Jones College

A.B. Howard played multiple roles in his time at Jones County Junior College, serving as athletic director, assistant and head football coach and men's basketball coach.

Howard was a star athlete at Gardiner High School in Laurel. He played football, basketball and ran track for the Golden Tornadoes. He was a member of the mile relay team whose record was unbroken for 35 years.

He then went to Mississippi State University where he was a member of the school’s only Southeastern Conference football championship in 1941. After serving in World War II, Howard returned home and coached at Glade High School before coming to JCJC as head basketball coach and assistant football coach in 1950. 

He served as assistant football coach from 1950-63 and took over as head football coach when Milton White resigned in 1958. In 1960, B.L. Kisner, the athletic director, died and Howard assumed those responsibilities, too.

He was an assistant coach on the 1955 state championship football team, which appeared in the Junior Rose Bowl, and was inducted as a group in 2002. Also, the same team is recognized by the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in Jackson.

Sim Cooley took over as head football coach in 1961. Howard stayed on as head basketball coach until 1977 and retired as athletic director in 1982.

Howard, who was also inducted in the MACJC Sports Hall of Fame, is in the NJCAA Hall of Fame, as well.