Ralph Robert "Curley" Jones (September 22, 1880 – July 26, 1951) was an American

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

coach. He also served as the head coach for the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL) from 1930 to 1932, leading them to the 1932 NFL championship.

Early years

State of Indiana

Jones was an integral part of the development of high school basketball in

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

and a successful college coach at

Purdue Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donat ...

and

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. 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 at

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

Shortridge High School Shortridge High School is a public high school located in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Shortridge is the home of the International Baccalaureate and arts and humanities programs of the Indianapolis Public Schools district (IPS). Origina ...

in 1899—the first high school team in Indiana. Jones led the Indianapolis

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

to statewide prominence, and then led the Crawfordsville YMCA, both of which claimed state YMCA championships under his guidance. Due to his success with YMCA-based leagues,

Butler University Butler University is a private university in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university has over 60 major academic fields of study within six colleges in the arts, business, communic ...

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 of

Wabash College Wabash College is a private liberal arts men's college located in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Founded in 1832, by a group of Dartmouth College graduates and Midwestern leaders, the institution was originally named "The Wabash Teachers Seminary an ...

. His teams at both institutions featured hall of fame inductees Ward "Piggy" Lambert, Pete Vaughn and David 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 to Notre Dame and once to Purdue. Known as the "

Little Giants ''Little Giants'' is a 1994 American family sports comedy film directed by Duwayne Dunham and written by James Ferguson, Robert Shallcross, Tommy Swerdlow, Michael Goldberg from the story by Ferguson and Robert Shallcross. The film stars R ...

", Jones's Wabash teams compiled a record of 75–6 and defeated teams from much larger institutions, including Illinois, Purdue,

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

and Notre Dame. During this same time period, Jones's Crawfordsville High School teams lost only one game.

Purdue University

Jones moved on to Purdue in 1910, beginning a three-year tenure that resulted in a 32–9 record and the first two

Big Nine Big or BIG may refer to: * Big, of great size or degree Film and television * Big (film), ''Big'' (film), a 1988 fantasy-comedy film starring Tom Hanks * ''Big'', a 2023 Taiwanese children's film starring Van Fan and Chie Tanaka * ''Big!'', a ...

championships In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

in program history (1911 and 1912). He also mentored the first All-American in Purdue basketball history, as

Dave Charters Dave may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver * ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the 1993 film * ''Dave'' (TV series), a 2020 American comedy series * ...

garnered consensus honors in both 1910 and 1911.

University of Illinois

After his three seasons at Purdue, Jones headed to the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

. 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. His 1914–15 team was retroactively named the national champion by the

Helms Athletic Foundation The Helms Athletic Foundation, founded in 1936, was a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to the promotion of athletics and sportsmanship. Paul H. Helms was the organization's founder and benefactor, funding the foundation via his owner ...

and the

Premo-Porretta Power Poll The Premo-Porretta Power Poll is a retroactive end-of-year ranking for American college basketball teams competing in the 1895–96 through the 1947–48 seasons. The Premo-Porretta Polls are intended to serve collectively as a source of informa ...

. 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 the

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches a ...

for two years as well as being the assistant football coach to

Bob Zuppke Robert Carl Zuppke (July 2, 1879 – December 22, 1957) was an American football coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Illinois—now known as the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign–from 1913 until 1941, compili ...

from 1913 through 1919. After Jones left Illinois, he went to

Lake Forest Academy Lake Forest Academy (also known as LFA) is a co-educational college preparatory school for boarding and day students in grades 9 through 12. The school is located on the North Shore (Chicago), North Shore in Lake Forest, Illinois, United States ...

Lake Forest, Illinois Lake Forest is a city located in Lake County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 19,367. The city is along the shore of Lake Michigan, and is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area and t ...

. 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.

Chicago Bears

After

George Halas George Stanley Halas Sr. (February 2, 1895 – October 31, 1983), nicknamed "Papa Bear", was an American professional football end, coach, and executive. He was the founder and owner of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL), ...

retired as a

player-coach A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

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 the

T formation In American football, a T formation (frequently called the full house formation in modern usage, sometimes the Robust T) is a formation used by the offensive team in which three running backs line up in a row about five yards behind the quarter ...

by introducing wide ends and a halfback in motion. While Jones was head coach,

Bronko Nagurski Bronislau "Bronko" Nagurski (November 3, 1908 – January 7, 1990) was a Canadian-American professional football player who was a fullback and defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL). Renowned for his strength and size, Nagurski ...

made his NFL debut as a member of the Chicago Bears. His .706 winning percentage is the best in Bears history. During his time at Lake Forest College 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 until

Clark Shaughnessy Clark Daniel Shaughnessy (born Clark Daniel O'Shaughnessy; March 6, 1892 – May 15, 1970) was an American football coach and innovator. He is sometimes called the "father of the T formation" and the original founder of the forward pass, althou ...

, head coach at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

, approached Halas with very complex formations in 1935 did the ''T'' become effective. Many coaches contributed to the success of the T-formation that swept college and pro football in 1940. Shaughnessy's Stanford University team went 10–0 and defeated the

University of Nebraska A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

in the Rose Bowl with his elaborate T-formation. Weeks later, Halas's Bears defeated the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East ...

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 inductee Ward Lambert dedicated his 1932 book, ''Practical Basketball'', to "Ralph Jones, my coach."

Personal life

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"'' with Clark Daniel Shaughnessy and

. This book was related to

and released in 1946.The Career of Ralph Jones A lesser-known Indiana coaching legend
/ref>

Head coaching record

High school basketball

College basketball

College football

NFL

¹ The result of the

1932 NFL Playoff Game The 1932 NFL Playoff Game was an extra game held to break a tie in the season's final standings in the National Football League (NFL); it matched the host Chicago Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans. Because of snowfall and anticipated extremely ...

to determine the NFL champion between the

and the Portsmouth Spartans counted in the regular season standings.
² Prior to the 1972 season ties did not count in the NFL Standings therefore the

Bears Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae (). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout most o ...

(6–1–6) and the

Spartans Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the valley of Evrotas river in Laconia, in southeastern P ...

(6–1–4) were considered tied atop the standings ahead of the

Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. They are the third ...

(10–3–1)

References

External links