Jerry Jones facts for kids
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Jones in 2017
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| Dallas Cowboys | |
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| Position: | Owner/President/General Manager |
| Personal information | |
| Born: | October 13, 1942 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Height: | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) |
| Weight: | 195 lb (88 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school: | North Little Rock (AR) |
| College: | Arkansas |
| Career history | |
| As executive: | |
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| Career highlights and awards | |
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Pro Football Hall of Fame
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Jerral Wayne Jones Sr. (born October 13, 1942) is an American businessman who has been the owner, president, and general manager of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL) since February 1989.
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Early life
Jones was born in Los Angeles, California. His family moved back to North Little Rock, Arkansas in 1945. His parents owned two branches of Pat's Super Market in the Rose City neighborhood of North Little Rock. Jones was a running back at North Little Rock High School, graduating in 1960.
After his graduation, Jones' parents moved to Springfield, Missouri, where Pat was president and chairman of Modern Security Life Insurance Co. The company, which an advertisement billed as a "one in a million" company, saw its assets increase from $440,299.76 in its first statement in 1961 to $6,230,607 in 1965. After graduating from the University of Arkansas, Jerral W. Jones was listed as an executive vice president. With the success of the company, the Joneses assembled the 5,500-acre Buena Vista Ranch east of Springfield in Rogersville, Missouri, in the Ozark Mountains. In 1971, after selling the insurance company, the couple carved out 400 acres of their ranch to start Buena Vista Animal Paradise, where tourists could visit exotic animals (now Wild Animal Safari in Strafford, Missouri, just south of Interstate 44).
College football career
Jones attended the University of Arkansas, where he was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity. He was co-captain of Arkansas' 1964 national championship football team. He was an offensive lineman for College Football Hall of Fame coach Frank Broyles and a teammate of college football and NFL coach Jimmy Johnson, whom Jones hired as his first head coach after purchasing the Cowboys.
Other notable teammates were Glen Ray Hines, a consensus All-American offensive tackle; Ken Hatfield, who went on to coach several major programs including Arkansas; Jim Lindsey; future Outland Trophy winner Loyd Phillips; and College Football Hall of Fame linebacker Ronnie Caveness. Several future head coaches were assistant coaches for Broyles on the Razorbacks' staff during Jones' college career in Fayetteville, including three more members of the College Football Hall of Fame: Hayden Fry (Southern Methodist University, North Texas State University, and the University of Iowa); Johnny Majors (Iowa State University, University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Tennessee), and Barry Switzer (University of Oklahoma, and later head coach of the Cowboys under Jones).
Jones is one of a very small number of NFL owners who had a significant level of success as a football player.
Business ventures
According to an interview with Jones on HBO, after graduating from college in 1965, he borrowed a million dollars from Jimmy Hoffa's Teamsters union to open up a string of Shakey's Pizza Parlor restaurants in Missouri. When that venture failed, Jones was given a job at his father's insurance company, Modern Security Life of Springfield, Missouri. He received his master's degree in business in 1970. After several other unsuccessful business ventures (including an attempt, again using Teamsters money, to purchase the American Football League's San Diego Chargers in 1967), he began an oil and gas exploration business in Arkansas, Jones Oil and Land Lease, which became successful. His privately held company currently does natural resource prospecting.
In 2008, Jones formed a partnership with Yankee Global Enterprises to create Legends Hospitality, a food, beverage, merchandise, retail, and stadium operations corporation serving entertainment venues.
Dallas Cowboys
On February 25, 1989, Jones purchased the Cowboys from H. R. "Bum" Bright for $140 million (equivalent to $292.5 million in 2020). Soon after the purchase, he fired longtime coach Tom Landry, to that point the only coach in the team's history, in favor of his old teammate at Arkansas, Jimmy Johnson. A few months later, he fired longtime general manager Tex Schramm, and assumed complete control over football matters.
After a slow start under Jones and Johnson (the first season under Jones, a 1–15 finish, remains second only to the team's inaugural season in terms of futility), Jones quickly built a team often considered one of the best NFL franchise of the 1990s. The Cowboys won Super Bowl XXVII in the 1992 season, as well as Super Bowl XXVIII the following year in the 1993 season. Johnson then departed and was replaced by Barry Switzer, who won Super Bowl XXX in the 1995 season.
