The Father of South Alabama football was back on campus Saturday to receive a special honor.

Joey Jones was inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame as part of a four-person Class of 2023 that also included Chardé Hannah (women’s soccer, 2014-17), Kevin Hill (baseball, 2014-16) and Daniel Leitner (men’s tennis, 2012-15). Jones founded the South Alabama program in 2009 and was head coach through the 2017 season, posting a 52-50 overall record with a pair of bowl berths.

“It’s really overwhelming to me,” said Jones, the first football inductee into the Hall of Fame. “I really appreciate it, because sometimes pioneers don’t get a lot of recognition. It’s not just me, that’s for sure. This is for all the people that put their time and the work in to build this thing. They all deserve it.”

Now 61, Jones was given the day off from his regular job as director of player personnel at Mississippi State because the Bulldogs were at Auburn on Saturday and his services are not generally needed for a road game. A Mobile native and Murphy High School graduate who was a star wide receiver at Alabama in the early 1980s, he returned to his hometown for a special induction ceremony at the Moulton Bell Tower on Saturday morning before being recognized during the Jaguars’ game vs. Louisiana at Hancock Whitney Stadium.

Jones’ South Alabama teams played their home games across town at city-owned Ladd-Peebles Stadium, but the school began its push for an on-campus stadium late in his tenure. Hancock Whitney opened just down the hill from the Jaguars’ football building in 2020.

“It’s really just very exciting to see,” Jones said. “We always kind of dreamed about it and we were hoping we would get to that point. But this is a great atmosphere of what we all kind of yearned for years ago.”