Jacksonville State University Athletics

J.W. Stephenson

Induction:
1972

J. W. Stephenson became the first coach voted into the Jax State Athletic Hall of Fame when he was inducted in 1972.

Stephenson’s Gamecock coaching career began in 1920 when he was named the Eagle Owl’s head football coach, but his greatest moments came in basketball. Stephenson, named basketball coach in 1927, compiled an official 215-47 record in basketball. The highlight came in 1938 when his team won the Southern Intercollegiate Conference title and advanced to the national AAU tourney in Denver, Colorado. It was JSU’s first and only trip to a national tourney until 1985 when the Gamecocks won the NCAA Division II title. Stephenson’s football teams compiled a 16-5-3 record while his baseball teams had an unofficial 69-41 mark. Coach Stephenson retired in 1954, ending four decades at Jacksonville State.

Jacksonville State named its new state-of-the-art basketball home, Stephenson Hall, when built in 1939. It housed the Gamecock basketball team until Pete Mathews Coliseum was built in 1974.