"Jones, Get in There!"

by Leeland N. Jones, Jr.

My son Leeland III (Tony) played football for UB. As a matter of fact, both of us are in the Hall of Fame at the University at Buffalo. After graduating from UB and becoming the nation's leading touchdown scorer, he went on to medical school at UB; he's now a psychiatrist in town here. In the army he practiced in North Carolina and set up there for a while - raised a large family and brought them all back here. He was a fullback, an offense running back.

In my day we played both ways. In a big game against Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, the coach, Jim Peele, was reluctant to start me. But finally the score was tied and Coach Peele said, "Jones, get in there!" And I went running in on defense.

The first play they threw a pass out into their left flat, and the guy caught it; he must have made seven or eight yards. I was in the secondary. And the dumb fool threw it again. So I intercepted it and ran 60 yards for a touchdown. They called it back, said it was clipping, or whatever - but UB won by a large score. And that was the last real taste of any discrimination that I can recall while at the university.

UB has always been my heart. I have served on both the University Council and the Alumni Council, and I still carry in my pocket a little card that they gave me - I'm allowed free entrance to all UB football games and UB sports activities for the rest of my life. I've tried to be a live member of everything that goes on out there.