Ron Jones, Coach

Ron was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 1941, but was raised in Alexandria when his father took a wartime job with the Torpedo Factory there. He attended Alexandria City schools--McArthur Elementary, George Washington High School; and when Francis C. Hammond became the city's second high school, he was transferred there and graduated in 1959 in their second graduating class.

While at Hammond, he won numerous football awards including All-Metropolitan for the D.C. area. He was awarded a football scholarship to the College of William and Mary where he graduated in 1964 with a degree in Physical Education. In 1966, after a two-year army obligation, he began his teaching and coaching career in his own hometown of Alexandria, Va. He taught physical education at Minnie Howard Middle School and was assistant football coach and head baseball coach at T.C. Williams. During that same time, he was earning a Master of Arts Degree in Administration from George Washington University.

In 1971, when the city of Alexandria consolidated schools, Ron was named special teams coach at T. C. Williams and thus became part of the Titans state championship "dream team." The following year, he moved to Augusta County, Va. and began an administrative career which spanned 29 years and five schools--ending up retiring as principal of Stuarts Draft Elementary school in 1999.

Like Glen Furman, Ron married his high school sweetheart, Judi Kiser Jones, whom he met at Hammond in 1958. They have three children: Ronnie, Lauren and Jill-Marie and six grandchildren (soon to be seven)--Nicole, 15--Caleb,12--Madalyn, 9--Chandler, 8--Evelyn, 5 and Alex, 2. Since retiring, Ron enjoys playing a lot of golf, singing, and enjoying the grands. He lives with his family in Fishersville, Va. in a cedar log cabin on fourteen acres of "God's Country."

Reflecting on his career Ron says: "Playing football in high school gave me the opportunity to become what I always wanted to be: a teacher and a coach. My high school coach at Hammond, Harry "Red" Caughron, made it possible for me to get an education and develop the skills I needed for that career. My days at T.C. were filled with wonderful memories; and when the three schools merged, it was very special for me because I had been a student at two of them and a coach at the third. We were all scared that year--not because we doubted our abilities but because we weren't expected to lose--even one game. We were disliked because we were the "top dog" and everybody was out to knock us off. Our main goal was to become a cohesive unit--egos had to go and go they did. The team worked their buns off--we saw to that--and we became "the dream team."

I am very proud to have been a part of that team. I'd like to thank all the young men who worked for that one goal: to become single-minded as a team and to strive to meet the challenge of that 1971 season. We worked hard and met the challenge head-on--and the "rest, as they say, is history."