When Erskine alumnus and football coach Harold Jones befriended a black developmentally challenged teenager named James “Radio” Kennedy, he had no idea what impact that friendship would have on his life.

The story of the friendship was eventually retold by Hollywood in a major motion picture, “Radio,” that was released last year and stars Cuba Gooding Jr. as “Radio” and Ed Harris as Jones.

These days, Radio and Jones, a retired high school football coach at T.L. Hanna High School in Anderson, travel together making personal appearances. Earlier this month, they went to Greenwood Country Club for the annual Emerald Center Golf Tournament.

Emerald Center is an agency based in Greenwood that serves people with disabilities and special needs. Emerald Center Executive Director Felton Burton, coincidentally, is an Erskine alumnus who played on Erskine’s last football team in 1951.

Jones said the movie has changed his life very little. “It’s made it a little busier,” he said.

A 1965 graduate of Erskine, Jones came to Due West after graduating from Anderson Boys High in 1953, but it took him a few years to get here. He went to Anderson College for a time, but his intent all along was to attend a four-year school, Jones said. Eventually he married his wife, Linda, and enrolled at Erskine.

Legendary Erskine athlete and coach Dode Phillips helped him get in school, he said, and he commuted from Anderson to Due West until he earned his degree.

Another Erskine name Jones recalls is Harry Stille, now professor emeritus of physical education and health. “He’s a good one,” Jones said.

After graduating from Erskine in January 1965, Jones went to work in Seneca as a substitute physical education teacher. That fall, he taught physical education at Lakeside Junior High. He also became head junior varsity football coach at Hanna and was an assistant track coach.

In 1970, Jones became an assistant football coach for the Hanna varsity, then three years later, went to work at Hanna, where he taught physical education and was the head track coach. He became head football coach and athletic director at Hanna in 1985. It was during this time that he befriended Radio and they developed a relationship that has continued to this day.

Jones said the movie “pressed 38 years into one year.” He said there were many instances portrayed in the movie that really happened, such as when Radio “tore up his room” when his mother died, but there were a few scenes in the movie that never occurred in real life.

He said the Hanna football team practiced on a field at McCants Junior High and Radio lived right up the hill from the field. Radio started hanging around the field, but “it took a while before he trusted us,” Jones said.

The teenager could hardly communicate back then and Jones said it has been amazing to watch Radio grow in communication skills and in his interaction with other people.

Once Radio started trusting the coaches and the players, they started protecting him, Jones said. “The pressure (of the relationship) wasn’t as much as the movie shows,” Jones said.

To avoid problems, he said, “When Radio first came over there (to the school), we kept him in the gym with us. We didn’t want anything to happen to get him kicked out.”

Schools were still segregated when Radio started spending time around Hanna High School and developmentally challenged students were not part of the student body mainstream.

“The place he was treated the worst was in his own neighborhood,” Jones said.

The retired coach said his relationship with Radio has had a big impact on his life. “The thing is, at the time, we didn’t think that much about it,” Jones said. “You don’t think about those things. It just happened.”

A local writer in Anderson detailed the relationship in a newspaper story and eventually Sports Illustrated writer Gary Smith gave his account in a story titled, “Someone to Lean On.” That story, published in 1996, was the basis for the movie.

Jones and Radio resisted initial offers. “Luckily, we didn’t commit too soon, which was good,” Jones said. They signed with Tollin-Rollins Productions in 1997.

Radio remains an integral part of Hanna High School and the bus still stops in front of his house every day to take him to school.

Jones and his wife have three children, all of whom attended Hanna High while Radio’s life and his relationship with their father was playing out before them. “Like anybody else, they were a little afraid of him at first,” Jones said. “Now he’s part of the family.”

Today Jones has six grandchildren, and seems at ease with his life and the direction it has taken. He gives a lot of credit to his wife. “A coach’s wife has to raise the family, pretty much,” he said. “(Coaching) is seven days a week, especially during football season.”

When Jones retired, his wife had a list of things to do prepared for him and he’s getting to those things as he can. But now he is also traveling and speaking to audiences of all ages about how to set an example by caring for other people.

Jones is also giving back to his community. When his high school graduating class had its 50th anniversary last year, he became part of an effort to refurbish the gym at the old McCants Junior High and turn it into a Boys and Girls Club for children. The Anderson Boys High and Hanna Girls High class of 1953 presented the Salvation Army with a check for $75,000 last year to get the project rolling.

Erskine alumnus Harold Jones, above center, with James “Radio” Kennedy, right, at Emerald Center