BATON ROUGE — Former LSU punter Donnie Jones, who took the final snap and punted the football during the historic last play of the game in LSU’s national championship win in the 2004 Sugar Bowl, has pledged $50,000 to LSU’s new Football Operations Center, it was announced by LSU and the Tiger Athletic Foundation on Saturday.
Jones’ pledge will fund the Special Teams Meeting Room in the new complex that is scheduled to open this summer.
“I am grateful for the education I received from LSU and the opportunity to play football for the Tigers,” said Jones, now a punter for the Seattle Seahawks. “I feel a strong need to give something back to the university and the football program because the lessons I learned at LSU will serve me well for the remainder of my life.”
Jones authored a book that chronicled LSU’s meteoric rise to a national championship. He is also establishing a non-profit organization called the Donnie Jones “Last Play” Foundation to “help young people achieve their full potential.”
Jones, a four-year starter and letterman at punter for the Tigers, played in 49 straight games for LSU during his career, culminated by a national championship victory over Oklahoma in the 2003 BCS title game. In 2002 he was named All-Southeastern Conference by the league’s coaches and was a semi-finalist for the Ray Guy National Punting Award his senior season. Jones was also invited and played in the Senior Bowl, receiving the Sportsmanship Award.
Jones holds most of the LSU punting records including the longest punt in school history with an 86-yard kick, and he has four of the five longest punts in LSU history. He also holds the LSU career records for most punts (233) and most punting yards (9,798).
Jones was one of the leaders on the national championship team serving as team captain for three games. He also was recipient of the Special Team’s Player of the Year Award and the team’s Inspiration Award his senior season.
“I believe that special teams will play an ever more important part in the game of football in the future, and I’m excited about playing a role in the future of Tiger football by providing this room,” Jones said.
Also a standout in the classroom, Jones was named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll and received the Athletic Director’s Cup for academic excellence four consecutive years. He also earned the 2000 Peach Bowl Scholar Athlete Award and the Charles E. Coates Academic Award in 2003, given to the top academic performer on the LSU football team each year.
“I challenge other former Tigers to recognize the great opportunities that have been provided to them by LSU and to give back to this great university to benefit other future LSU athletes,” Jones said.