Tim Jinkens Selected to the Hernando High Athletic Hall of Fame

BROOKSVILLE — He’ll be the first to tell you he is not the biggest, fastest, strongest or best athlete ever to come out of Hernando High School.

But one thing is certain: Tim Jinkens has earned a spot among Hernando’s all-time greats. That’s about to become official.

Jinkens was selected to the Hernando High School Athletic Hall of Fame recently and the induction ceremony will be held Oct. 10. Other inductees include Tara Edwards (Class of 1985 — track and volleyball), Genard Hudson (1987 — wrestling, football and track), Brad Kuhl (1993 — wrestling), Anthony Roberts (2005 — weightlifting and football), Daniel Pritz (2010 — wrestling), Matilda “Tillie” Warren Holland (1959 — basketball and softball) and the entire 2024 state championship girls wrestling team.

But it’s probably a safe bet that none of the other induction speeches will be more emotional than the one given by Jinkens, who starred for the Leopards in football and baseball before graduating in 1976.

“I was an emotional player,” said Jenkins, now 66.

That might be an understatement.

“Off the field, Tim was always laughing and joking,” said Jackie Simpson, who coached the defensive line and linebackers at Hernando during Jinkens’ junior and senior years. “But put him in a game situation and he got this totally different look in his eyes. It was a weird combination, but he could just flip a switch and get serious for a couple of hours and get very focused. He played with more heart and emotion than any high school player I’ve ever been around. He was as good a defensive end as I’ve ever coached. But, of course, he’d go right back to laughing and joking as soon as the game was over.”

Some things haven’t changed through the years. Emotion is at the very core of Jinkens’ extra-large personality. On one hand, he’s always the life of the party, usually laughing and making others laugh. But, in the moments when he lets his guard down and talks about certain subjects, he’s not ashamed to let people see him get sentimental or cry. That happened a few times as Jinkens was interviewed for this story.

“My only regret is that Mom and Jerome won’t be sitting in the front row,” Jinkens said.

“Mom” was Julia Jinkens, Tim’s mother and a staple in the Brooksville community for many years. “Jerome” is Jerome Brown, quite simply the best athlete to ever come out of Hernando High and/or Hernando County. Brown was Jinkens’ best friend.

Brown, who went on to star for the University of Miami and the National Football League’s Philadelphia Eagles, was killed in a tragic automobile accident in 1992. Jinkens has done his best to keep Brown’s legacy alive — helping run the Jerome Brown Football Camp going for a number of years after the accident, spending several decades as the Vice President of the Jerome Brown Youth Foundation and a member of the Jerome Brown Scholarship Committee. Jinkens also was instrumental in the push for the construction of the Jerome Brown Community Center.

“Jerome is probably scalping tickets to the banquet in heaven,” Jinkens said.
If that’s true, Brown might have some competition from Julia Jinkens, who died five years ago. Around Brooksville, no one could sell tickets or help raise money quite like Julia Jinkens. If there was a fund-raiser for Hernando High or the Brooksville community, she was involved.

“You would hear doors shut when mom arrived,” Tim Jinkens joked. “She was always begging people for money. My dad (Joe Jinkens) was always in the stands at my games and giving me constructive criticism afterward. But I don’t think my mom ever got to actually watch any of my games. She was always too busy working the concession stand or selling raffle tickets.”

As it turned out, Julia missed a Hall of Fame career by her son. On the football field, Tim starred for the Leopards as a 6-foot-1, 190-pound defensive end and punter. He was an All-Area, All-Conference, All-District and Class 3A All-State selection. He also was named Outstanding Defensive Player in the inaugural Tangerine Bowl in Brooksville in his final high school game. He’s quick to point out that after he was the All-Conference selection as defensive end and punter, a new rule was passed that limited players to being selected at only one position.

On the baseball diamond, Jinkens played third base as a junior and led the Leopards in hitting for the first varsity team coached by Ernie Chatman, who went on to become a legendary figure in Florida high school sports. Chatman moved Jinkens to first base for his senior season and put him in the cleanup spot in the batting order.