At the time of the sale, the financially troubled Bright claimed to be losing $1 million per month on the franchise. During Jones' tenure, the Cowboys have appreciated in value to an estimated $5.5 billion, turning its owner into a billionaire in the process. Much of the league's financial success since 1989 has been credited to Jones himself. In particular, he was decisive in securing Fox as the NFC's primary broadcaster at a time when the traditional "Big Three" networks were trying to convince the league into accepting a rollback in television rights fees.
Increased television revenues have played a decisive role in securing the NFL's place as the world's richest sports league, with revenues of well over $10 billion per season.
The 2020 NFL season was Jones' 32nd as Cowboys owner, more than the combined tenures of his predecessors.
NFL fines
Jones was fined $25,000 by the NFL for publicly criticizing referee Ed Hochuli after Hochuli made a call in a game between the San Diego Chargers and the Denver Broncos on September 14, 2008. Jones made comments both to the press and on his radio show, saying Hochuli was one of the most criticized officials in the NFL. This was Jones' first fine by the NFL.
In 2009, Jones was fined $100,000 for violating a gag order on labor issues, commenting that revenue sharing was "on its way out". Commissioner Roger Goodell had issued a gag order for all owners and team executives from discussing any aspect of the pending labor issues. Jones "crossed the line", drawing a "six-figure" fine, sources said, as the commissioner distributed a memo to all 32 owners, along with a reminder that the gag order remains in effect. Goodell did not disclose the specific amount of Jones' fine in the memo.
Awards and honors
NFL
- Three-time Super Bowl champion – XXVII, XXVIII, XXX (as owner, president and GM of the Dallas Cowboys)
- 2014 NFL Executive of the Year
- Pro Football Hall of Fame (class of 2017)
NCAA
- 1964 FWAA College Football National Championship (as a member of the Arkansas Razorbacks)
- 2010 NFF Gridiron Club of Dallas Distinguished Texan Award
Media
- 1993 Outstanding Team ESPY Award (as owner, president and GM of the Dallas Cowboys)
Other
- 1993 Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement
- 2013 Horatio Alger Award
- Ducks Unlimited (Arkansas branch) Jerry Jones Sportsmans Award named in his honor
Personal life
Jones is married and has three children. Stephen serves as the Cowboys' chief operating officer, executive vice president, and director of player personnel. Charlotte serves as the Cowboys' executive vice president and chief brand officer. Jerry Jones Jr. is the Cowboys' chief sales and marketing officer/vice president. Jones owns a home in Destin, Florida.
Jones revealed in July 2015 at a press conference before Cowboys training camp that he had undergone hip replacement surgery, joking that he wouldn't start the season on the PUP list.
As of December 2019[update], Jones' net worth is reported by Forbes to be $8.5 billion, the majority of which can be accounted for as being his ownership stake in the Cowboys who are currently valued by the same publication to be the world's most valuable sports team at $5 billion.
In March 2022, Jones was served with legal action by a 25-year-old woman who claimed that he is her biological father. The woman is the daughter of a former airline employee that Jones met in Little Rock, Arkansas. Jones has paid nearly $3 million to the woman and her mother, which included the woman's full tuition at Southern Methodist University and a $70,000 Range Rover on her 16th birthday. Requests for money and other expenses exceeded the amount that Jones agreed to pay in the trust agreement between the parties by nearly $1 million over the years, including $33,000 for a "Sweet 16" birthday party, which was featured on the reality TV show Big Rich Texas.
In November 2022, a 1957 photo surfaced depicting a 14-year-old Jerry Jones witnessing an argument where White students attempted to prevent six African-American students from entering North Little Rock High School in Arkansas. North Little Rock was beginning to integrate in 1957. Despite the school's head football coach ordering the team (which Jones was a part of) to stay away from such scenes, Jones said he was there as a curious bystander. Jones also stated: "I don't know that I or anybody anticipated or had a background of knowing what was involved. It was more a curious thing." Jones has expressed regret in not doing more to help the Black students feel more accepted at Little Rock.
See also
In Spanish: Jerry Jones para niños
