The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Texas Lottery Veteran Recognition: Jeffrey Alford
09.04.2026 | Football
The former Marine Corps Staff Sergeant and current UT Austin staff member will be honored when Texas Football hosts Texas State on Sept. 5.
Jeff Alford was born on Veterans Day. When Alford was in middle school, he called a recruiter and asked what it took to join the Marines. The recruiter said get good grades and stay out of trouble.
"Good advice," Alford remembers, but finding his way into a field of service and honor seemed inevitable.
Alford completed nearly 12 years of active-duty service and reached the rank of staff sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2001-2013. Alford was deployed on combat missions in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan, and during his career, Alford served in a variety of demanding roles such as field artillery cannoneer, High Mobility Artillery Rocket System operator, recruiter, and correctional specialist.
Regardless of rank, role or task, through those formative years of service, Alford refined his aptitudes and qualities of leadership, mentorship and accountability.
"It's what we live by and are willing to do for others – providing protection that people never ask for," Alford said.
Alford spent most of his childhood in Texas City, Texas, near Houston, until his father was transferred to Austin for work and his family moved to Round Rock when Alford was 15. Coming from a state champion football program, and the thrill of competing inside Houston's Astrodome, Alford was disappointed to witness and experience a losing pattern with his new football team. The dismay, ultimately, allowed destiny to unfold as Alford turned his focus to Round Rock High School's Marine Corps JROTC program.
He graduated high school early in December 2001 and was in boot camp four days later.
"What boot camp was to me was figuring out what they wanted, because they don't say it, but you learn like a rat in a maze how to navigate," Alford said. "I finally realized that they're going to [drill us] over and over and over, not because we messed anything up, but because it's learning immediate obedience to orders.
"My frustration didn't matter. I learned to accept things, to work no matter, to grow where you're planted. My biggest takeaway was 'just get it done.'"
During Alford's 12 years in the Marines, his assignments took him and his family to Hawaii, Japan, California and Florida. Throughout that time, Alford's sense of service and duty was whispering a new inkling about legacy and leaving something behind. His wife's family is from Austin, and when Alford, his wife, and daughter would visit Austin and cross the Pennybacker Bridge, his wife pointed out that her father Felix drove a concrete truck and helped build the bridge.
"I couldn't point to my accomplishments," Alford said. And that got him thinking about having something tangible he could someday point to as part of his legacy.
On the surface level, Alford transitioned out of active-duty service and worked in the concrete industry; he helped build facilities for Tesla and Samsung. But below the surface, and behind the uniform, always beats a servant's heart, and Alford experienced a discomforting strangeness as he discovered new outlets to direct his desire to be the shield in darkness.
"Being a Marine isn't what you do – it's who you are," Alford said. "Once I got out of the Marine Corps, I didn't lose my job. I lost my identity."
Giving back to others helped. Alford is a founding member of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation Motorcycle Safety Advisory Board and currently serves as the presiding officer. He is also a Motorcycle Safety Foundation RiderCoach and program manager of Total Rider, a safety program which has trained more than 30,000 students across Central Texas. Alford earned his degree in mortuary science and was licensed in Texas as a funeral director and embalmer. Working with grieving families allowed Alford to realize his legacy is rooted not necessarily in what he builds but in being a guiding hand to steward others.
"I had to work with the dead to understand the living," Alford said.
Since November 2024, Alford has served The University of Texas at Austin as supervisor of Solid Waste & Recycling in Facilities Services. Alford leads a team of eight, which is responsible for collecting and transporting landfill waste, recycling and compost materials from outdoor collection areas on campus. Alford has poured new life into this leadership role by streamlining cost efficiency and prioritizing job satisfaction among his crew. He advocates for staff and educates campus administrators about the unique value facilities teams provide; these services are conducted in the background and before dawn, and yet with professionalism and purpose. A clean campus isn't an overnight miracle. It's the result of countless people who bring dignity to tasks many take for granted.
"My success is in people. My accomplishments are people. The impact I have now is measured in people," Alford said. "What I accomplish after service may mean more to me at the end of my life than the nearly 12 years I spent on active duty. That was a tough realization, but I can give back more now.
Thanks to the Texas Lottery, great things are happening all across Texas. The Texas Lottery consistently contributes nearly $2 billion of lottery revenue each year to good causes like public education and veterans' assistance programs. Beginning with the first veterans' dedicated scratch ticket game in 2009, the Texas Lottery has now contributed over $308 million to the Fund for Veterans' Assistance.
Since 1992, the Texas Lottery has generated more than $43 billion in revenue for the state of Texas. Through strict adherence to its vision, mission and core values, the Texas Lottery is dedicated to ensuring that this support continues. The Texas Lottery's functions and activities are administered by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), the state agency responsible for licensing and regulating a broad range of professions, occupations and industries in Texas.
