Stan Jones (American football)
Encyclopedia
Stanley Paul "Stan" Jones (November 24, 1931 – May 21, 2010) was an American football
guard
and defensive tackle in the National Football League
for the Chicago Bears
and the Washington Redskins
. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame
in 1991. Jones is credited as the first professional player to use weight training
to improve his conditioning for football.
, but grew up in the Harrisburg area
after his father, a telephone company employee, was transferred to that area. He then played football
at Lemoyne High School in Lemoyne, Pennsylvania
.
, where he played college football
as a tackle
. He was a unanimous All-America
n selection in 1953. Jones was on some of the most successful Maryland teams. The Terps were co-champions with Virginia Military Institute
in 1951 in the Southern Conference
. In 1953, they played in the Atlantic Coast Conference
and were co-champions with Duke University
. That year, they were also named the national champions. Jones was awarded the Knute Rockne Memorial Trophy
as the nation's outstanding lineman and the school awarded him the Anthony Nardo Award as the team's best lineman. He then played in the College All-Star Game
against the Detroit Lions
.
in the fifth round of the 1953 NFL Draft
by the Chicago Bears
and started in 1954
as an offensive tackle. In 1955
, Jones switched to guard
and, for the next eight seasons, was a fixture at that position and one of the NFL's most highly respected guards.
When the Bears needed help on defense in 1962
, assistant coach George Allen decided that Jones could help at defensive tackle. He played both ways in 1962 and then switched to defensive tackle permanently in 1963
.
After 1965
, Bears coach George Halas
agreed, as a favor to Jones, to trade him to the Washington Redskins
so that he could play a final season near his home in Rockville, Maryland
. He retired after the 1966 season
.
Jones missed only two games his first 11 seasons, was an All-Pro
guard in 1955, 1956, 1959, and 1960, and played in seven straight Pro Bowl
s following the 1955 through 1961 seasons. He has also been credited as the first professional player to use weight training for football conditioning.
, Buffalo Bills
, Cleveland Browns
, and the New England Patriots
.
During the mid-1950s Jones also worked in the off-season teaching physical education in the Montgomery County
elementary schools.
and College Football Hall of Fame
. In 1977, he made the Atlantic Coast Conference
25-year team. Jones died on May 21, 2010 from complications of a stroke. He had a heart attack which triggered his death. Jones was also named to the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame.
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
guard
Guard (American football)
In American and Canadian football, a guard is a player that lines up between the center and the tackles on the offensive line of a football team....
and defensive tackle in the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
for the Chicago Bears
Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
and the Washington Redskins
Washington Redskins
The Washington Redskins are a professional American football team and members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team plays at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, while its headquarters and training facility are at Redskin Park in Ashburn,...
. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League . It opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter inductees...
in 1991. Jones is credited as the first professional player to use weight training
Weight training
Weight training is a common type of strength training for developing the strength and size of skeletal muscles. It uses the weight force of gravity to oppose the force generated by muscle through concentric or eccentric contraction...
to improve his conditioning for football.
Early life
Jones was born in Altoona, PennsylvaniaAltoona, Pennsylvania
-History:A major railroad town, Altoona was founded by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1849 as the site for a shop complex. Altoona was incorporated as a borough on February 6, 1854, and as a city under legislation approved on April 3, 1867, and February 8, 1868...
, but grew up in the Harrisburg area
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Harrisburg is the capital of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 49,528, making it the ninth largest city in Pennsylvania...
after his father, a telephone company employee, was transferred to that area. He then played football
High school football
High school football, in North America, refers to the game of football as it is played in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both of these nations....
at Lemoyne High School in Lemoyne, Pennsylvania
Lemoyne, Pennsylvania
Lemoyne is a borough in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Lemoyne was incorporated as a borough on May 23, 1905. As of the 2000 census, the borough population was 3,995. It was formerly named Bridgeport. Lemoyne lies across the Susquehanna River from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's capital...
.
College career
Jones attended the University of MarylandUniversity of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
, where he played college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
as a tackle
Tackle (American football)
Tackle is a playing position in American and Canadian football. Historically, in the one-platoon system a tackle played on both offense and defense. In the modern system of specialized units, offensive tackle and defensive tackle are separate positions....
. He was a unanimous All-America
All-America
An All-America team is an honorary sports team composed of outstanding amateur players—those considered the best players of a specific season for each team position—who in turn are given the honorific "All-America" and typically referred to as "All-American athletes", or simply...
n selection in 1953. Jones was on some of the most successful Maryland teams. The Terps were co-champions with Virginia Military Institute
Virginia Military Institute
The Virginia Military Institute , located in Lexington, Virginia, is the oldest state-supported military college and one of six senior military colleges in the United States. Unlike any other military college in the United States—and in keeping with its founding principles—all VMI students are...
in 1951 in the Southern Conference
Southern Conference
The Southern Conference is a Division I college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association . Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision . Member institutions are located in the states of Alabama, Georgia, North...
