2003 NJCAA Football Coaches Hall of Fame

Rebecca Patrick

Jones County Junior College

900 S. Court Street

Ellisville, MS 39437

(601) 477-4109/8213

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 8, 2003

The National Junior College Athletic Association Football Coaches have named eight men to the 2003 NJCAA Football Hall of Fame.

Selected as coaches are Jim Miller from Kilgore Junior College in Texas, Fred Julian from Grand Rapid Community College in Michigan, Bill Mills from Coffeyville Community College in Kansas and Willie Fritz from Blinn College in Texas.

Players named are William M. (Bucky) McElroy and C. J. Alexander, both of Hinds Junior College in Mississippi. Contributors named to the Hall of Fame are Don C. Wilhelm of Blinn College, Gary Cheatham from Garden City Community in Kansas and Cecil R. (Boots) Jordan from Jones County Junior College in Mississippi.

COACHES

A graduate of East Texas State University, Jim Miller spent 25 years with Kilgore, nine as an assistant coach and 16 as the head coach. From 1967-1991, Miller’s teams had a combined record of 152-100-5. He has more wins as a head coach, 97, than any other coach in the history of Kilgore. Miller’s teams won the Texas Junior College Conference titles six times and made five bowl appearances. His Kilgore team won the National Championship in 1978 with a 10-0-1 record. He coached 20 All-Americans. Miller has been named to both the Kilgore College Hall of Fame and the ETSU Hall of Fame. Miller was the Texas Sports Writers Coach of the Year in 1978, and was a six-time Texas Football Coach of the Year. He and wife, Dianne, are the parents of three children.

Fred Julian is a graduate of the University of Michigan. He spent 42 years in the coaching profession, 17 at Grand Rapids Community College. His teams posted an impressive 130-47-1 record. His GRCC teams made six post-season bowl appearances. In 1993, Julian was inducted into the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame. He and his wife, Joyce, have two children. Julian is a graduate of both Southeastern Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma,

Bill Mills coached at Coffeyville Community College from 1960-67. He became head coach of the Ravens in 1962 with his teams posting a 40-10 record. Mills’ Coffeyville teams won the Kansas Jayhawk Championship all five years he was the head coach. Nine of his players were selected as All-Americans. In addition to his football duties, Mills was an assistant basketball coach in 1962 when Coffeyville won the National Championship. After leaving Coffeyville, Mills and his wife moved to California where he taught in junior colleges for 35 years.

William E. (Willie) Fritz is a graduate of Pittsburgh State University. He was the head coach at Blinn College from 1993-96. His teams posted a 39-5-1 record. His 1995 and 1996 Blinn teams were back-to-back National Champions with a combined 24-0 record. Fritz was also named NJCAA Football Coach of the Year both of those seasons. Prior to coming to Blinn, Fritz was an assistant at Coffeyville. He and his wife, Susan, have three children.

PLAYERS

Both of this year’s player inductees played at Hinds Junior College in Raymond, MS.

William M. (Bucky) McElroy played for the Eagles from 1948-50. He made the All-State team and was honorable mention All-American both seasons. He scored 27 touchdowns during his two years at Hinds. He continued his playing career at Mississippi Southern College, now the University of Southern Mississippi. He was a Little All-American at fullback in 1952 and 1953. McElroy rushed for 100 or more yards in seven different games. He participated in the 1953 Blue-Gray Game, the 1954 East-West Shrine Game, the 1954 Senior Bowl and the 1954 College All-Star Game. He played professionally with the Chicago Bears of the National Football League and the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the Canadian Football League. McElroy has been inducted into the USM Sports Hall of Fame, the Hinds Community College Hall of Fame, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, the USM Alumni Hall of Fame, and the Neville High school Alumni Hall of Fame and was selected as the fullback on USM’s Team of the Century in 2000.

