Joy vies for District 1 legislative seat
When he was still a kid, 13 or so, Jerry Joy decided what he wanted to do when he grew up.
Joy really admired Al Wheeler, who took a job as head football, basketball and track coach at Peru State College in 1938 and guided all three teams to conference championships.
Joy decided he would attend Peru State College. And someday he would be the head football coach and athletic director at Peru State College.
“And that’s what I did,” said Joy, who is a candidate for the District 1 legislative seat.
Joy was Peru State football coach, then athletic director, working at the college for 16 years.
Like Wheeler, Joy was inducted as a coach into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame.
His boyhood goal that became reality is an example, Joy said, of his ability to be visionary — to look ahead and take action.
That asset will be helpful in the Legislature, said Joy, as he campaigned for the District 1 seat.
“That’s my gift. I can make things happen,” he said.
Take the public relations stunt that focused attention on Peru State College’s need for an athletic center to replace the school chapel turned gymnasium, built in the early 1900s.
Joy dreamed up a 70-mile basketball dribble to drum up public support for the $2 million center.
Around 350 Peru students helped dribble a basketball from the college to the state Capitol in Lincoln. Then they passed the ball on to then Gov. J.J. Exon.
The Legislature agreed to provide some state funding and the new $2 million center opened in 1980.
It was eventually renamed the Al Wheeler Center after Joy’s boyhood hero.
After Peru, Joy was a college administrator at other schools, most recently National American University with 6,000 students at 18 campuses and online.
Four years ago, Joy returned to Stella, where he worked from home and soon was elected to the Stella village board. He currently serves as board chairperson, similar to a mayor.
Joy was born and raised in Southeast Nebraska, graduating from Shubert High School, where he played football and basketball and was president of the 16-member senior class.
He also played the trumpet from about fourth grade on, “something that isn’t widely known,” Joy said.
Joy said he sometimes played taps at funerals for the American Legion.
He told his mother one day that he wished he had never learned to play the trumpet.
No one ever claps after a performance, he told her.
After that, when Joy got into the car after performing at a funeral, his mom would clap.
“That was our standing joke,” he said.
Joy, who studied social sciences in college, said he has always been interested in government.
He taught about Nebraska’s unique Unicameral at Doane College years ago.
Then, several years ago, as he looked ahead to retirement, Joy decided he would like to run for elected office when he retired.
He considered running four years ago, when there was no incumbent because of term limits.
But his bosses talked him into continuing full-time work. Now semi-retired, he has the time to campaign and serve in the single-house Legislature, though he’s still doing some work for National American University.
He carries around two slim cell phones.
One, his personal phone, he lets go into voicemail when he’s busy.
But if the other phone, his work phone, rings, he’ll likely answer it, because it will probably be a student — a student who wants to talk about financial aid, or who can’t get an answer about a grade from a teacher.
Students still get priority for his attention, he said.
Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.
Joy really admired Al Wheeler, who took a job as head football, basketball and track coach at Peru State College in 1938 and guided all three teams to conference championships.
Joy decided he would attend Peru State College. And someday he would be the head football coach and athletic director at Peru State College.
“And that’s what I did,” said Joy, who is a candidate for the District 1 legislative seat.
Joy was Peru State football coach, then athletic director, working at the college for 16 years.
Like Wheeler, Joy was inducted as a coach into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame.
His boyhood goal that became reality is an example, Joy said, of his ability to be visionary — to look ahead and take action.
That asset will be helpful in the Legislature, said Joy, as he campaigned for the District 1 seat.
“That’s my gift. I can make things happen,” he said.
Take the public relations stunt that focused attention on Peru State College’s need for an athletic center to replace the school chapel turned gymnasium, built in the early 1900s.
Joy dreamed up a 70-mile basketball dribble to drum up public support for the $2 million center.
Around 350 Peru students helped dribble a basketball from the college to the state Capitol in Lincoln. Then they passed the ball on to then Gov. J.J. Exon.
The Legislature agreed to provide some state funding and the new $2 million center opened in 1980.
It was eventually renamed the Al Wheeler Center after Joy’s boyhood hero.
After Peru, Joy was a college administrator at other schools, most recently National American University with 6,000 students at 18 campuses and online.
Four years ago, Joy returned to Stella, where he worked from home and soon was elected to the Stella village board. He currently serves as board chairperson, similar to a mayor.
Joy was born and raised in Southeast Nebraska, graduating from Shubert High School, where he played football and basketball and was president of the 16-member senior class.
He also played the trumpet from about fourth grade on, “something that isn’t widely known,” Joy said.
Joy said he sometimes played taps at funerals for the American Legion.
He told his mother one day that he wished he had never learned to play the trumpet.
No one ever claps after a performance, he told her.
After that, when Joy got into the car after performing at a funeral, his mom would clap.
“That was our standing joke,” he said.
Joy, who studied social sciences in college, said he has always been interested in government.
He taught about Nebraska’s unique Unicameral at Doane College years ago.
Then, several years ago, as he looked ahead to retirement, Joy decided he would like to run for elected office when he retired.
He considered running four years ago, when there was no incumbent because of term limits.
But his bosses talked him into continuing full-time work. Now semi-retired, he has the time to campaign and serve in the single-house Legislature, though he’s still doing some work for National American University.
He carries around two slim cell phones.
One, his personal phone, he lets go into voicemail when he’s busy.
But if the other phone, his work phone, rings, he’ll likely answer it, because it will probably be a student — a student who wants to talk about financial aid, or who can’t get an answer about a grade from a teacher.
Students still get priority for his attention, he said.
Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.
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