. In 1953, they played in the Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference is a collegiate athletic league in the United States. Founded in 1953 in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC sanctions competition in twenty-five sports in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association for its twelve member universities...
and were co-champions with Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
. That year, they were also named the national champions. Jones was awarded the Knute Rockne Memorial Trophy
Knute Rockne
Knute Kenneth Rockne was an American football player and coach. He is regarded as one of the greatest coaches in college football history...
as the nation's outstanding lineman and the school awarded him the Anthony Nardo Award as the team's best lineman. He then played in the College All-Star Game
College All-Star Game
The Chicago Charities College All-Star Game was a preseason American football game played annually from 1934 to 1976 between the National Football League champions and a team of star college seniors from the previous year...
against the Detroit Lions
Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League , and play their home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit.Originally based in Portsmouth, Ohio and...
.
Professional career
Jones was draftedNFL Draft
The National Football League Draft is an annual event in which the National Football League teams select eligible college football players and it is their most common source of player recruitment. The basic design of the draft is each team is given a position in the drafting order in reverse order...
in the fifth round of the 1953 NFL Draft
1953 NFL Draft
The 1953 National Football League Draft was held on January 22, 1953.-Player selections:-Round one:* HOF Member of the Professional Football Hall of Fame-Round two:-Round three:-Round four:-Round five:-Round six:-Round seven:...
by the Chicago Bears
Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
and started in 1954
1954 NFL season
The 1954 NFL season was the 35th regular season of the National Football League. The season ended when the Cleveland Browns defeated the Detroit Lions in the NFL Championship Game.-Major rule changes:...
as an offensive tackle. In 1955
1955 NFL season
The 1955 NFL season was the 36th regular season of the National Football League. NBC paid $100,000 to replace DuMont as the national television network for the NFL Championship Game...
, Jones switched to guard
Guard (American football)
In American and Canadian football, a guard is a player that lines up between the center and the tackles on the offensive line of a football team....
and, for the next eight seasons, was a fixture at that position and one of the NFL's most highly respected guards.
When the Bears needed help on defense in 1962
1962 NFL season
The 1962 NFL season was the 43rd regular season of the National Football League. Before the season, CBS signed a contract with the league to televise all regular-season games for a $4.65 million annual fee....
, assistant coach George Allen decided that Jones could help at defensive tackle. He played both ways in 1962 and then switched to defensive tackle permanently in 1963
1963 NFL season
The 1963 NFL season was the 44th regular season of the National Football League. On April 17, NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle indefinitely suspended Green Bay Packers running back Paul Hornung and Detroit Lions defensive tackle Alex Karras for gambling on their own teams, as well as other NFL games;...
.
After 1965
1965 NFL season
The 1965 NFL season was the 46th regular season of the National Football League.Because the Green Bay Packers and Baltimore Colts ended up tied in the Western Conference standings after the regular season ended, a conference playoff game was held in Green Bay. Although the Packers had defeated the...
, Bears coach George Halas
George Halas
George Stanley Halas, Sr. , nicknamed "Papa Bear" and "Mr. Everything", was a player, coach, owner and pioneer in professional American football. He was the iconic longtime leader of the NFL's Chicago Bears...
agreed, as a favor to Jones, to trade him to the Washington Redskins
Washington Redskins
The Washington Redskins are a professional American football team and members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team plays at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, while its headquarters and training facility are at Redskin Park in Ashburn,...
so that he could play a final season near his home in Rockville, Maryland
Rockville, Maryland
Rockville is the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a major incorporated city in the central part of Montgomery County and forms part of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. The 2010 U.S...
. He retired after the 1966 season
1966 NFL season
The 1966 NFL season was the 47th regular season of the National Football League, and the season after which was played Super Bowl I, though it was called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game. The league expanded to 15 teams with the addition of the Atlanta Falcons, thus an odd number of teams...
.
Jones missed only two games his first 11 seasons, was an All-Pro
All-Pro
All-Pro is a term mostly used in the NFL for the best players of each position during that season. It began as polls of sportswriters in the early 1920s...
guard in 1955, 1956, 1959, and 1960, and played in seven straight Pro Bowl
Pro Bowl
In professional American football, the Pro Bowl is the all-star game of the National Football League . Since the merger with the rival American Football League in 1970, it has been officially called the AFC–NFC Pro Bowl, matching the top players in the American Football Conference against those...
s following the 1955 through 1961 seasons. He has also been credited as the first professional player to use weight training for football conditioning.
Coaching career
After playing football, Jones became an assistant coach for the Denver BroncosDenver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently members of the West Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, Buffalo Bills
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, Cleveland Browns
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, and the New England Patriots
New England Patriots
The New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National...
.
During the mid-1950s Jones also worked in the off-season teaching physical education in the Montgomery County
Montgomery County, Maryland
Montgomery County is a county in the U.S. state of Maryland, situated just to the north of Washington, D.C., and southwest of the city of Baltimore. It is one of the most affluent counties in the United States, and has the highest percentage of residents over 25 years of age who hold post-graduate...
elementary schools.
Honors
Jones is a member of the Pro Football Hall of FamePro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League . It opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter inductees...
and College Football Hall of Fame
College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. Located in South Bend, Indiana, it is connected to a convention center and situated in the city's renovated downtown district, two miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. It is slated to move...
. In 1977, he made the Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference is a collegiate athletic league in the United States. Founded in 1953 in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC sanctions competition in twenty-five sports in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association for its twelve member universities...
25-year team. Jones died on May 21, 2010 from complications of a stroke. He had a heart attack which triggered his death. Jones was also named to the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame.