bringing home a NAIA conference championship, Peterson said.
Jones was known for his mastery of the triple-option offense. “He knew it as well as anyone in the country,” said Peterson.
But in referencing Jones’ ability to establish lasting and meaningful relationships, Peterson said Jones was an “unbelievable” recruiter. “He was like a Bobby Bowden,” he said. “If we could get a student-athlete into Coach Jones’ office, we had a shot at getting them.”
One of Peterson’s fondest memories of working beside Jones comes from that championship year before the final game of the regular season at Bethel University in Tennessee. A win meant Shorter would be crowned conference champions. “He said, ‘Gentlemen, four years ago we started looking down this tunnel, looking for this moment in time. A lot of people will do that and they’ll never get there. But you’re fortunate enough, you’ve worked hard enough, we came together enough that now we’re at this moment in time. We’re at the precipice of doing what we set out to do four years ago,” Peterson recalled.
“I’ll tell you when he did that, it was a cold night already, but I got chill bumps.”
Shorter went on to win the game 7-0.
Peterson said he’s hoping at least a hundred or more show up for Jones’ reception. “He’s a great man. We love him. I love him,” he said. “His faith is what’s most important to him and right behind that is his wife, Janie (Jones).”