Oct. 23, 2009

By Jerry Hill

Baylor Bear Insider

When Jay Jeffrey talked about transferring to Baylor from the University of Missouri after his sophomore season in 1978, coach Grant Teaff didn't make any big promises.

"I had been the backup quarterback for two years and felt like I should be starting," Jeffrey said. "So when I called Coach Teaff, he said to come on. He told me, `You're going to be the sixth-team quarterback when you get here.' And I said, `Listen, if you promise me that you'll give me a shot, I'll win the job.' And thankfully, Coach Teaff gave me that shot."

Given the chance that he wanted all along at Missouri, the 6-foot, 181-pound QB from Shawnee Mission, Kan., beat out Peach Bowl MVP Mike Brannan and spring game MVP David Mangrum to become the starter on a 1980 team that is arguably Baylor's best ever.

"There was no question in my mind. I knew we had something special and that it was going to come together," said Jeffrey, who will join his father, James, and older brother, Neal, when he's inducted into the Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame at a banquet Friday night at 7 at the Ferrell Center. "I just knew it, and I wanted to be the one to lead them. We talked about it that spring: This is a special group, and we're going to go a long way, no question about it."

Following in the footsteps of his brother, Neal, who led the Bears to the 1974 Southwest Conference championship, Jay quarterbacked the '80 team to a school-record 10 wins, a high ranking of No. 6 in the nation and the second league title in seven years.

"That '80 team could have been 12-0," he said. "We had special guys on offense, defense, all the way around. And everybody knew what their job was. My job wasn't to rush the ball for 1,000 yards. My job was to get the ball to Walter Abercrombie and Dennis Gentry. You kick it to Walter or Dennis, and they're handing the ball to the officials in the end zone. Good things are happening when you get it in their hands."

But Jeffrey played his role well, passing for 1,096 yards and eight touchdowns and adding 453 yards and five TDs rushing. He was named first-team All-SWC and the league's Newcomer of the Year.

Adding 1,643 yards passing the next season as a senior, Jeffrey finished with a two-year total of 2,739 yards - a mark that stood at No. 4 when he left and still ranks as the 13th best all-time.

"We had great receivers," Jeffrey said. "People talk about us running the ball in that veer, but we threw the ball effectively. We did a lot of good things. It was just a great team to be a part of."

Including defensive end Charles Benson and offensive guard Frank Ditta, who also are part of this year's class, that 1980 team will now have 10 players enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

"People always say that it should have happened sooner, but that's nonsense," he said. "This is as big an honor as I've received in my life, and I receive it with all the humility that it was given."

Jeffrey also lettered in baseball, playing shortstop as a sophomore and junior and then switching to left field as a senior in '82. As a junior, he had a team-high .320 batting average with 29 hits and a team-best three game-winning hits for the Bears.

"A lot of people make a big deal about how hard it is to play college athletics, because you're trying to graduate and get your degree," he said. "And as scholarship athletes, you put in a lot of hours that nobody even knows about. But what a way to go! I loved every practice, every game. I mean, you get to play a game. How fun is that!"

After earning his BBA in Finance from Baylor in '82, Jeffrey went with former Baylor assistant John O'Hara to Southwest Texas State, where he was the quarterbacks/receivers coach in football and started the baseball program for the Bobcats.

But after finishing his master's in education administration in '87, he returned to the Waco area with Time Manufacturing, a company that manufactures and distributes aerial lift trucks - "some people call them cherry pickers," Jeffrey said. "They're the ones that work on the telephone or electrical lines. We manufacture those and ship them all over the world."

Now 50, Jeffrey is executive vice president for the company that he's been with for the last 23 years. He and his wife, Chris, live in Lorena and have five children: Ryan, who played football and ran track at Baylor; and daughters Lindsey, Christy, Elizabeth and Jill.