Pete Jones

Back in 1993, when North Davidson's Pete Jones announced that he was retiring as the Black Knights basketball coach after 31 memorable years, I ran out to the high school in Welcome to interview him for the story.

Pete Jones conducts a practice.

I was the newly-minted sports editor for The Dispatch at the time and I wasn't quite sure how I felt about this moment. Sad, I think. I'd already been covering Pete for 17 of those 31 years by that point. He was unarguably a living, breathing icon within the community and that kind of respect doesn't happen often.

So I tried this approach when we started the interview – maybe more for me than for him.

"I told my wife you're retiring," I said to Pete. "She said, 'You mean I won't get to see him jumping up and down on the sidelines anymore?'"

Pete smiled and chuckled. "You mean that's how I'm going to be remembered?"

To be sure, he could be animated on the sidelines, running up and down the coach's box, gesturing, pleading, working the refs for a favorable call.

We call that good coaching. 

Jones peacefully passed away at his home Wednesday, taking an era with him. He was 92. 

Indeed, the numbers speak for themselves. In his 31 years as basketball coach, he posted a 491-282 record (Don't we wish he would have stayed around a little longer for that oh-so-close 500th victory?). His teams won nine conference championships (spread over three different conferences) as well as seven conference tournament titles and eight Christmas tournament championships.

North won the old Western North Carolina High School Athletic Association championship in 1974-75 with a 25-4 record. His best season came in 1980-81, when the team went 27-3, but lost in the regionals.  

He also coached North's baseball team from 1962 to 1979, producing a 226-88 record and two state titles in 1966 and 1967.

In 2003, he was inducted into the Davidson County Sports Hall of Fame. 

Those are the numbers, but what the numbers don't show is the measure of the man.

If you knew Pete at all, even just casually, you knew he almost always had a smile and a handshake waiting for you. He might even offer you one of those omnipresent Lance crackers that always seemed to be within his reach. I think he had a hidden stash somewhere.

Pete was as even-keeled as any coach I ever knew. He was kind and generous of his time in post-game interviews, which was reflective of his easy-going personality. I never felt uncomfortable in his company, even after a hard loss.

The thing to remember here is that Pete was not only a coach, but a teacher who set and lived by example. Generations of North Davidson student/athletes benefited from his presence.

When North built its current gymnasium in 1997, there was little doubt it would be named The Pete Jones Gymnasium. More recently, the court was baptized "The Pete." That should tell you something about the man's legacy.

An abiding spirit. A class act. A treasure.