 | |
| Biographical details | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1880-09-22)September 22, 1880 Marion County, Indiana, U.S. |
| Died | July 26, 1951(1951-07-26) (aged 70) Boulder, Colorado, U.S. |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| Football | |
| 1908 | Wabash |
| 1913–1919 | Illinois (assistant) |
| 1920–1929 | Lake Forest Academy (IL) |
| 1930–1932 | Chicago Bears |
| 1933–1948 | Lake Forest |
| Basketball | |
| 1899–1903 | Shortridge HS (IL) |
| 1903–1904 | Butler |
| 1904–1909 | Crawfordsville HS (IL) |
| 1904–1909 | Wabash |
| 1909–1912 | Purdue |
| 1912–1920 | Illinois |
| 1920–1930 | Lake Forest Academy (IL) |
| 1933–1939 | Lake Forest |
| 1945–1946 | Lake Forest |
| Baseball | |
| 1908–1909 | Wabash |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 54–37–10 (college football) 232–106 (college basketball) 32–15 (college baseball) 24–10–7 (NFL) |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| Football 1NFL (1932) 2ICC (1938, 1940) Basketball Helms National (1915) 3Premo-Porretta National (1906, 1908, 1915) 4Western Conference (1911, 1912, 1915, 1917) | |
Ralph Robert "Curley"Jones (September 22, 1880 – July 26, 1951) was an Americanfootball andbasketball coach. He also served as the head coach for theChicago Bears of theNational Football League (NFL) from 1930 to 1932, leading them to the1932 NFL championship.
Jones was an integral part of the development of high school basketball inIndiana and a successful college coach atPurdue andIllinois. He was the recipient of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame's inaugural Centennial Award on November 27, 2010. It is believed that Jones was the first high school basketball coach in the state of Indiana. While still a high school student, he organized the team atIndianapolisShortridge High School in 1899—the first high school team in Indiana. Jones led the IndianapolisYMCA to statewide prominence, and then led theCrawfordsville YMCA, both of which claimed state YMCA championships under his guidance. Due to his success with YMCA-based leagues,Butler University contracted Jones to coach basketball for the 1903–04 season. This was the first "official" head coaching job in the long and successful career Jones would continue for the next 30 years.
Jones continued his coaching at Crawfordsville, this time at the local high school and additionally took on the head coaching duties ofWabash College. His teams at both institutions featured hall of fame inducteesWard "Piggy" Lambert,Pete Vaughn andDavid Glascock, with the 1906–07 Crawfordsville squad finishing 12–0 (prior to the first high school state tournament) and his 1907–08 Wabash team going 24–0. While at Wabash, his team was selected from only 300 students, yet in five years lost only four games, twice toNotre Dame and once to Purdue. Known as the "Little Giants", Jones's Wabash teams compiled a record of 75–6 and defeated teams from much larger institutions, including Illinois, Purdue,Indiana,Minnesota and Notre Dame. During this same time period, Jones's Crawfordsville High School teams lost only one game.
Jones moved on to Purdue in 1910, beginning a three-year tenure that resulted in a 32–9 record and the first twoBig Ninechampionships in program history (1911 and 1912). He also mentored the first All-American in Purdue basketball history, asDave Charters garnered consensus honors in both 1910 and 1911.
After his three seasons at Purdue, Jones headed to theUniversity of Illinois. During his tenure at Illinois, Jones took a mediocre team and within two years established a dominant system that led to a 16–0 record in 1914–15. His1914–15 team was retroactively named the national champion by theHelms Athletic Foundation and thePremo-Porretta Power Poll.[1] Jones's basketball teams at Illinois won 85 games and lost 34. He also won two Big Ten or "Big Nine" titles. Jones also was theathletic director for two years as well as being the assistant football coach toBob Zuppke from 1913 through 1919.
After Jones left Illinois, he went toLake Forest Academy inLake Forest, Illinois. He was there for 10 years coaching both basketball and football. His football teams won 76 games and lost only six games in his 10 years. During this tenure, his basketball teams had a record of 94–9.
