Browns History: Oldest living player Dub Jones passes

The talented runner was part of six pro titles as a player and coach

The Cleveland Browns began in 1946 in the NFL-rival league the All-America Football Conference (AAFC). The AAFC was full of former NFL players and coaches and over their four-year history paid more and subsequently signed over 60% of the best incoming college talent.

The Browns won the AAFC title in 1946 and also in 1947 under head coach Paul Brown.

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In 1948, receiver Dub Jones joined Cleveland and played eight seasons with the Browns, then moved to the sidelines and coached six years. On November 2, 2024, Jones passed away at the age of 99. He was the oldest Browns player at the time of his death and would have reached 100 on December 29.

With Cleveland, Jones was part of two additional AAFC crowns, plus four NFL championships. In 2004, Jones was added to the Cleveland Browns Legends program.

Jones created the position of “flanker” in the 1950s.

Beginnings

William Augustus “Dub” Jones was born in Arcadia, Louisiana but grew up in nearby Ruston since the age of three after his father died. He was the youngest of four children – all boys. Like his brothers, he participated in multiple sports. He would listen to baseball games and boxing matches on the radio as a small child which kindled his interest in participating in those two sports. As he grew up, Jones excelled in football and baseball but played basketball and boxed as well.

His nickname Dub came from the letter “W” of his first name.

He had rare talent as a halfback, defensive back, and kicker. In 1941 he helped Rustin High School capture the football state championship. Jones had plenty of schools interested in him but chose to remain close to home and accepted a full football scholarship from LSU where he only played one year.

His college career was interrupted when Jones enlisted in the U.S. Navy for World War II just like thousands of college and professional athletes. He enlisted in the V-12 Navy College Training Program in which the Navy assigned Jones to earn a bachelor’s degree in order to become a commissioned officer. His duty station while in college was Tulane University where he also played football as a halfback and safety.

In 1944 he was named All-American and earned First Team All-SEC honors at Tulane as a junior. He has the distinction of being the only player in college football history to be part of a win over LSU as a member of Tulane, and a roster member of LSU with a win over Tulane.

The following season he was sent to New London, Connecticut to begin training as a fireman on submarines, an assignment he volunteered for. At the time, Navy seamen on submarines represented the highest casualty rate of any U.S. military service in World War II.

Jones (6’-4”, 202 pounds) played for a military football team during his stint in New England. He was preparing to ship out to the South Pacific for an invasion of Japan that had been earmarked to be called “Operation Downfall” when the war came to a close on Sept. 2, 1945.

He was chosen and allowed to play in the 1946 Chicago Charities College All-Star Game on August 23, 1946, versus the NFL champions. Normally the NFL champs win, but in this game, Jones and his fellow college stars such as Otto Graham, Elroy Hirsch, and Lou Saban defeated the defending NFL champion Los Angeles Rams 16-0 in front of 97,380 fans.

Pro Football calls

With his college accolades and his stint with the military team, Jones was highly coveted to play professional football. He considered the business world as well.

In the 1946 NFL draft, Jones was the second overall pick chosen by the Chicago Cardinals. Meanwhile, the AAFC was about to begin its maiden season for 1946. He was contacted by the Miami Seahawks who offered him more money than Chicago. While most NFL clubs were paying in the neighborhood of $8,500 a year, Jones accepted a contract offer from Miami for $12,000.

Although most owners in the AAFC were very wealthy and ran their franchises well, several teams had an abundance of problems including the Chicago Rockets and the Seahawks.

Miami spent most of their player funds on a select few (such as Jones), whereas the remainder of their roster were NFL castoffs and retired players, and college guys who weren’t very good. The result was a horrible roster which would eventually end their first season at 3-11-0. They couldn’t run the ball because they couldn’t block out defenders.

In 1946, Jones had just 43 rushing attempts for 164 yards with zero scores. Late in the season, Miami traded him to the AAFC Brooklyn Dodgers. At the time, the sport of football was not very popular in South Florida with a population of just under 200,000. Their attendance was horrible because of lack of interest and then they couldn’t win games. At one Seahawks game, the gate was just 2,340 patrons.

The Dodgers were in need of a good runner when their star back Glenn Dobbs went down with injuries to his knee, hip, and clavicle. The Seahawks wanted to dump Jones’ large contract.

Jones played for Brooklyn for the remainder of 1946 and all of 1947. He had 62 rushing attempts for 198 yards and averaged 3.2 yards per carry with one touchdown during this time period. But it was his play at the safety position that got him the most attention.

The Browns had drafted Michigan All-American star quarterback Bob Chappuis in the first round of the 1947 AAFC college draft and held his rights. Paul Brown wanted Jones for his defensive prowess plus had a recommendation from Graham from their time together in the College All-Star game. Coach Browns then traded the rights to Chappuis for Jones, Jay Smith, and rookie DE Bob Jensen.

Folklore has it that Coach Brown traded for Jones because any man who was 6-foot-4 and volunteered for submarine service during World War II had to be his kind of guy.

In his first season with the Browns, he started just two games and played some at halfback while the remainder of his snaps were at safety. Despite being traded for a first-round draft pick, Jones did not play well at first for Cleveland. He injured his knee and later separated his clavicle. When he returned, he broke his hand fielding a punt.

