Grimes To Enter Henderson State Hall of Honor Saturday

Sept. 21, 2011

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas football offensive line coach J.B. Grimes will be one of seven people inducted into the Reddie Hall of Honor at Henderson State University this Saturday in Arkadelphia, Ark.

Grimes, who played for the Reddies from 1973-76, was part of three Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference titles and his 1974 team advanced to the NAIA National Championship game before falling to Texas A&I, 34,23.

“This is a huge honor because I played on so many good football teams with so many good players,” Grimes said in July when he learned about his pending induction. “It is humbling for me because there are a lot of other players who deserve this a lot more than I do. I was not really a great player. I was not even a really good player, but I was what I like to call a ‘try-hard’ guy. I took the field, worked hard and helped out the team as best as I could.”

A native of Clarendon, Ark., Grimes joined the Reddies as a walk-on, but by the end of his career he had earned a scholarship as well as All-AIC offensive lineman honors in 1976. Henderson State won 40 games in the four-year period Grimes was on the team.

“It was really a great time that I would have not traded for anything in the world,” Grimes remembered. “Aside from winning all those games, we came away with three conference championships and were really close to winning a NAIA National Championship. I even managed to play my way into a scholarship there, which I had to work my tail off to accomplish.”

Following his playing career, Grimes graduated Cum Laude with a bachelor’s degree in education and was named the outstanding graduate from the Physical Education Department Class of 1977.

The ceremony to induct Coach Grimes into the Reddie Hall of Honor will take place at the Garrison Center Day Gym on Henderson State’s campus Saturday at 11 a.m.