AfterGeorge Halas retired as aplayer-coach in 1930, he hired Jones to take over his team as head coach. Even though Jones led the team to a 24–10–7 record, due to the economic depression which was affecting every business across the United States, the financial health of the franchise began to suffer. With many people out of work, fewer and fewer individuals could pay for the cost of a ticket to attend a Bears game. Consequently, even though the team won the NFL championship in 1932, by the end of the season the franchise had lost approximately $18,000.Dutch Sternaman sold his half of the team to Halas, and Halas resumed coaching the team in order to save the cost of a head coach's salary. During his tenure with the Bears, Jones lined the quarterback directly under center, the first time this had been done. Next, he spaced out the offensive line and devised blocking schemes that would open holes in the defense. He refined theT formation by introducing wide ends and ahalfback in motion. While Jones was head coach,Bronko Nagurski made his NFL debut as a member of the Chicago Bears.[2] His .706 winning percentage is the best in Bears history.[3]
During his time at Lake Forest College[4] Jones tinkered with simple options on the basic T formation. Many coaches were searching for answers to an easy-to-teach formation that was also not easy to defend. Jones approached Halas with various diagrammed options. Not untilClark Shaughnessy, head coach at theUniversity of Chicago, approached Halas with very complex formations in 1935 did theT become effective. Many coaches contributed to the success of the T-formation that swept college and pro football in 1940. Shaughnessy'sStanford University team went 10–0 and defeated theUniversity of Nebraska in the Rose Bowl with his elaborate T-formation. Weeks later, Halas's Bears defeated theWashington Redskins 73–0 with the same system. Jones left the Bears to become athletic director at Lake Forest College.
All told, Jones tallied 404 wins in his coaching career for a winning record of better than 83 percent. He also mentored nine college All-Americans.
Basketball Hall of Fame inducteeWard Lambert dedicated his 1932 book,Practical Basketball, to "Ralph Jones, my coach."
Jones married Florence C. Pyle in 1903 and remained with her until his death, a 48-year marriage. Jones wrote his first published book entitled,"Basketball from a Coaching Standpoint", published by Flanigan-Pearson Company, Printers and released in 1916. He also co-wrote,"The Modern "T" Formation with Man-in-motion" withClark Daniel Shaughnessy andGeorge Halas. This book was related tofootball and released in 1946.[5]
| School | Season | Record | Conference record | Place | Postseason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shortridge High School | 1899–1900 | 5–2 | |||
| Shortridge High School | 1900–01 | 3–5 | |||
| Shortridge High School | 1901–02 | ? | |||
| Shortridge High School | 1902–03 | ? | |||
| Shortridge | 1899–1903 | 8–7 | – | – | |
| Crawfordsville HS | 1903–04 | 13–2 | mythical State champions | ||
| Crawfordsville HS | 1904–05 | 4–3 | mythical State champions | ||
| Crawfordsville HS | 1905–06 | 9–6 | |||
| Crawfordsville HS | 1906–07 | 12–0 | mythical State champions | ||
| Crawfordsville HS | 1907–08 | 10–5 | |||
| Crawfordsville HS | 1908–09 | 17–1 | |||
| 1904–1909 | 65–17 | – | – | ||
| Lake Forest Academy | 1920–21 | ||||
| Lake Forest Academy | 1921–22 | ||||
| Lake Forest Academy | 1922–23 | ||||
| Lake Forest Academy | 1923–24 | ||||
| Lake Forest Academy | 1924–25 | ||||
| Lake Forest Academy | 1925–26 | ||||
| Lake Forest Academy | 1926–27 | ||||
| Lake Forest Academy | 1927–28 | ||||
| Lake Forest Academy | 1928–29 | ||||
| Lake Forest Academy | 1929–30 | ||||
| Lake Forest Academy | 1920–1930 | 94–9 | – | – |
| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Butler Christians(Independent)(1903–1904) | |||||||||
| 1903–04 | Butler | 2–2 | |||||||
| Butler: | 2–2 | ||||||||
| Wabash Little Giants(Independent)(1904–1909) | |||||||||
| 1904–05 | Wabash | 8–0 | |||||||
| 1905–06 | Wabash | 17–1 | |||||||
| 1906–07 | Wabash | 17–2 | |||||||
| 1907–08 | Wabash | 24–0 | |||||||
| 1908–09 | Wabash | 9–3 | |||||||
| Wabash: | 75–6 | ||||||||
| Purdue Boilermakers(Western Conference)(1909–1912) | |||||||||
| 1909–10 | Purdue | 8–5 | 5–5 | 5th | |||||
| 1910–11 | Purdue | 12–4 | 8–4 | T–1st | |||||
| 1911–12 | Purdue | 12–0 | 10–0 | 1st | |||||
| Purdue: | 32–9 | 23–9 | |||||||
| Illinois Fighting Illini(Western Conference / Big Ten Conference)(1912–1920) | |||||||||
| 1912–13 | Illinois | 10–6 | 7–6 | 5th | |||||
| 1913–14 | Illinois | 9–4 | 7–3 | 3rd | |||||
| 1914–15 | Illinois | 16–0 | 12–0 | 1st | |||||
| 1915–16 | Illinois | 13–3 | 9–3 | T–2nd | |||||
| 1916–17 | Illinois | 13–3 | 10–2 | T–1st | |||||
| 1917–18 | Illinois | 9–6 | 6–6 | T–4th | |||||
| 1918–19 | Illinois | 6–8 | 5–7 | 5th | |||||
| 1919–20 | Illinois | 9–4 | 8–4 | 3rd | |||||
| Illinois: | 85–34 | 64–31 | |||||||
| Lake Forest Foresters(Independent)(1933–1939) | |||||||||
| 1933–34 | Lake Forest | 7–7 | |||||||
| 1934–35 | Lake Forest | 2–10 | |||||||
| 1935–36 | Lake Forest | 8–6 | |||||||
| 1936–37 | Lake Forest | 2–12 | |||||||
| 1937–38 | Lake Forest | 9–7 | |||||||
| 1938–39 | Lake Forest | 8–5 | |||||||
| Lake Forest Foresters(Independent)(1945–1946) | |||||||||
| 1945–46 | Lake Forest | 2–8 | |||||||
| Lake Forest: | 38–55 | ||||||||
| Total: | 232–106 | ||||||||
National champion Postseason invitational champion | |||||||||
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wabash Little Giants(Independent)(1908) | |||||||||
| 1908 | Wabash | 2–6 | |||||||
| Wabash: | 2–6 | ||||||||
| Lake Forest Foresters(Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference)(1933–1937) | |||||||||
| 1933 | Lake Forest | 3–3–1 | 2–1 | 12th | |||||
| 1934 | Lake Forest | 3–4–1 | 0–4 | 20th | |||||
| 1935 | Lake Forest | 3–4 | 0–1 | 18th | |||||
| 1936 | Lake Forest | 4–2–1 | 2–1 | T–5th | |||||
| 1937 | Lake Forest | 3–1–2 | 1–1–1 | T–11th | |||||
| Lake Forest Foresters(Illinois College Conference)(1938–1945) | |||||||||
| 1938 | Lake Forest | 7–0 | 4–0 | T–1st | |||||
| 1939 | Lake Forest | 5–2 | 2–2 | T–7th | |||||
| 1940 | Lake Forest | 6–0–1 | 3–0 | T–1st | |||||
| 1941 | Lake Forest | 5–1–2 | 2–1–1 | T–4th | |||||
| 1942 | Lake Forest | 2–4–1 | 0–3 | T–7th | |||||
| 1943 | No team—World War II | ||||||||
| 1944 | No team—World War II | ||||||||
| 1945 | No team—World War II | ||||||||
| Lake Forest Foresters(College Conference of Illinois)(1946–1948) | |||||||||
| 1946 | Lake Forest | 3–3 | 3–1 | T–2nd | |||||
| 1947 | Lake Forest | 3–4–1 | 2–2–1 | T–5th | |||||
| 1948 | Lake Forest | 5–3 | 4–1 | T–2nd | |||||
| Lake Forest: | 52–31–10 | 25–18–3 | |||||||
| Total: | 54–37–10 | ||||||||
| National championship Conference title Conference division title or championship game berth | |||||||||
| One-Game Playoff Berth |
| Season | Team | Regular season | Postseason results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finish | W | L | T | ||||
| 1930 | Chicago Bears | 3rd | 9 | 4 | 1 | ||
| 1931 | Chicago Bears | 3rd | 8 | 5 | 0 | ||
| 1932 | Chicago Bears | 1st1 | 7 | 1 | 62 | NamedNFL champions1 | |
| Total | 24 | 10 | 7 | ||||
1The result of the1932 NFL Playoff Game to determine the NFL champion between theChicago Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans counted in the regular season standings.
2Prior to the1972 season ties did not count in the NFL Standings therefore theBears (6–1–6) and theSpartans (6–1–4) were considered tied atop the standings ahead of thePackers (10–3–1)
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), NFL, retrieved April 3, 2006