Jacksonville State head softball coach Jana McGinnis got a special surprise at her team’s 11th annual JSU Softball Fan Day at University Field on Sunday, one that will provide her a permanent presence at the home of the team she has coached for the past 18 seasons.

In front of the largest crowd the Gamecocks’ Fan Day has drawn, Jacksonville State President Dr. William A. Meehan and Athletics Director Warren Koegel, along with Calhoun County Commissioners J.D. Hess and Rudy Abbott, announced the street adjacent to University Field, currently Rudy Abbott Circle, will be renamed Jana McGinnis Lane.

McGinnis, who enters her 19th season at the helm of the Gamecocks and has won 626 games in her tenure, accepted the honor with her family, current and former players and staff present.

“I’m honored,” McGinnis said to the overflow crowd during a standing ovation. “This is a great honor for our program. Jacksonville State softball is not about just myself. I wish there were room on this street sign to put the names of my assistants Mark (Wisener) and Julie (Boland), every player that has worn that uniform, and every fan that has come out here to support us.”

Wisener and Boland share a special bond with McGinnis. For more than a decade, the three JSU graduates have ran the program from the dugout, claiming six conference championships and five trips to the NCAA Tournament, including one in each of the past four seasons. In 2009, the Gamecocks earned the OVC’s first at-large bid to the NCAA and won the Knoxville Regional to advance to league’s first Super Regional. That bond is one shared by just one other program in the nation, joining JSU and UCLA as the only two programs where all full-time softball coaches are graduates of that institution.

The Gamecocks are picked by the league’s head coaches to win the 2012 OVC title. The season gets underway on Friday, when JSU takes on Lipscomb in the South Alabama Mardi Gras Invitational. The Gamecocks will open their home schedule on Feb. 17 against Southern Illinois at 3:30 p.m. to start the Jacksonville State Invitational. Admission is free to all JSU home games this season.