KWU to induct four individuals, one team into Athletic Hall of Fame at Homecoming
By: David Toelle, KWU Sports Information

Former Athletic Director and Men's Basketball Coach Jerry Jones headlines the list of Athletic Hall of Fame inductees to be enshrined at Homecoming 2008 activities

Kansas Wesleyan University will induct four individuals and one team into its Athletic Hall of Fame at the W Clan Breakfast on Saturday, October 11. The breakfast begins at 8:00 a.m. at Shriwise Cafeteria on the KWU Campus. Tickets for the breakfast are $7.00 and can be purchased through the KWU Alumni Office, 785.827.5541, ext. 1129.

Inductees include the 1977 and 1978 back-to-back KCAC Championship Cross Country teams, Rhonda (Melton) Rose, Larry Williams, and Jerry Jones. KWU will also recognize the induction of Jernard Burks into the Hall of Fame last year. Burks was selected to the Hall of Fame last year, but was unable to attend the induction ceremony.

1977 and 1978 Cross Country Back-to-Back KCAC Champions -  Team Members included: Darryl Ashley, Tony Bazarth, Roger Benjamin, Paul Buhl, Alen Dawding, Henry Devereaux, Joe Fassler, T.J. Fassler, Gary Goodwin, Dave Hickerson, Dave Laha, Tyler Nelson, Rock O’Mara, Jack Robinson, Scott Walkinshaw, Loren Wilson, Dan Winston, Rick Yager, Coach John Kernan.

1977 Cross Country Team

With six out of the top seven men from the Fall 1977 championship cross-country squad coming back, Coach John Kernan had reason to be optimistic about the team’s chances for the season. However ineligibility and other problems caused some runners not to return and it looked like the squad lost some strength and that the team goal of repeating at KCAC champions was going to be out of reach. The team still had Captain Dave Laha, a senior, and All-KCAC sophomore Paul Buhl returning to lead the squad. Rick Yager looked promising as well as returning lettermen, Tyler Nelson, Loren Wilson, and Joe Fassler, and Rick O’Mara was coming over from track. There would be some depth with freshmen Alen Dawding, Tony Bazarth, Dan Winston and Dave Hickerson. The KCAC meet in Winfield was a great one for the Coyotes. Led by Laha and Buhl who placed first and second and Yager at 5th (all earning All-KCAC honors), the Coyotes amassed a meet low of 39 points to successfully defend their title and win the KCAC for a second straight year, a feat equaled only twice in the history of the KCAC at the time. Coach Kernan commented, “Without a doubt this was the best team we have had here at Wesleyan. We had more personal records than ever before and more medals won.”

Rhonda (Melton) Rose

Rhonda (Melton) Rose, 1976, Volleyball and Softball - Rose found athletic success in the KCAC’s fledgling women’s programs.  Rose excelled in two sports, lettering all four years in both volleyball and softball.  During Rose’s time as an underclassman, the Volleyball Team made a state tournament appearance in Lawrence.  Rose also was a member of the Women’s Physical Education Club.

Jernard Burks

Jernard Burks, 1990, Football - Burks recorded a sack on the first play of his first game as a freshman and he didn’t slow down much after that.  He helped Kansas Wesleyan to four consecutive winning seasons with an overall record of 25-14. He was named first team all-KCAC three times from 1987-1989 and was named to the NAIA All-District 10 team in 1987.  Following his senior season, Ken Corbitt, former Salina Journal sportswriter wrote, “A player of Burks’ ability can not be replaced; he was a four-year starter and arguably the best defensive lineman in the Kansas Conference over the last three years.”

Larry Williams

Larry Williams, 1968, Basketball - Williams spent two championship seasons at KWU for Coach Ken Cochran with the Coyotes being co-champions in 1967 and KCAC champions in 1968. Williams led the team in scoring (16.7) and rebounding (9.8) as a senior. He was unanimous All-KCAC his senior year and first team All-KCAC as a junior.

Jerry Jones, Athletic Director and Men’s Basketball Coach - Jerry Jones began his first tenure at Kansas Wesleyan in the fall of 1982 when he was hired by Gene Bissell to be the new basketball coach for the Coyotes. In just four years, Jones turned a program that won just three games the season before his arrival, into KCAC Champions in 1986, the first of two titles won by Jones. After the 1987-88 season, Jones left Kansas Wesleyan for a seven-year stint as coach and athletic director at Indiana University-South Bend. In 1995, at the request of then KWU President Marshall Stanton, Jones returned to Wesleyan, and vowed to never again leave KWU. In 2000, Jones’ basketball team won the KCAC with a 12-4 record, and advanced onto the KCAC Tournament finals, just missing a berth into the NAIA National Tournament. The Coyotes did play in the National Small College Athletic Association’s National Tournament held in Salina that post-season and came away with the school’s first-ever NSCAA National Title. The 2000 team finished with a then school record 25-9 record, which was later broken by the 2006-07 team, whose groundwork was laid by Jones, as three of the five starters from that team played for him the previous season. Jones left KWU basketball as the all-time wins leader in Coyote Basketball history with 224 wins, more than doubling up second place. He has more than 300 wins in his collegiate coaching career, picking up win number 300 on December 13, 2003 against the University of Saint Mary.

Jones earned letters in football, basketball and golf from Baker University in Baldwin City, where he graduated in 1964. He continued onto Emporia State University, earning his master’s degree in 1968. He was named the NSCAA Basketball Coach of the Year in 2000 and was twice named KCAC Coach of the Year in 1986 and 2000.

He served four years on the NSCAA Athletic Council from 1998 to 2001, won the organization’s Commissioner’s Award in 1997, the NSCAA Athletic Director Service Award in 1998, and coached a group of NSCAA All-Stars on an all-expenses paid trip through Japan in the summer of 2000.

While Jones led the Athletic Department, KWU began the Athletic Hall of Fame, instituted the men’s and women’s soccer programs in 1996, instituted cheer and dance teams as varsity sports, reinstituted baseball, men’s and women’s tennis, and men’s and women’s golf, began to hire full-time head coaches to foster greater University enrollment, established quotas as responsibilities of head coaches, began the Greater Coyote Summer Golf Tour, wrote an Athletics Policy Manual, established a full-time Athletics Training program which became an Academic Department and received national accreditation in 2004, and began a professional quality sports information branch of the Athletics Department. Jones also served as a member of the KWU Cabinet as a presidential advisor until resigning that position in 2005.

More than a coach, Jones mentored and served as a father figure for hundreds of student-athletes under his direction at KWU. The “Jones Boys” is fraternity of former players who played for Jones, that he says, “I’m not ashamed to tell anyone in the world that I love these men, who are all my sons.”

In addition to this induction, Jones was inducted into the Baker University Educational Hall of Fame in 2006.

-- KWU SI --