Bob Asmussen reports in the February 17, 2025 editions of The News-Gazette:
Legend.
The word gets thrown around often these days, with social media one of the reasons.
In my 35 years covering Illinois sports, I’ve gotten to work with and befriend two legends. Not that either would have used that term to describe themselves.
We lost the great Lou Henson in July 2020. He was kind and humble and an asset for Champaign-Urbana. The place was better because of Coach and Mary’s presence.
On Monday night, the sad news came that Hall of Fame baseball coach Itch Jones had gone to a better place. Where the runners are safe every time and extra innings go on forever.
Itch left Illinois as the winningest coach in program history and smiled gleefully when his protegee Dan Hartleb passed him.
Jeff Huth got to know the coach well during 34 years on the Illinois baseball beat for The News-Gazette. He spent another five-plus years as analyst on the team’s radio broadcasts. Retired since 2014 and living in Champaign, Huth spent parts of five decades covering Illinois baseball.
One of the first things that jumped into Huth’s head about Itch was the sequence that brought him to C-U.
“I’ve always found how Itch Jones came to be the Illini baseball coach to be fascinating,” Huth said. “It was this remarkable chain-reaction of three Hall of Fame coaches changing jobs.”
As Huth tells it, the cycle started with Larry Cochell, who had succeeded Augie Garrido at Cal State-Fullerton in 1988, deciding to leave to become the coach at Oklahoma in 1991.
“By that time, the prospect of returning to Fullerton had to be appealing to Garrido,” Huth said. “The athletic director who had hired him, Neale Stoner, was no longer at Illinois. Garrido, a California native, had also come to realize all too well the challenges of coaching baseball in Midwestern weather. Under the circumstances, the option to return to Fullerton certainly had to be enticing and he jumped at the chance to succeed Cochell.”
That, of course, opened up the Illini job after Garrido left following a stint from 1988-1990 leading the Illinois program. The chain reaction was completed when then-Illini athletic director John Mackovic looked to the southern part of the state and found a Hall of Fame replacement in Itch.
“You can’t overstate what an extraordinary trio of coaches figured into this game of baseball musical chairs,” Huth said.
Illini fans know all about Jones, who would finish his career with 1,240 victories, 474 of those coming at Illinois.
Cochell took three different programs to the College World Series a total of six times and finished his career with 1,331 victories.
And all Garrido did was win five national titles while taking Fullerton and, later, Texas, to the CWS a total of 15 times. He left coaching after the 2016 season with 1,975 wins — at the time the most victories at any level of college baseball.
“I can vividly recall Itch late in his Illini tenure once bringing up this very topic, saying that there couldn’t have been a coaching rotation of this magnitude (my word, not his, but you understood his point) in the history of college baseball. Who would dare argue?”
Before Itch led the Illini, he built the Southern Illinois program into a national power.
Longtime Salukis radio voice and close friend of Itch, Mike Reis was a guest with Brian Barnhart during Tuesday’s “A Penny for Your Thoughts” on WDWS.
No surprise, Reis had some Itch stories.
Like the time in 1986 when SIU earned the right to host the Missouri Valley Conference baseball tournament. But had a small problem: There was no press box at SIU’s Abe Martin Field.
No worries for handyman Itch. Reis told how the coach and his hometown friends, who he called the “Herrin Mafia” built a press box from scratch. Lickety-split.
“They built a press box in somebody’s yard,” Reis said. “It had maybe three windows. It sat at the top of the bleachers at the old ballpark.”
The Herrin Mafia loaded the press box onto a truck and drove it to Carbondale.
“Here are six men walking this press box up above their heads, like waiters carrying food,” Reis said.
Later, Itch and pals built a clubhouse at the stadium. He was helped by the school’s carpenters and electricians, who donated their time.
“One of his messages to new coaches was, ‘Always get to know your janitor,’” Reis said.
Itch, who led the team to three College World Series appearances, is honored at the Carbondale school with $4.2 million Richard “Itchy” Jones Stadium, which opened for the 2014 season.
Itch provided the lead gift of $50,000 for the rebuilt stadium and contributed $25,000 annually to the school after that. About $2 million of the funding came from former players.
“He stressed players should always at least repay their scholarships,” Reis said.
Reis shared a story about how Itch went to the SIU athletic director and said, “Mario (Moccia) if you have a chance to sell the naming rights, you should do that. That’s more important to me than having my name being on the stadium. As long as the money goes to the baseball program, that’s more important.”
Reis pointed out that not many would make a suggestion that their name “NOT” go on a building.
“That speaks to him for sure,” Reis said.
Barnhart had his own “Itch the handyman” story.
“We had a sink issue,” Barnhart said. “(Itch) comes in and says, ‘I’ll fix it.’”
After the job was done, Barnhart offered to pay Itch for his efforts and the Coach said, ‘You don’t owe me anything.’ “But he said, ‘the warranty is only good until I walk out the front door.’”
