By Journal Sports Staff

MARQUETTE — Longtime Negaunee High School varsity coach Paul Jacobson will be the lone Upper Peninsula representative when the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association inducts 14 high school coaches into its MHSFCA Hall of Fame in June.

The induction takes places at a banquet to be held in the Detroit area on Friday, June 21, the night before the group’s annual East-West All-Star Football Game.

The banquet site is the Detroit Marriott Troy in Troy with a social hour to begin at 5:30 p.m., banquet at 6:30 p.m. and induction starting at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $40 per person and can be purchased online at www.bit.ly/43NKfln. Orders are asked to be made no later than a week before the event, June 14.

The other inductees are Roger E. Bearss of Millington, Jack Glass of Hudsonville, Steve Kersten of Williamston, Marc Lemerand of Hillsdale, Greg Meter of Saginaw Nouvel Catholic Central, David Mifsud of Dearborn, Roderick Oden of Grosse Pointe Harper Woods, Monty Price of Belding, Pete Schermerhorn of Portage Northern, Craig Snyder of Ithaca, Tom Sullivan of Bay City Central, Craig Tibbe of Unity Christian and Jim Voss of East Grand Rapids.

Jacobson has not only been head coach at Negaunee for more than two decades, but he grew up there and played varsity football for the Miners in 1985-86, earning numerous honors, and graduated from Negaunee High School in 1987.

He then attended and played football at Central Michigan University as an offensive lineman, earning All-Mid-American Conference honors there in 1990, the year that the Chippewas won the MAC championship and played in the California Raisin Bowl.

He remained near to the CMU campus soon after his playing days and graduating in 1992, working with the football team as an assistant coach at Mount Pleasant High School and teaching in its school district for four years.

He then came back home to stay in 1997, becoming a teacher in the Negaunee Public Schools and an assistant football coach at the high school.

Then at age 30 in 2000, he was elevated to head varsity coach after now-fellow MHSFCA Hall of Famer Dick Koski retired. Since then, he has added the duties as NHS athletic director, too.

He has accumulated a record of 185-75 in 24 seasons, according to records shown on the michigan-football.com website. He has a 28-19 record in the MHSAA playoffs and 157-56 mark in the regular season.

Those equate to an overall winning percentage of .712, a playoff mark of .596 and regular season victory rate of .737.

His teams have made the playoffs in 20 of his 24 seasons, an .833 success percentage, and won the Division 6 state championship in 2002 and was state runner-up in Division 6 in 2022.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.