Visitation is set for 4-8 p.m. on Thursday at Greenview Funeral Home in Florence. Funeral services will be held at North Wood Methodist Church in Florence on Friday at 11 a.m.
Jones, the long-time face of University of North Alabama athletics, began his head coaching career at Montevallo in 1969.
“He was a legend at UNA, and won a national championship there, but he put the Montevallo program on the map,” former UM player Billy Cannon said.
Jones left Marion Military Institute and joined the Montevallo staff as an assistant men’s basketball coach for inaugural head coach Leon Davis in 1968 and took over the program the following year, posting a 13-12 record for the Falcons’ first winning season since it began in 1964.
“Our program was pretty well established when he was here,” Davis said. “We had the foundation laid when he came and then we’ve had pretty big success since.”
During his five seasons, he compiled an 85-53 win-loss record and the second-best win-loss percentage (.616), second to current UM coach Danny Young.
Jones spoke with Davis at the end of 1974 season about the opportunity to apply to his alma mater, then known as Florence State University.
“I told him, 'Bill, this is something you always thought you wanted to do. You owe it to yourself to go and interview,'” Davis said.
Jones applied, and the rest was history.
A 1958 graduate of UNA, Jones coached the Lions to a 259-141 record from 1974-1988. During that time, he won an NCAA Division-II national championship, appeared in four NCAA Final Fours, won three Gulf South Conference regular-season championships and three GSC tournament championships,
He became UNA’s first full-time athletic director in December 1987 and served in that role until he retired in 1994.
“He had a tremendous reputation every place, but really here in Florence. He’s an icon,” said Davis en route to visitation on Thursday.
Davis and more than a dozen of Jones’ players from Montevallo planned to attend visitation Thursday.
“I consider this just a tremendous personal loss because he was such a great person and had such a great reputation,” Davis said.
Cannon said he spent Wednesday and Thursday on the phone with former teammates remembering Jones.
“You walked a chalk line with him on the court, but off the floor he was just as nice of a man … a fatherly figure,” said Cannon, who remained at Montevallo after his playing days to work in admissions and now as the director of the Student Activity Center. “I always admired him. I think as the years pass you realize that the things that he did that we thought at the time were so strict or maybe too much discipline were the things that helped us later in life, and he knew that … I had a whole career at Montevallo because of him.”
Jones is survived by his wife Joan, sons Kem and Rex, daughter Pam and grandchildren.