Hargis: Vols fans still remember Jones' dramatic interception

It happened in an instant, but the play has lived on for University of Tennessee fans for three decades.

On a crisp autumn afternoon, the third Saturday in October of the Volunteers' 1985 SEC championship season, with a must-win over rival Alabama seemingly slipping away, Dale Jones single-handedly turned the game's momentum.

This year marks the 30-year anniversary of Jones' deflection and mid-air interception of a Mike Shula screen pass to preserve a late Tennessee lead. The play became one of the defining moments in program history and made the former Bradley Central star an instant Vols legend.

"It doesn't feel like it's been 30 years since that game," said Jones, who has been a defensive assistant with Appalachian State for 20 years and will take advantage of having Saturday off to watch the Vols and Tide on television. "I went back to Knoxville for a game recently and took my (11-year-old) daughter. I had never really told her much about my playing days, so standing there on the sideline and hearing other people talking about me and seeing highlights on the jumbotron, that was the first time she found out what all I had accomplished as a player.

"She posted on her Instagram that a girl's first love is her daddy and that she was proud of me. I'm really happy that I was able to make a play that so many Tennessee fans still remember. But for me, being back on the sideline and sharing that with her was the best moment of my life."

In a series mostly dominated by Alabama, dramatic plays like the one Jones made tend to stand out more in the memory of UT fans, even to the point of overshadowing more impressive wins over better opponents. Earlier that season Tennessee had knocked off top-ranked Auburn and Bo Jackson, and as the Vols headed to Birmingham to take on the 15th-ranked Crimson Tide, it was clear that the outcome likely would decide the SEC title.

Jones already had caused and recovered a fumble to set up a UT field goal, but once the Vols lost playmaking quarterback Tony Robinson to a career-ending knee injury on the first play of the fourth quarter, it was obvious that the game's outcome rested squarely on the shoulders of the defense.

"We realized we weren't going to take any chances on offense and probably weren't going to score any more points, which meant we had to shut them out the rest of the way," Jones said. "We would have to play the game of our lives, because as aggressive as Alabama was being on offense, and with the momentum they had, somebody would have to make a big play. Before we broke the huddle for every play we kept yelling to each other, 'Just find a way!'"

With UT clinging to a 16-14 lead, it took just three Shula passes for Alabama to move from its 25 to the UT 37 with 7:43 remaining. But on the fourth play of the drive Jones found a way. On first-and-10 the Tide called for what should have been a safe screen pass to Bobby Humphrey coming out of the backfield. As Shula began backpedaling from center with the ball, Jones immediately recognized what was coming and rose up to make a play that stopped the surging Tide.

"The night before the game, in my mind, I replayed every play that I had seen them run on film, plus things that you think they might run," Jones recalled. "I would play all those scenarios through my mind in the hotel the night before the game, literally playing the game in my mind so much that I could hardly go to sleep.

"When I saw it was a pass coming I remember thinking, 'Do I rush or drop back?' Everything was in slow motion, and it was just the way I had imagined it in my mind the night before. I knew it was going to be a screen, so I just jumped as high as I could."

As the left-handed Shula rotated his shoulders back and raised his arm to release the pass, Jones continued rushing in, closing within about eight feet of the Alabama quarterback. Jones raised his arms, hoping to swat the pass down, and timed his jump with the flight of the ball. As he batted the ball and began tracking its fluttering flight directly above his head, as he was falling to the ground, Jones was able to reach up and grab the ball, hugging it close to his chest as he hit the turf.

Still stunned for a moment, Jones lifted the ball with his left hand and pumped his right fist into the air before being swarmed by teammates, equally stunned by what they had just witnessed. In that instant, he had turned away the Tide's threat and assured himself a place in UT football history.

"That's the number-one play that every Tennessee fan I see anywhere still wants to talk about," Jones said. "I won three of four against Alabama, including my freshman year when I had 17 tackles, and we won a lot of other big games in my time there, but that's the one play that sticks out for just about everybody.

"It's an honor, really, and I feel good that I'm remembered for a play I made to help beat Alabama. When I was a kid I dreamed of playing for Tennessee and making a play to beat Alabama, because growing up in that area that's just what you do. To get to live that and do meant everything to me."

Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293