He's a railroad buff, a walking sports encyclopedia, a music lover whose tastes range from progressive jazz to opera classics.

James P. Jones, 39 years in the FSU history department, is a man of eclectic interests and numerous contradictions. Born and schooled in the Deep South, he has spent the greater part of his academic career chronicling Civil War-era Yankees. On another front, he's become the recognized Boswell of Seminole gridiron feats and a major contributor to the FSU saga in basketball and baseball as well. First named to the Athletic Board in 1973, he served on selection committees that hired Bobby Bowden, Dick Howser and Mike Martin among others.

"You know, I went to school at the University of Florida and remained a Gator fan even after I began teaching at FSU," he says. "But one of my students in 1968 was quarterback Kim Hammond. When I saw a Gator player level him with a dirty hit during the game that year, I was so angry I spent the whole second half cheering for the Seminoles."

The best part of that story, Jones says, is that Hammond returned to throw a long touchdown pass to end Ron Sellers that won the game. And Jones' allegiance to the Garnet and Gold has never wavered since. Former students describe him as "a rigorous instructor" and "a dynamic classroom lecturer who knows how to make his subject come to life." C. Peter Ripley, head of FSU's Black Abolitionist Papers project, calls him "easily one of the top teaching faculty members at this university." Ripley did his graduate work under Jones' tutelage, as did present FSU history professors Maxine Jones and Joe Richardson.

In many ways, Jones was born to be a historian. He clearly remembers the yarns one of his grandfathers used to tell family members about life in the Confederate army. A great grandmother, only a school girl in Charleston, S.C., at the time, recounted for him her recollections of the Fort Sumter bombardment that split the Union apart.

"U.S. history was always a passion," Jones says of his school days in Jacksonville, Fla. "But even though my relatives were Southern, I got tired of all the moonlight and magnolias. Abe Lincoln was my great hero-not Jeff Davis or Robert E. Lee."

Jones completed all of his university work in Gainesville except for one year at the University of California-Berkeley. In 1957, still working on his doctorate, Jones jumped at an offer to join the FSU faculty as "temporary acting instructor of history." The pay was $4,000, he recalls, to teach world civilization and American survey. Even today, undergraduate classes remain a staple of his workload.

Motivating students in a Jones trademark. His undergraduate class on the Civil War is taught in a room that seats 55. Last semester, 146 tried to cram in. "Every class he teaches closes out almost immediately," Ripley says.

As a tribute to Jones' excellence in teaching, he's been recognized by the university over three separate decades: the Coyle-Moore Award in 1962, President's Award in 1978, and the Distinguished Teaching Professor Award in 1991. But distinguished research has also marked his career. Oddly enough, it was football that ignited his scholarly muse.

As Jones tells it, his first book chronicled the turbulent story of John A. "Blackjack" Logan, a Union general (naturally) with strong political ambitions. After that, writer's block set in. "I couldn't come up with a thing," he says. "Finally, (FSU history professor ) Bill Rogers asked me if I'd ever thought of doing a book on Seminole football." A regular at Seminole games and a favorite teacher of many Seminole players, Jones found that chronicling the team's early years came easily. It also broke his intellectual logjam.

In short order, he went right into Yankee Blitzkrieg: Wilson's Raid Through Alabama and Georgia (1976), the story of Union Gen. James Wilson's daring cavalry raid through Georgia and Alabama. First in longhand with a pencil, then rewriting on a manual typewriter, he's been churning out books and articles ever since.

The Civil War continues to ignite Jones' scholarly interests. With Black Jack just out in reprint, he's well into a book about Jefferson C. Davis-not the Confederacy's president, but a Union general with almost the same name. But it's still in the classroom where both Jones and his subjects best come to life. "This may sound hokey," he says. "But teaching is my greatest satisfaction. I love it, absolutely love it. How many can truthfully say that ?"