By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

SELMA, Ala. — James Jones, a veteran South Mississippi sportswriter that covered prep sports for the Sun Herald for over two decades, died Friday morning. He was 54.
Jones left the Mississippi Gulf Coast close to a decade ago, and landed in Selma, Ala., where he was working as the managing editor of The Selma Times-Journal newspaper.
“It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that our good friend and colleague, James Jones, has passed away this morning.” Brent Maze, publisher of The Selma Times-Journal, posted on social media Friday morning. “James has been the heart and soul of The Selma Times-Journal over the past six years. We are deeply saddened by his loss. Our thoughts and prayers go out to James’ family and his numerous friends, many of them he considered just like family.”

The publication indicated that Jones had passed away after battling a brief illness over the past month. Jones got his start in journalism at The Tuscaloosa News after graduating from Stillman College before spending 26 years at the Sun Herald.
Jones leaves behind a legacy in South Mississippi as a solid journalist who became one of the first African-American sportswriters to make a name for himself on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
“James and I started at the Sun Herald the same day, then worked side by side in sports for six years,” Kate Magandy Holzhauer, who served as Sports Editor at The Sun Herald from 1996-2002, said Friday afternoon. She is now the Assistant News Director for WXXV TV News 25.
“He loved writing about sports and particularly high school and boxing,” she aded. “He and Doug Barber were the anchors of our high school sports coverage team, where he excelled at telling the stories of those athletes — as well as following their careers into college and the pros. He will be missed by his Sun Herald colleagues and friends.”

Indeed, Jones and Barber teamed up to provide complete and comprehensive prep sports coverage in South Mississippi for over 20 years winning many Mississippi Press Association awards over that span. So much so that In 2016, Jones was inducted into the Gulfport Sports Hall of Fame for his service covering sports on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
“I enjoyed working with James for over 20 years at Sun Herald,” Barber also said Friday afternoon. “He was one of the hardest-working guys I’ve known and really loved high school sports; he worked hard to highlight Coast athletes and give them the due they deserved. He will be missed.”

Accolades and plaudits from former and current journalists from all over kept coming throughout the day.
“James and I never worked together, but we covered a lot of the same events for competing publications for years.” veteran sportswriter and Jackson County native Creg Stephenson said. ” I was always happy to see him. He had enthusiasm for sports and the job unlike many other people I ever met. He was from Tuscaloosa and I’m an Alabama graduate, so we also often commiserated about some bad Alabama football during the pre-Saban years. He’ll be missed by everyone who knew him.”
David Purdy, a longtime photo/journalist with the Sun Herald, who now is a photography professor in Iowa, also chimed in with his thoughts on social media.
“The world lost a good man today. James was a great writer, a good father and a good friend,” Purdy, who is still active shooting collegiate sports today, said. “He had a great sense of humor. I walked right by his desk on the way to the photo department every day at the Sun Herald newspaper and every day he had a smile on his face and something interesting to say. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family. “

Jones won 14 Alabama Press Association awards and was a part of the Pulitzer Prize winning staff of the SunHerald following their coverage of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Funeral arrangements have not been announced by the family at this time.