The J. Lyles Alley Collection is divided into eleven series. The collection is arranged by year and material type.

Series I. Personal Documents

Series II. Basketball-related Documents

Series III. Retirement and Post-retirement Events

Series IV. Awards and Certificates

Series V. Newspaper Clippings

Series VI. Correspondence

Series VII. Photographs

Series VIII. Yearbooks

Series IX Scrapbooks

Series X: Recordings

Series XI. Artifacts

The J. Lyles Alley Papers span the years 1929-1990 and document Alley's time as a student, his military service, and his time as a coach of several sports, a professor, and athletic director at Furman. They consist of correspondence, programs, photographs, newspaper clippings, manuals, yearbooks, scrapbooks, plaques, awards and certificates, LPs and CDs, and artifacts.