Source: The Florida Times-Union, JacksonvilleJan.迷你倉 05--NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. -- Jay Jacobs can't picture life without being involved with Auburn University in some capacity.He was born and raised less than a half-hour drive from the school. He walked on for the Tigers football team in Pat Dye's first season as coach, and started on the offensive line in 1983 when the Tigers won the SEC title.Jacobs became a coach, then into administration and three decades later, is the athletic director for one of the two schools playing in the BCS National Championship game on Monday, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.Not bad for a Wolfson High kid.While Jacobs is all Auburn, it hasn't been all the time. Between 1976 and 1979, after his father was transferred to Jacksonville by Southern Bell, Jacobs went to Wolfson for three years and played football, wrestled and competed in the shot put in track."I loved Wolfson and loved Jacksonville," said Jacobs, whose second-ranked football Tigers (12-1) will play No. 1 Florida State (13-0). "It had and always will have great people, a great community and a great culture. I loved going to the beach, eating oysters at Pete's and hanging out with my friends. It's always got a special place in my heart."Jacobs went to Florida State College for one quarter but went back home to Lafayette, Ala., to work in the family business -- his grandfather's funeral home -- and continue his education. After two quarters at Southern Union Junior College, Jacobs enrolled at Auburn in 1981 and it's been his professional and family home since then."Auburn is a family community," he said. "I have fond memories of Jacksonville but this is home."Tigers assistant football coach Dameyune Craig said it would be hard to imagine an Auburn University without the presence of Jacobs."Jay has been around forever and he's a true Auburn man," said Craig, who played quarterback for the Tigers when Jacobs was the assistant athletic director for operations. "He's a great guy and lives and breathes Auburn."Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher, who coached Craig and was an Auburn assistant for six years, said Jacobs has every attribute to be an effective athletic director in the 21st century."He's done it all, played, coached and in administration, and he can see things from a player's standpoint," Fisher said. "He's a very smart guy and a very good business guy, and that's what a good A.D. is."Among Jacobs' accomplishments since being named Auburn's 14th athletic director on Dec. 22, 2004:-- Auburn's teams have won 10 national championships (including the 2010 BCS title) and 19 SEC championships.-- With the help of a contract with Under Armour to provide the school's athletic apparel, Auburn has been able to fund projects such as the Auburn Arena ($86 million), an indoor practice facility ($16 million) and a soccer/track facility ($6.5 million). He also headed Tigers Unlimited, the university's fund-raising arm, from 2001-2005. Around $60 million in gifts were raised his last three years with Tigers Unlimited and he headed a $90 million capital campaign.-- Student-athletes on seven Auburn teams scored on the 90th-to-100th percentile in the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate.Jacobs knows well the value of athletics and openly wonders if his career would have been possible without the guidance he received at Wolfson from football coach Tom Grant, or later at Auburn from Dye.He's especially appreciative of the opportunity Dye 自存倉ave him as a 205-pound walk-on."I joined a fraternity when I got to Auburn and I was going nowhere fast," Jacobs said. "Auburn then hired coach Dye and the following spring I decided to walk on. It wasn't easy. It was never easy under coach Dye. He was very demanding. But the experience shaped me."Jacobs red-shirted his first season, played one year of junior varsity and was a tight end, tackle and guard.He entered the 1982 season as the third-team tackle but the player who was first-team missed the first week of practice because of an internship, and the second-team tackle quit after the first practice."Just left in the middle of the night," Jacobs said.The job fell to him by default and Jacobs wound up being one of the team leaders.He coached one year of high school football after his graduation but returned to Auburn as a grad assistant and coached tight ends -- which included a future Major League Baseball star named Frank Thomas.In rapid fashion, Jacobs became the strength and conditioning coach, ran the school's sports medicine department and was promoted to assistant athletic director in 1988. Three years later, he became the associate A.D.Jacobs interviewed for A.D. jobs at several smaller schools before getting the same job at Auburn in 2004."They would always do something to keep me there whenever I talked with another school," he said. "I'm glad we did."Jacobs said two other parts of his life have deeply affected him and contributed to his success at Auburn.The experience working in his grandfather's funeral home was more important than he believed at the time. Being around families at their lowest emotional point, he said, taught him compassion."In tough times, people are looking for someone to lift them up," he said. "You learn compassion for people when you don't have their same feelings."What also shaped his professional and personal life has been the participation of he and his wife Angie in the Alabama State Department of Children's Affairs. They have taken care of 10 foster children, all under 14 years old, while the state attempts to help their mothers become self-sufficient and able to take care of their children."That's what has helped me deal with our student-athletes more than anything," said Jacobs, who has three daughters. "Not everyone has the same advantages and I now know how tough the home life of some our of kids can be. There was a time when I was more narrow-minded, when I wondered, 'why can't people take care of themselves, get an education, get a job?' I've been able to understand the circumstances of the kind of vicious cycles they're caught in."Auburn's appearance in the national championship game, one year after going 3-9 overall and 0-8 in the SEC, has resolved one of the crises that Jacobs faced: whether or not to fire Gene Chizik, the coach who led Auburn to the 2010 national title."No one saw it coming," he said of last season. "Gene was a man of character and integrity but I had to do what I felt was right for the program."Now, under Gus Malzahn, Jacobs has no problem with being enthusiastic about the football team."Two plays against Georgia and Alabama made us a team of destiny," he said. "We've become America's team, even the world's team."Garry Smits: (904) 359-4362Copyright: ___ (c)2014 The Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, Fla.) Visit The Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, Fla.) at .jacksonville.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉出租
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