Ronald Gene Jones (born October 7, 1946) is an American former professional

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 ...

tight end The tight end (TE) is an offense (sports), offensive position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football. It is a hybrid that combines the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a receiver (football), receiv ...

. He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the Trinity Valley Cardinals and

UTEP Miners The UTEP Miners is the name given to the sports teams of the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). They are informally referred to as the Miners, UTEP, or Texas–El Paso. UTEP was a member of the Western Athletic Conference from 1967 to 2005, ...

and was selected by the

Green Bay 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) NFC North, North division. They ar ...

in the sixth round of the

1969 NFL/AFL draft The 1969 NFL/AFL draft was part of the common draft, the third and final year in which the NFL and AFL held a joint draft of college players. The draft took place January 28–29, 1969. The draft began with first overall pick of O. J. Simpso ...

. He played the 1969 season for the Packers and was also briefly a member of the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The Falcons were founded o ...

Early life and college career

Jones was born on October 7, 1946, in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

. He attended W. W. Samuell High School in Dallas where he played

as an

end End, END, Ending, or ENDS may refer to: End Mathematics *End (category theory) * End (topology) * End (graph theory) * End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous) * End (endomorphism) Sports and games *End (gridiron football) *End, a division ...

. After high school, he attended

Trinity Valley Community College Trinity Valley Community College (TVCC) is a public community college based in Athens, Texas. It has six campuses serving five counties across the southeast and eastern parts of the state. History TVCC was founded in 1946 as Henderson County Jun ...

from 1965 to 1966. While at Trinity, he married Carolyn Jones, a fellow classmate. A

, he played for the Trinity Valley Cardinals before transferring to the

University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public university, public research university in El Paso, Texas, United States. Founded in 1913 as the State School of Mines and Metallurgy, it is the third oldest academic component of the Univers ...

(UTEP) to play for the

UTEP Miners football The UTEP Miners football program represents University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in the sport of American football. The Miners compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and in Conferenc ...

team in 1967. Jones attended UTEP from 1967 to 1968, receiving

varsity letter A varsity letter (or monogram) is an award earned in the United States for excellence in school activities. A varsity letter signifies that its recipient was a qualified varsity team member, awarded after a certain standard was met. A person who ...

s with the football team each year. Upon joining UTEP, Jones stood at and weighed . As a

junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Aircraft * Ekolot JK-05L Junior, a Polish ultralight aircraft * PZL-112 Junior, a Polish training aircraft * SZD-51 Junior, a Polish-made training and club glider Arts and entertainment Characters * Bowser Jr., ...

, he competed with

freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or colloquially frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational in ...

Major Stevenson and

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Sports * Redshirt (college sports) Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically ...

Fran Pilarcek for the starting tight end role for the Miners. He won the job and caught 26 passes for 394 yards and four

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

s during the 1967 season. The 1967 UTEP team compiled a record of 7–2–1 and won the

1967 Sun Bowl The 1967 Sun Bowl featured the UTEP Miners and the Ole Miss Rebels. Background Ole Miss had qualified for a bowl game every season since the 1957 season, and this was their 11th consecutive bowl season. They tied for 6th in the Southeastern Conf ...

over the

Ole Miss Rebels The Ole Miss Rebels are the 18 men's and women's College sports in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that are funded by and represent the University of Mississippi, located in Oxford, Mississippi, Oxford. The first was the Ole ...

. The ''

El Paso Herald-Post The ''El Paso Herald-Post'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in El Paso, Texas, United States. It was the successor to the El Paso Herald, first published in 1881, and the El Paso Post, founded by the E. W. Scripps Company in 1922. The papers mer ...

'' reported that he "attracted a good deal fattention in the Sun Bowl" and displayed "impressive" strength. Then, as a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

in 1968, Jones caught 31 passes for 430 yards for UTEP, being named first-team All-

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington. Due to ...

(WAC). He placed ninth in the WAC in receptions and eighth in the conference in receiving yards. The 1968 Miners compiled a record of 4–5–1.

Professional career and later life

Jones was selected by the

in the sixth round (134th overall) of the

. Along with Leon Harden, he was one of two UTEP players selected by the Packers. He impressed in training camp, with assistant coach Bob Schnelker describing him and

Tom Buckman Tom Buckman (born Thomas Harry Buckman; March 7, 1947) is a former professional American football tight end. Career Buckman played with the Denver Broncos of the American Football League during the 1969 AFL season. He had also previously been d ...

as "two of the best tight end prospects we've had since I've been here". He was

waived/injured The following terms are used in American football, both conventional and indoor. Some of these terms are also in use in Canadian football; for a list of terms unique to that code, see '' Glossary of Canadian football''. 0–9 ...

to begin the season and later placed on the

taxi squad In gridiron football, the practice squad, also called the taxi squad or practice roster, is a group of players signed by a team but not part of their main roster. They serve as extra players during the team's practices, often as part of the scout ...

. He was then activated and appeared in six games during the 1969 season. In September 1970, Jones was traded to the

. He did not appear in any games for the Falcons and was later released in August 1971. Following his football career, Jones worked in the organized crime unit for the Dallas Sheriff's Department. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he was a member of a reunion football team, composed of old UTEP players, that played in the spring against the current UTEP roster.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Ron 1947 births Living people Green Bay Packers players Players of American football from Dallas American football tight ends UTEP Miners football players