Hall of Fame teams are led by Hall of Fame players. An essential member of Southern State College’s 1965-66 and 1966-67 Mulerider Men’s Basketball teams which won back-to-back Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference championships and made consecutive trips to the NAIA national tournament, Charles Jones takes his rightful place inside the SAU Sports Hall of Fame after a spectacular career as not only a standout on the court, but on the diamond as well.
First, Jones the hooper. A native of Banks, Arkansas, Jones arrived on campus for the 1963-64 season as a first-year player for first-year head coach W.T. Watson. While the Hall of Fame duo’s arrival may not have immediately signified that a change was coming for a program that had won just 13 games over the previous three seasons combined, a change was nonetheless on the way. Jones helped ignite the program’s turnaround as Watson’s ‘Riders won 17 games combined over the 1963-64 and 1964-65 seasons with Jones leading the squad in scoring both seasons; averaging 13.4 ppg over 48 games played, which included 14.2 ppg as a true freshman.
With the program headed in the right direction, Jones’ final two seasons saw the Muleriders reach new heights on the hardwood. SSC won 20 games in consecutive seasons for the first time in program history, claimed the AIC title for the first time in 31 years with its ‘65-66 championship and added a second title the following year and earned opening round wins in both national tournament appearances.
Jones once again led the squad in scoring as a junior posting 12.6 ppg. He reached the 1,000-point scoring milestone in the second round of the national tournament to become just the third Mulerider at the time to accomplish the feat. As a senior, Jones again delivered as a scorer notching career highs in made field goals (151), field goal attempts (326), field goal percentage (.463) and points scored (375). He also posted career-best marks in rebounds (83) and rebounding average (3.0).
At the time of his graduation, Jones had scored the third-most points in program history behind four-consecutive 300-point scoring seasons, the first Mulerider to ever reach that scoring mark in four-straight seasons, to finish with 1,375 points; currently the sixth-most among players in the pre-three point shot era and the 12th-most all-time.
For his career, Jones, who was a three-time All-AIC honoree with a first-team selection as a senior, averaged 13.2 ppg in 104 games played. He shot 43.1 percent (518-of-1203) from the floor, while connecting on over 70 percent of his free throw attempts. He collected 280 rebounds.
Secondly, Jones the hurler. Each season when the action on the court subsided, Jones took his talents to the pitching rubber. In his sophomore season of 1965, Jones earned All-AIC Honorable Mention honors as a starting pitcher for SAU Sports Hall of Famer Delwin Ross. The success would continue the next season as Jones was named an All-AIC Second Team performer after winning five of SSC’s 11 games.
Jones’ final act as a Mulerider saw him match an All-AIC First Team performance on the hardwood with an All-AIC First Team performance on the diamond after a senior season of 1967 resulted in five more wins behind 41 strikeouts in 55 innings of work.