C. J. Alexander transferred to Hinds from Louisiana State University and played for the Eagles in 1957. During his one season there, he was selected to both the All-State and Junior College All-American teams. After Hinds, Alexander went on to Southeastern Louisiana University where he twice made the All-Gulf States Conference and All-American. He was Southeastern’s MVP in 1958 and 1959 and was conference MVP in 1959. He led the Gulf States Conference in scoring and rushing in 1959. Alexander has been inducted into the Hinds Hall of Fame and the Southeastern Athletic Hall of Fame. After his college days, he played professionally for the Boston Patriots of the NFL and the Edmonton Eskimos of the CFL. He has been a high school coach and athletic director in Louisiana for 27 years. In his 21 years as a head coach, Alexander’s record in 140-82-4.

CONTRIBUTORS

Don C. Wilhelm was selected based on his contributions to the Blinn College Buccaneer Athletic Program. He is Blinn’s Athletic Director and Chairman of the Division of Health and Kinesiology, a position he has held since 1994. Prior to coming to Blinn, Wilhelm held a similar position at Paris Junior College from 1986-1994. He was also the women’s basketball coach there. He has also worked at Stephen F. Austin University, Johnson County Community College, Anoka-Ramsey Community College, Southwest State University and Bethel College.

While at Blinn, Wilhelm helped institute the awarding of the Dr. James H. Atkinson Cup in 2000. The cup is presented each year at graduation to the sophomore student-athlete with the highest grade-point average. The Alumni Lettermen Association sponsors the award. He was named the NCJAA Region 14 Men’s Director in August 1996 by the college presidents in Texas. Wilhelm helped organize the Buccaneer Alumni Lettermen Association, Inc. in October 1998. The association was organized and created for the purpose of providing support for programs and activities that enhance the quality of athletics and education at Blinn.

Wilhelm started the Athletic Honor Roll for student-athletes at Paris in 1991 and at Blinn in 1994. Those student-athletes are honored and recognized for a grade-point average above 3.0 in college level courses. While at Anoka-Ramsey, he designed the NJCAA award-winning basketball program printed in black and white in 1976. Married, he and his wife, Mary, have three children.

Gary Cheatham has been a strong and faithful supporter of Garden City Community College in Kansas for 17 years. He has been the J. C. Gridwire’s “eyes and ears” in the Midwest for 30 years. As a supporter of GCCC, Cheatham has spent countless hours and put thousands of miles on his personal car following the team from one end of the country to the other. He has been the team statistician for so long no one else even knows how to do that job. The Kansas Jayhawk Community College Football Conference has been a part of Cheatham’s life for more than 30 years, while the GCCC Broncbuster football team has been a part of his family for the past 17.

Cecil R. (Boots) Jordan played two seasons of football for the Jones County Junior College Bobcats from 1938-39. After his graduation from JCJC, he went into the U. S. Army Air Corp during World War II and received the Battle Star for his involvement in the famous Battle of the Bulge. Following the war, Jordan attended Mississippi Southern College (USM) and went on to enjoy a successful 33-year career in education as a coach, teacher and administrator. Throughout the years, Jordan has been an ardent supporter of the JCJC athletic program, both financially and as a loyal fan. He is a charter member of the JCJC Bobcat Football Booster Club.

A wealth of information concerning JCJC athletics, Jordan has written several publications for the college, including A History of Bobcat Football at Jones County Junior College; A Supplement to the History of Bobcat Football at JCJC, the Final Chapter; Twentieth Century Bobcat Football at JCJC; Twentieth Century Lady Bobcat Basketball at Jones County Junior College; and Twentieth Century Bobcat Basketball at Jones County Junior College. These publications include the written history, statistics and photographs from 75 years of JCJC athletics.

This collection of publications also serves a purpose beyond divulging historical data of JCJC sporting events. It reveals biographical information on coaches and players, describes the JCJC campus buildings and playing arenas, and shares details of the morals and values of the times about which he wrote. His endeavors to chronicle this information serve as priceless histories for the college.