Henry Blog: Jim & Betty Lou, FSU’s Super Seminole couple

Jim Henry, Democrat Sports Editor

Betty Lou and Jim Joanos are super fans who both attended FSU and have continued to support the university. The couple have a condo near Doack Campbell football stadium that is covered wall-to-wall with FSU memorabilia.

They have served in various capacities as both friend and faculty to Florida State. They have received numerous awards over the years for their service and devotion to the university.

But this one beats all.

This one touches their hearts because of the deep, personal connection it carries.

“I am pretty awed by it,” Jim Joanos admitted. “This is a very personal thing for the both of us.”

Jim and Betty Lou Joanos, the consummate Super Seminole couple, will be presented the Moore-Stone Award at Friday’s Hall of Fame induction banquet at the University Club Center.

The couple’s longtime dedication to FSU will be recognized – and is deserving of Hall of Fame eternity. Yet the relationship between the recipients and an award named after men who helped shape their lives is storybook.

“It’s absolutely amazing and we are totally humbled by it,” Betty Lou said.

Both Dr. Coyle E. Moore and Dr. Mode L. Stone were actively involved in FSU sports programs and intercollegiate athletics during their careers. The Seminoles’ athletic field house was named the Moore Athletic Center after him and it carries the name today.

The Hall of Fame committee named an award after Moore and Stone, and former Gov. LeRoy Collins was the first recipient in 1981.

The timeline that leads to Friday’s ceremony for Jim and Betty Lou started nearly 70 years ago.

Jim attended FSU’s first football game in 1947, played against the Stetson Hatters at Centennial Field (now home to Cascades Park). The 13-year-old recalls FSU students arriving at the field in yellow school buses and a family friend who attended Stetson wearing a green derby hat to the game.

A road game against Troy State in Dothan, Alabama, the following year stirs a unique memory.

“It had rained all day and to help dry parts of the field, they poured kerosene or something on the field and set fire to it,” Joanos said.

Joanos’ passion for FSU burned brightly when he arrived in 1952 following his graduation from Leon High.

He majored in government and public administration at FSU from 1952-56, and one of his best friends was fellow Leon graduate, Coyle Moore, Jr. The pair served on FSU’s student government and Joanos credits Moore for encouraging him to attend Yale Law School following his three-year stint in the Air Force. Moore Jr. died of cancer in 1961.

“He was an outstanding guy, somebody who would have really been something special,” said Joanos, a pallbearer at the funeral who in later years attended FSU functions with Dr. Moore.

Joanos also met Betty Lou at FSU, asking her to homecoming his senior season and saying that day hasn’t stopped. The couple was married the same day Betty Lou turned in her last FSU paper, 58 years ago and counting.

Betty Lou, from Quincy, majored in home economics education at FSU from 1953-57 and was a four-year member (five-person bicycle and rola bola balance board) of the FSU Flying High Circus. She was part of group as contracted by the schools that performed during halftime of FSU football games at Wake Forest and Stetson.

Betty Lou also worked in Dr. Moore’s office while at FSU and got to know the Moore family well. And, further connecting the dots, Dean Stone was one of her deans in the School of Social Welfare. It was Stone who provided the written excuse that permitted Betty Lou to miss graduation ceremonies so she could marry Jim, on a two-week leave between assignments in the Air Force.

“At that time, you had to be physically at graduation to receive your diploma,” Betty Lou said.

The love affair – to each other and to FSU – continues to this day.

Both are Life Members of the Alumni Association, Golden Chiefs in the Seminole Boosters, and Presidents Club Member at the FSU Foundation. They have attended every Seminole athletic event “imaginable,” as Jim , 81 – also a former Tallahassee judge and a practicing lawyer – describes it. Each is listed as one of FSU’s 100 Distinguished Graduates. Their children and grandchildren had graduated from FSU.

The couple also recently scratched off an item on its bucket list, vacationing in Hawaii. They have visited all 50 states together, traveled the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail and competed in marathons over the years.

“Both Jim and Betty Lou Joanos have been exemplary fans and supporters of Florida State University, both academically and athletically,” said Andy Miller, president and CEO of Seminole Boosters, Inc. “You can’t go to an athletic event of any kind that you don’t see both Jim and Betty Lou Joanos together. They love their university as much as they love each other.”

That adoration will be recognized Friday.

For all time.

“I am still in shock,” Betty Lou said. “I am awed by the whole thing,” Jim said.

Will emotion get the best of them around 9:15 p.m. when the Moore-Stone Award is scheduled to be presented?

“Don’t worry,” Betty Lou said and laughed.

“It’s too much fun.”