That generally is a spot reserved for power hitters. But that wasn’t the case on Chatman’s teams. Chatman coached a style of baseball that most baseball people refer to as “small ball” and current Hernando coach Tim Sims, who starred for the Leopards in the early 1980s, has coined “Ernie Ball.” In other words, Chatman’s offense didn’t rely on home runs. Instead, singles, an occasional double, stolen bases and bunts were the norm.

“Ya’ll rag on him for the ways his teams played,” Jinkens said. “But we would bunt in the winning run. And a win is a win.”

In the two years Chatman and Sims were together, the Leopards won a lot. They won 18 games in 1975 and 25 in 1976.

“Nobody was better prepared than we were,” Jinkens said. “Ernie always made sure of that.”

After graduation, Jinkens chose to stick to football. He went to Catawba College in North Carolina but was redshirted as a freshman. That was the end of his playing career. When the school year ended, Jinkens moved back to Brooksville and enrolled at nearby Saint Leo College (now Saint Leo University), a school without a football program.

“I was disheartened because I wasn’t playing and I guess you could say I was more than a little homesick,” Jinkens said.

But Jenkins wasn’t done with football or Hernando High by a long shot. As he was earning his degree in business administration at Saint Leo, Hernando football coach Dub Palmer called and offered Jinkens a position as an assistant coach. Jinkens accepted and it didn’t take long for Chatman to add him as a baseball assistant.

Around that same time, there was another significant development in Jinkens’ life. On Feb. 5, 1978, the Jinkens family opened the Red Mule Pub in Brooksville.
“My brother (Les) was working for a bank and he came home one day and said, ‘I want to have a sandwich shop,’ ” Jinkens said.

The rest is part of Brooksville’s history. It didn’t take long for The Red Mule Pub to become a focal point in Brooksville social circles. People came for the food. But they also came to fraternize with Tim, Les and Julia, who continued to work in the cafeteria at Brooksville Elementary School before coming to the pub each afternoon, serving as cooks, servers and — most importantly — social directors.

“People came to see Julia,” Tim said.

Most Hernando High or Brooksville fundraisers were held at the pub. Money was raised, but fun was always a part of it. Jinkens loves to recall the night Brown and former Hernando High football coach Mike Imhoff joined forces to raise money for the school’s weight room. On the back porch of the pub, Brown and Imhoff, a former Michigan State defensive back, took part in an impromptu bench-press competition that became the stuff of legend. On special occasions, like big games or earlier Hernando Hall of Fame inductions, the pub and its Hernando High sports memorabilia-lined walls hosted after-hours parties for Hernando coaches, former athletes and even an occasional sports writer. It all went on for decades.

But Les died in 2014, Julia aged and Tim suffered a stroke nine years ago. The family sold the pub in 2018. “I couldn’t do 60 hours a week anymore,” Jenkins said.

But Jenkins remains a lunchtime regular at the pub. He stops in and socializes for a few hours several times a week. “I go down there because I miss the people,” Jinkens said. “I love to see the old guard, but so many people are moving into the area and I love to meet new people.”

The pub isn’t the only place where Jinkens’ presence is obvious. He’s a regular at Hernando football games and attends many of the school’s baseball games. He keeps an extremely active Facebook page that is a go-to spot for any Hernando High sports fan — past and present. The page frequently includes photos of newspaper clippings about Hernando High during Jinkens’ playing days. It also serves as a constant virtual Hernando High Class of 1976 reunion where classmates come to see pictures and talk about the old days.

“Those were the best years of my life,” Jinkens said.

For one October night anyway, those years will be revisited. Simpson, who has kept in touch with Jinkens through the years, is retired and living in Mississippi. He had a stroke years ago and isn’t very mobile. But he’s planning on traveling to Brooksville for the induction ceremony.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Simpson said. “Tim is special. His mommy and daddy were special. Just a special family. They were exactly what makes Brooksville a special place. Tim was a one-of-a-kind player and a one-of-a-kind person. I’m happy to say he hasn’t changed one bit through the years.”

Many members of the Hernando Class of 1976 have told Jinkens they plan to come to the induction ceremony.

“They better all show up,” Jinkens said. “We’re going to party like it’s 1976. I’ve slowed down quite a bit and can’t do what I used to. But it’s still going to be a blast. Being selected for this means the world to me.”