You can set your watch to it.
On any day, whether it's in a restaurant or grocery store, on the beach or Oahu's Kalanaianaole Highway, it will take only a nanosecond for someone to spot the Aloha State's most popular resident and let out a wax-loosening scream of "Joooooon!"
"Everywhere we go," Hawaii sportscaster Jim Leahey said of University of Hawaii football coach June Jones, "people recognize him."
|  | | June Jones is known as a great offensive-minded coach. |
Indeed, Jones has a face that can literally stop traffic. "Once," Leahey said, "we stepped out of a restaurant and all of these cars stopped, with people waving to the coach. He's an amazing guy."
Jones is almost as popular as sunsets, mai-tais and Don Ho. Need more examples?
One of the hottest-selling items in Hawaii is a T-shirt with the words: June Jones for Governor.
At a reception for Jones last year, Hawaii's real governor, Ben Cayetano, said, "I haven't seen this many positive faces since my wedding."
Among the family pictures in UH athletic director Hugh Yoshida's office is one of Jones. There is no picture of Yoshida's son-in-law.
After last season's 9-4 record, it's easy to see why he's becoming Hawaii's favorite son. He's brought instant credibility to the Warriors and the Western Athletic Conference when both were in desperate need of some.
"June Jones is the Tiger Woods of our league, WAC commissioner Karl Benson said. "He's got charisma and style. He gives us credibility."
To be sure, the June Swoon is all about timing.
In December 1998, the UH football team -- now renamed the Warriors -- was coming off an NCAA-record 0-12 season and had lost 18 in a row over two years. School officials conceded the football program, which finished $300,000 in the red that season, was two poor fiscal years away from being disbanded. Meanwhile, eight schools announced they would secede from the WAC on July 1, 1999.
"It was a tough time," Yoshida said.
And then along came Jones. Spurning a lucrative offer to remain with the NFL's San Diego Chargers -- a reported $3 million for four years -- Jones signed with UH, where he played for two years in the early '70s and was an assistant coach in 1983.
Jones immediately went to work, using a style inspired from his NFL stays in Detroit, Houston, Atlanta and San Diego. He scheduled practices in the morning, from 7 to 9. He limited contact in drills to avoid injuries. And he gave his coaches freedom. (Two live in San Diego during the offseason, and another has an evening job as a showroom host.)
He also implemented his trademark run-and-shoot offense. The results were amazing. A 9-4 record -- setting the NCAA record for greatest one-season improvement -- and a WAC co-championship to go along with an Oahu Bowl victory over Oregon State.
The program earned enough money that UH plans to add two women's sports.
Hawaii's success not only reinforced Jones' reputation as a very talented coach, but also helped keep the WAC on the college football map.
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June Jones is the Tiger Woods of our league. He's got charisma and style. He gives us credibility. ” |
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— WAC commissioner Karl Benson |
"Last year (after the secessions) was the first time people were looking at us as a property. Had we not performed, it would have been awfully easy for the cynics and doubters and the people out there looking for us to fall on our faces," Benson said. "We needed a national success. June Jones helped give us one."
With Jones' influence, UH signed a deal in which agent Leigh Steinberg agreed to serve as the school's marketing agent. Steinberg already has raised more than a $1 million in sponsorship deals for the football program -- it earned $50,000 in title sponsorships in 1999 -- and is trying to establish a marketing and merchandising foothold in the South Pacific and Asia.
Jones also has used his national platform to call out Texas, which cited financial reasons for bailing out of the season opener on six months' notice. Jones' taunting earned him more support from Hawaii fans.
Still, Jones said, "I don't even have time to think about what's happened."
He also insisted that he remains the same person as he was in 1983. In Hawaii, where visitors leave their egos and shoes at the doorstep, Jones is an easy fit. "You have to be who you are," he said. "And I'm the same guy I've always been."
He makes his own schedules and answers his own office telephone, even taking messages for his part-time secretary.
He does his own shopping.
He also picks up more checks than Brinks.
"There are two certainties," UH assistant coach Mike Cavanaugh said. "One is that June will take you out to eat several times a week. The second is that he'll always pay."
Jones also treats every day like it's casual-dress Friday. He has worn a suit only three times in the last 18 months -- all to national coach of the year banquets -- and never with socks.
"We love it," Cavanaugh said. "How many other jobs can you show up wearing shorts, a T-shirt and slippers? June is the greatest guy to work for. He never gets mad, and he always succeeds. It's the ideal job."
Jones, who makes 15 speaking engagements a month, said, "I've had a lot of chicken lunches and dinners. But that's part of the job, and I love this job. I love every part of this job. I have no regrets."
Stephen Tsai covers the WAC for the Honolulu Advertiser
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