Jon Sumrall, front, served as a ball boy for his brother Joe's Pleasant Grove Hawks team in the mid-to-late 1980s. Joe is in second row of players, third from left. George Sumrall is in back row, far right. (Photo: Courtesy of Sumrall family)
Jon Sumrall Series, Part II: The Texarkana Ball Boy Who Went Hard at Everything
Sunday, August 30, 2026 | Football, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
Editor's note: This is the second installment in a series of stories that tell the journey of Gators head coach Jon Sumrall, from his birth in Texarkana, Texas, to his formative years in Huntsville, Alabama, to his time playing and suffering a career-ending injury at the University of Kentucky. From there, the series discusses the birth of his coaching career in Lexington and San Diego. Finally, his multiple stops at Troy and Tulane paved the way for him to the University of Florida. We opened the series with Sumrall's connection to a small town in Mississippi and his lack of connection to someone whose surname is often used instead of Sumrall's own.
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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — George Sumrall never pushed his two sons onto a football field, but he did demand they remain active and greet the day with purpose.
He was as ready to strap on a helmet as they were.
Or paint them.
"My dad was a wild man,'' Joe Sumrall said. "He was so fun. He supported. So, if we said we wanted to try this, he'd go all-in with us."
One of the Sumrall boys' favorite stories about their late father dates to when Jon Sumrall, Florida's first-year head coach, started tagging along to Joe's games with the Pleasant Grove Hawks. A vintage postcard that illustrates the uniqueness of Texarkana.
The family lived in Texarkana, Texas, where Jon was born in 1982, and the Hawks were part of a youth football program in the city split down the middle of State Line Drive – one side in Texas, one side in Arkansas. Jon, seven years younger than Joe, was too young to play.
But if Joe had a game, the doors had to be locked and windows sealed to keep Jon home.
"Joe was the first grandson in the family,'' said their mother, Sandy Sumrall. "We absolutely embraced all of the things that these little guys did. And Jon went to everything that Joe did and looked up to Joe. Joe was like the third parent.
"If we wanted to influence Jon, we might go through Joe."
Joe Sumrall gives his younger brother a hearty welcome on the day Jon Sumrall was introduced as Florida's new head coach in December. (Photo: Maddie Washburn/UAA Communications)
Joe played offense and defense, and took snaps at quarterback. George was one of the team's assistant coaches. Jon became the ball boy, racing along the sidelines doing whatever was needed.
He approached the job with the gusto Florida fans have witnessed since he took over the Gators, and that family friend David "Hoss" Johnson saw in George.
"His dad was the same way,'' said Johnson, a former Alabama offensive lineman and one-time business partner of George's. "Stayed busy all the time."
When the league handed out the standard white helmets, George saw them as vanilla with the Hawks' black-and-gold jerseys. The rest of the team bought into his plan.
George got some black spray paint and customized the helmets.
"That would probably not meet the standard of how you paint a helmet in this day and age and would be frowned upon,'' Jon said.
Still, no matter how good the Hawks were going to be, George made sure they had the most distinctive helmets.
But it didn't take long for the headgear to start showing the effects on game day.
"I don't know what kind of spray paint he used,'' Joe said. "But after the very first play, that stuff started chipping off."
As the players yelled toward the sideline, George didn't flinch.
"Hey, make it look like you hit somebody."
They did. Young Jon Sumrall, his father, George Sumrall, former Alabama coach Gene Stallings, center, and family friend Hoss Johnson. (Photo: Courtesy of Sumrall family)
Their father's love for his sons and for football passed on to them, and Texarkana is where Jon Sumrall's passion for the game was born.
He was too young to remember, but he's heard the stories about George taking the family to the Red River Rivalry between Oklahoma and Texas at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
"That was probably my first real exposure to ball,'' Jon said. "As a kid growing up – maybe this is the Texas influence – I always wanted to wear cowboy boots. I'd be wearing cowboy boots everywhere."
He still fondly recalls his introduction to the sideline and being part of a team nearly 40 years later.
The experience opened the door to his future.
"Had a blast there around Texarkana,'' Sumrall said. "I think early on I knew I always wanted to be around the game."
The family moved to Huntsville, Alabama, when Jon was in elementary school. But Jon's focus on football and his outgoing personality were cemented.
The Sumralls soon branched out in their new community, and those they met could see how close-knit and giving the family led by George was.
Mickey Conn, the long-time Clemson assistant now in his first season as defensive coordinator at Samford University, played at Alabama in the early 1990s for Gene Stallings. After college, he took a job in Huntsville with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
"Jon and Joe's mom and dad kind of took me in and helped me out,'' Conn said. "I really didn't know anybody. His dad was so outgoing, a lot like Jon."
George was more than a doting father in the bleachers.
He had blossomed into a talented 6-foot-2, 180-pound defensive end at Jackson (Miss.) Callaway High, with his name regularly appearing in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger during his senior season in 1967. He continued his career at Hinds (Miss.) Community College and Southeastern Louisiana University.
Joe continued to play through his freshman year of high school and stayed close to the game in college as a student worker in the sports-information department at the University of Alabama. Jon grew up and played all sports, but the young ball boy never ventured far from the sidelines.
The rest of the family followed his games like he once had Joe's.
A Team Sumrall photo in December on the day of Jon Sumrall's introductory press conference. (Photo: Maddie Washburn/UAA Communications)
"We just loved ball at our house,'' Joe Sumrall said. "I'm his biggest fan."
And vice versa.
Sandy Sumrall was reminded of that recently. Since George passed away in December, she has been sorting through family keepsakes in their home.
She recently discovered a collection of Jon's writings from middle school, a few years after he became Joe's shadow before his older brother left for college.
"My best friend is my brother Joe,'' he wrote.
"Jon is as tough as nails, but compassionate,'' Sandy said. "I mean, as his mom, he's a conundrum of personality traits. And they all fit beautifully together in one person.
"From the time he was a little boy, he went hard at everything."
