Livingstone nose guard Johnny Miller's mother desperately wanted to watch Charlotte television cameras shine on her beaming son one day in 1974, but it was a hopeless situation.

The telephone was ringing every five seconds with someone wanting to inform her the Blue Bears were on TV, so how could she watch?

Yes, Livingstone's had its moments in the gridiron sun, none brighter than the 1973-75 seasons when local legend Fletcher Jones was orchestrating a world-class defense.

Jones, who died nine years ago, isn't in the Salisbury-Rowan Hall of Fame yet. Committee member Wilson Cherry explained the challenge is documenting Jones' feats at Salisbury's J.C. Price High and Benedict College before he came to Livingstone.

My mostly empty search through the Post archives the last two nights proved his point.

As far as Jones' character, there are no mysteries. He served with the U.S. Army in Korea. He earned a masters degree from North Carolina A&T.

He was a Blue Bear through and through, serving a revolving door of head coaches from 1959-1994 and accepting the reins himself for two years when head man William Spencer left for Clark Atlanta shortly before the 1988 season.

At Livingstone banquets, they hand out the Fletcher Jones Distinguished Athletic Service Award. He received a Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award in 1990.

As far as Jones' coaching career at Livingstone, the evidence speaks for itself. He constructed the best small-college defense in the nation. His unit led the country in total defense in 1973 and in rushing defense and total defense in 1974. Miller, a 243-pound All-America selection, was the linchpin.

Jones also could recruit a little. He found a tight end named Ben Coates down in Greenwood, S.C.

Jones must have been a hellacious player in his day, a swift quarterback on strong Price teams right after World War II.

He was an All-American at Benedict in Columbia, S.C. His college stats may remain a permanent mystery, but we know he was a good enough running back to be enshrined in the Benedict Sports Hall of Fame. He also set small-college punting records that lasted more than a decade.

Jones' 1946 season at Price, playing for coach S.W. Lancaster, can be reasonably well-documented. Price was 8-1-1, and Jones' talented teammates included Steve Gilmore, a guard/halfback/linebacker who represented Price in the inaugural Shrine Bowl for black players.

The Red Devils outscored foes that year 221-32. Price's defense posted five shutouts, including a 92-0 rout of Randolph Training School.

Jones made arguably the two biggest plays. Price trailed Winston-Salem Atkins when the Red Devils made a goal-line stand. Then Jones turned right end and raced 95 yards with the game-deciding touchdown.

Price trailed Belmont Reid when Jones plowed through the mud for a 40-yard game-winner.

Jones also threw two TD passes in Price's Thanksgiving Day trouncing of arch-rival Lexington Dunbar. It was 20-0, and Dunbar was still trying to cross midfield for the first time when the game ended.

Jones, Gilmore and most of their teammates returned for the 1947 season, so Price had to be good. It was the year Jackie Robinson broke down some barriers, but the Red Devils were excluded from the Post's sports pages.

A lady named Alice Horton showed the Red Devils some love in her regular "Negro News and Activities" column, so Price scores occasionally turned up between weddings, funerals, thank-you notes and band concerts.

We do know Lancaster forbid the sale of peanuts — he considered them bad luck — at Price's home games.

We also know Lancaster believed in defense-first, and that philosophy must have rubbed off on Jones. Price always kicked off even if it won the toss. Lancaster always told his team, "Let's see what they've got."

There's one available score from 1947 that hints at how good Price must have been. Price tied Gastonia Highland 6-6. Gastonia was the defending state champion and hadn't lost a game in three years.

With the Korean War's interrupting his education, Jones didn't graduate from Benedict until 1956.

He arrived at Livingstone in 1959. His impact on the defense started showing up in 1960 when he helped coach Charles Cox post an 8-1-1 regular-season record.

LC shut out eight straight foes. Voorhees was held to minus-60 rushing yards against the Blue Bears. That had to threaten some records.

Livingstone shared the Eastern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship and accepted a bid to play Edward Waters in the Charity Bowl Classic in Jacksonville, Fla.

Twenty-seven Blue Bears — Cox stated he'd "separated the bears from the cubs" — made the trip. LC lost 25-7, but it was still historic. It was the Blue Bears' first bowl since they lost to South Carolina State in the 1938 Tobacco Bowl in Winston-Salem.

The Blue Bears enjoyed a resurgence in the mid-1970s with Jones coordinating the defense for head coach Baxter Holman. Livingstone won 23 games from 1973-75.

Livingstone's 3-2 victory over Bowie State in September, 1974, epitomized the era, and t wasn't long before Jones' defense was receiving regional and national notoriety — even TV coverage.

Jones wasn't quoted often, but when he was it was telling and humorous. Asked to comment by the Post after a 48-0 rout of Fort Bragg to open the 1975 season, Jones said, "Well, I thought the 'D' looked pretty good out there, but with a little work we might jell."

The Blue Bears jelled against Kentucky State late that season and produced what may have been the school's best effort ever. The Blue Bears traveled to 15th-ranked Kentucky State and crushed a team that was poised to accept a bowl bid to Miami's Orange Blossom Classic. Livingstone forced 11 turnovers, including seven picks, and won 26-0.

Jones' coaching impact at Livingstone wasn't limited to football. He piloted a 22-3 men's tennis team and a championship women's basketball team. He coached softball and assisted with men's basketball.

Most of his players and students had no idea the big man had once been a star player.

When the Post ran a story on Gilmore last December, we received an e-mail from a Wilmington resident named William Harris Jr. Harris remembered Gilmore taking him to see North Carolina A&T's football team take on Florida A&M (and its great receiver Bob Hayes, the World's Fastest Human).

He also remembered Jones, who had been a P.E. teacher and coach at Price.

"I knew Mr. Jones played football, but I had assumed he played offensive line," Harris wrote. " I can't imagine him at quarterback."

Jones wasn't going to blow his own horn, seek attention or brag about what he'd done.

His stats may never be known, but his case for any honors this community can give him are pretty strong.

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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com.