Dale Jones
photo by James Boofer
The University of Tennessee has a rich history in football - the Volunteers can boast of six national championships, 13 Southeastern Conference Championship seasons, 77 All-American selections and a host of famous players. The list includes such names as Reggie White, Peyton Manning, Condredge Holloway, Doug Atkins, Johnny Majors and many others.
Vol fans like me who grew up in the 70’s and 80’s can name many players we idolized during this era, and we all have our favorite players and teams. One of the most loved teams during Johnny Majors' tenure as head coach was the 1985 “Sugar Vol” team. Chris White and Tim McGee would be named All-Americans and the Vols won their first conference championship in 16 years.
The 1985 squad was expected to be good, but no one expected the Vols to win the title, whip number one Auburn by 18, and they certainly were not picked to win the Sugar Bowl game against Miami. That is not by anyone except for Vol Network radio analyst Bill Anderson who told Keith Jackson, “I think Tennessee is going to win, and it may be big.”
My all-time favorite Tennessee football player Dale Jones knew before the season that this Tennessee team had the chance to be special. “I knew we had a great team because we had Tony Robinson. Tony was an amazing quarterback. If he played in today’s game, there’s no telling how far he would go. We had great receivers, Tim McGee was special, great running backs, good offensive linemen. Defensively we just had a bunch of guys that played hard. I knew we could be good.”
Playing for Tennessee meant everything to Dale. He was offered a scholarship coming out of high school by MTSU but Dale wasn’t ready to give up on his dream of playing for the Vols. With the help of his mentor Jim Jones, he would finally see his dream realized in 1983.
“For me it was a lifelong dream. I think that the way I had to go about it was dedicating myself to the process and just doing everything I could possibly do to get that opportunity. I have to thank Jim Jones for helping me get there, Coach Fulmer for recruiting me and Coach Majors for giving me the opportunity. To me it’s the greatest joy you could ever have.”
Dale was happy to sit down and reminisce a little with my son Thomas and I, and one can easily see that he is proud of what that team accomplished. “We had a lot of Tennessee guys, maybe not the most talented but defensively we just jelled and a lot of that goes to the defensive coordinator Ken Donahue. I don’t know that we were all that talented, we did have some really good corners, but our scheme allowed us to be aggressive.”
Dale will tell you that he wasn’t the most talented player but to fans of my generation, he had something you can’t coach and that is heart. Known as the hitman, Dale notched 26 so-called big plays as a sophomore in 1984 and became a legit star on the 1985 team. There were so many memorable moments in games against Auburn, Alabama, Mississippi and Dale shined bright on the national stage with a never to be forgotten performance against Miami in the Sugar Bowl. Many of you readers have the same poster I do of Dale sacking Vinny Testaverde on your wall even today.
He says, “I wasn’t as talented as a lot of players, but I used the knowledge of what Coach Donahue taught us. We would read the lineman, and it was always fun, it was a chess match. I played outside linebacker and that allowed me to do what I did best and that was to chase the football."
When talking to Dale, it was easy to see that he loved playing for Coach Donahue in 1985 but he also still to this day has a lot of respect for Coach Majors. “Coach Majors was tough, not easy to play for, but he was a great coach. One thing you knew right away was that Coach Majors was always right, if something was red and he said it was orange, it was orange. He was tough but he was a good man to play for. Back in those days, you had to be tough.”
It has been 40 years since that magical season but every Vol fan who experienced it will never forget that “Team of Destiny” There are so many great players, games and moments, but the game that defined the season was the October matchup with Alabama at Legion Field in Birmingham.
There are many key moments from the October clash with the Crimson Tide but one of the most memorable was an incredible fourth quarter interception by Dale Jones. Bama had just scored a touchdown on its previous possession to cut the Tennessee lead to two at 16-14 and they were driving for more when Dale not only saved the game, but most likely saved the season for the Vols.
Dale says his best game was the 1983 contest against Bama in Birmingham, but his all-time favorite was that ’85 victory that kept conference championship dreams alive. “My favorite game has to be the game against Bama in 1985, we lose Tony, and we had to find a way to win on defense. I was fortunate enough to live the dream of making a play that helped us win the game. It’s something that you dream about as a little boy. Living that dream is very special.”
Following the injury to Tony Robinson on the first play of the fourth quarter, Dale says the defense knew they had to win the game. “We knew when that happened, we had to play great defense. They put Daryl in, and they weren’t going to let him throw the football. We just kept battling and made plays.
Dale remembers his game saving interception vividly. “As soon as the ball was snapped, man, I knew what the play was. Once I saw where the ball was going, everything was like it was in slow motion. I made him (Mike Shula) think I was coming, and I stepped out just far enough to intercept the pass. It was a dream come true.”
Following the victory over Alabama, the Vols would tie Georgia Tech but then finished the season with a 40-0 win over Rutgers, a 10-point win over Memphis, followed by blow out victories over Ole Miss, Kentucky and Vanderbilt to finish the season at 8-1-2 before winning 35-7 over Miami in the Sugar Bowl. It was a run no one saw coming, especially after the Vols lost their Heisman trophy candidate Robinson.
Following his stellar career at UT, Dale would go on to be an assistant coach at Appalachian State University for 27 years. “I was lucky, not many assistant coaches can stay at one place for a long time. It makes me proud that I can say that I won more games as an assistant coach at App State than any coach that has ever coached here.
Dale is now retired and still living in Boone, North Carolina, a place he dearly loves. “What I’m doing now, I’m retired. The whole time I’ve been here, I’ve built homes. Now I just go to games. I have an opportunity to go and watch a lot of Tennessee games and I’m excited about that. “
If you ever get the chance to meet him, I’m sure he will be happy to talk about that special team from 1985. A team that my generation will never forget.