Celebration of Life Planned for Richard “Itch” Jones on October 25
May 14, 2025 | Baseball
News
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The Southern Illinois Athletics Department will hold a Celebration of Life service for legendary coach Richard "Itch" Jones on Saturday, October 25, 2025, at 11 a.m. CT at Itchy Jones Stadium. In the event of inclement weather, the memorial service will be moved to the Charles Helleny Pavilion inside Banterra Center.
Jones passed away on February 17, 2025 at the age of 87 and left behind a legacy that was unmatched in the collegiate baseball world.
He retired from coaching in 2005 as one of the most decorated coaches in NCAA history, ranking 13th on the NCAA Division I wins list and eighth among active coaches at the end of that campaign. Jones' finest season at Illinois was in 1998 when the Illini won their first regular season Big Ten Championship in 35 years. He also led Illinois to the Big Ten regular-season title in his final season in 2005 and to a Big Ten Tournament championship in 2000.
At Southern Illinois, he built a dynasty with seven Missouri Valley Conference regular season titles (1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1984, 1986, 1990), a Midwestern Conference title (1971) and MVC Tournament championships in 1977, 1978, 1981, 1986 and 1990. Jones was named MVC Coach of the Year four times and Big Ten Coach of the Year twice. He was named the NCAA Division I Diamond Baseball Coach of the Year in 1990 and earned two other national coach of the year honors – Adirondack National Coach of the Year in 1971 and The Sporting News Coach of the Year in 1977.
During his 39-year coaching career, he helped more than 22 of his players learn the skills that would take them to the Major Leagues, with well over 100 players moving on to professional baseball. Major leaguers included Dave Stieb, Steve Finley and Scott Spiezio, in addition to former Pittsburgh Pirate manager Derek Shelton. Many of his former players continue to enjoy long careers in baseball whether in the front office of professional teams, on-field coaches or as coaches at the collegiate level, including current Fighting Illini coach Dan Hartleb, who both played for Jones at SIU, assisted him at SIU and Illinois and followed him as the head coach of the Fighting Illini beginning in 2006.
A proud native of Herrin, Illinois, Jones was an outstanding basketball player for the Tigers before taking his talents to SIU and the Salukis. He received his bachelor's degree at SIU in 1961 and a master's degree there in 1965. Jones was a three-time All-Conference second baseman for the Salukis, where he was the team MVP as a freshman while lettering in baseball all four years and lettering one year as a starting point guard as a freshman in basketball.
Jones has membership in nine Hall of Fames, Herrin High School, Jacksonville High School, MacMurray College, Southern Illinois University Athletics, Illinois Basketball Coaches Association, Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association, American Baseball Coaches Association, St. Louis Area Sports and Missouri Valley Conference.
