By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation

Bentley Jones packed a lot of punch in a 5-foot-9, 165-pound body.

"Back in those days, you couldn't use your hands," Bentley "Bubba" Jones said of his dad, who died 10 years ago. "Nowadays, you can grab them. As long as you don't tackle them, you don't get called for holding. He called it a flipper, but it was a forearm shiver. . . . He could hit you right in the mouth and just stymie you."

Jones shivered his way into unanimous All-Southwest Conference honors as a senior co-captain for the Baylor football team in 1948 - the smallest all-conference lineman in the league's history - and now joins the Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame posthumously.

"He was a quiet man, but he liked adulation," Bubba said. "So, he really would have been proud of this, to go along with being an all-star coach in 1960 and being inducted into the Texas High School Coaches Hall of Honor; that was really big. And this just would have been the icing on the cake for him. He would be tickled to death, I promise you."

Born and raised in Cleburne, Texas, Bentley was an all-state guard in football, an all-district pick and high-point scorer for the basketball team and also pole-vaulted for the track team at Cleburne High School.

"He was a good athlete his whole life," his son said. "Back in the '40s, people weren't nearly as big as they are today. You didn't lift weights, and there wasn't a training table or anything like that. You were pretty much on your own. And the way you stayed in shape, you just played all the sports. . . . You don't see many guards and nose guards pole-vaulting with a cane pole, but he could walk around on his hands all around the gym."

Signing a dual scholarship with Baylor in 1942 for football and basketball, Jones played for the freshman team at Baylor that fall before leaving after the first semester to enlist in the U.S. Navy, serving three years in the Philippines during World War II.

Re-enrolling in 1946, Jones played one year for coach Frank Kimbrough and his last two seasons with Bob Woodruff. With Jones and Buddy Tinsley as captains, the '48 squad upset 13th-ranked Arkansas during the season and finished off a 6-3-2 slate with a 20-7 win over Wake Forest in the Dixie Bowl, the first bowl game in program history.

Relying on his athletic ability and quickness, Jones would go over, under, around and through blockers to get into the backfield.

"I asked him how he did that, and he said, 'Well, I'd give them the old limp leg,''' Bubba said. "He said, 'I'd give them a leg and then I'd take it away and get in the backfield. And, I was fast enough where I could chase down the ball-carriers.'''

While he was at Baylor, Bentley met Dorothy Dagley, and they were married on Aug. 31, 1947. They had one son and three daughters, Jacqueline Sue, Cynthia Ann and Sherry Lou.

Bentley earned his bachelor's degree in business administration in 1949 and added a master's in education two years later.

Considered one of the top line coaches in the state, Jones had a 36-year coaching career that included stops at Temple, Cleburne, Port Arthur Jefferson, Waco High, San Angelo Central, Killeen High and Alvin.

"It was kind of like being a Baptist preacher back in those days," his son said. "He went to some really good places and he was known as a very good offensive line coach. He could have been a head coach at a lot of places, but all he wanted to do was coach the line."

He was on coaching staffs that made it to the state championship game at Temple in 1952 and Port Arthur five years later and also coached a state championship track team at Killeen.

While Jones was at Port Arthur, one of the players on the 1960 team was Jimmy Johnson, a Super Bowl champion coach with the Dallas Cowboys who now serves as a TV analyst. Asked what Johnson might do if someone brought up Bentley Jones, his son said, "Probably duck."

At several of his coaching stops, he tutored a long line of Baylor prospects that included John and Mark Adickes, Gerald McNeil, Randy Behringer, Dwight Hood, Charles Wilson and Ronny Stanley, the quarterback on that '57 Port Arthur team.

"He loved Baylor, and he wore that as a medal around his neck," his son said. "He could talk Baylor all the time."

Bentley's daughter, Sherry, died in 1971 at the age of 18, then his wife, Dorothy, passed away in 1987. He returned to Cleburne after his first wife's death and married Mary Hague Morrow.

At the time of his death in October 2006, Jones was survived by his wife, Mary; his son and daughter-in-law, Bentley and Carolyn Jones of Houston; daughter and son-in-law, Jacqueline and David Jones, of Longview; daughter and son-in-law, Cynthia and Ray Rucksdashel, of Houston; Mary's daughters Cathy Campbell of Cleburne and Sylvia Potter of Cedar Hill; 11 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

"He's been gone for a long time," his son said, "but people still me what a great guy he was."

Jones is part of the 2016 Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame class that was inducted Friday night at the annual Hall of Fame class banquet. Other inductees were football's Daniel Sepulveda, basketball's Aundre Branch and Sophia Young-Malcolm, baseball's Jon Perlman, softball's Dr. Cristen Vitek Wafer, Jahnavi Parekh from women's tennis and Olympic gold medalist Darold Williamson from track and field.

Additionally, Bill Glass Sr. and Jay Allison were added to the Wall of Honor.