In fact, Coach Brown benched him.

Coach Brown’s assistant tight ends coach Richard Gallagher made the suggestion for Cleveland to place Jones on offense instead at his natural position of halfback.

What the move did was open up Jones’ capability to catch the football. He had an uncanny ability to snare poorly thrown balls and was able to contort his body to make a reception.

That season of 1948 Cleveland went 14-0-0 and captured the league title with a 49-7 win over the Buffalo Bills for their third consecutive AAFC title. The undefeated/untied season was just the second ever for a pro football ballclub.

The Browns won the 1949 AAFC championship and then entered the NFL along with the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Colts. Cleveland would win the 1950 NFL Championship Game in their first year as a member of the established league.

During this time, Jones had solidified his place in the offense as a hard runner and a very capable pass receiver. He scored 11 touchdowns in 1950 alone. In the 1950 NFL Championship Game, Jones had four catches for 80 yards and a touchdown reception in the upset victory. Jones had two catches in the final 1:49 that placed Cleveland in field goal range to win 30-28. Each player on the winning Browns team received $1,113.

His biggest day came on November 25, 1951 against the Chicago Bears. Both the Browns and Bears were division leaders coming into the contest. In the 42-21 Browns win, Jones scored six touchdowns in the game – on a two-yard run, a 34-yard pass from Otto Graham, a 12-yard run, a 27-yard run, a 43-yard run, and a 43-yard pass from Graham.

Six touchdowns in a game remains a Cleveland Browns record.

Jones played from 1948-1955 for Cleveland and had 67 starts with 95 games played, 454 rushing attempts for 1,910 yards, a 4.2 yards per carry average, and scored 20 touchdowns. He also caught 171 passes for 2,874 yards with an additional 20 receiving touchdowns.

He often lined up as an extra running back away from the backfield as would be considered in today’s game the “slot.” But when he played, that position behind the line became known as the “flanker” with the tight end and split end as the other two receivers on the line.

As a player, Jones played for the 1948 and 1949 Browns championship AAFC squads, plus the 1950, 1954, and 1955 NFL title teams.

All eight years that Jones was with Cleveland, the team went to the league championship game. No other player in pro football history can claim that.

Hang up his cleats

After the 1955 season, Jones retired as a player from the game.

He went into private business as a General Contractor with one of his sons, Tom Jones, with their business entitled Triad Builders. On occasion, he would become an advisor for the Houston Oilers regarding college teams in the State of Louisiana.

The construction venture lasted seven years for Jones who was the business project manager although his son continued.

After Coach Brown was fired from the Browns, his offensive assistant Blanton Collier reached out to Jones about a vacancy: offensive backfield and ends coach. Today, that would be the RB and WR coach. Collier had grown close to Jones when he played for the Browns and wanted him to share his abilities and experience.

Jones not only tutored pass catchers Gary Collins, Ray Renfro, Tom Hutchison, and Rich Kreitling, but tight ends Bobby Crespino and Johnny Brewer. Jones also had the responsibility of all of the running backs including Jimmy Brown, Ernie Green, Ken Webb, and Charley Scales. In future seasons, that list would include Paul Warfield, Leroy Kelly, and Clifton McNeil.

In addition to the players he coached, Jones became the play caller despite Collier’s offensive intellect. Collier was hard of hearing. Jones sat in the press box when he called a game.

When the Browns captured the 1964 NFL Championship Game, it was Jones who called all offensive plays. It would be the sixth title for Jones, all with Cleveland.

Three of Jones’ students are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Jim Brown, Leroy Kelly, and Paul Warfield.

After the 1968 season, Jones retired from football. When Paul Brown started the Cincinnati Bengals franchise in the American Football League, he called Jones and asked him to be an offensive assistant coach. Jones decided to remain retired and return to his hometown instead.

In 1982, Jones was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and also the Tulane Athletics Hall of Fame, and the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame in 1984. Jones had four sons who all played college football including QB Bert Jones who was drafted in the first round by the Baltimore Colts in 1973. Another son, Bill, Jr., was a state senator. His youngest son Schump flew with the Air Force Thunderbirds as a demonstration pilot.

In a list of the Greatest Cleveland Browns players of all time, Jones is listed at #59.

Jones still shares the NFL record for most touchdowns in a game with six against the Chicago Bears on Nov. 25, 1951, when he tied Ernie Nevers, who scored six for the Chicago Cardinals against the Bears on Nov. 28, 1929. In the Browns’ 42-21 win, Jones scored on runs of 43, 27, 12 and 2 yards and on passes of 43 and 34 yards from quarterback Otto Graham.

Years later, Coach Brown would tell the story that the greatest trade he ever made was when he traded Chappius to the Dodgers for Dub Jones.

Jones always claimed his style of running was to try to not get hit. He wasn’t particularly fast or especially quick, but he was smart and versatile. He didn’t like self-promotion and believed in team-first.

He remained active even into his 90s. The Jones family has a photo of him riding a horse at age 94.

Jones is survived by five sons – William Jr. (Bill), Bert, Tom, Ben and Schump – and two daughters – Hasson Glasgow and Nancy Knox. There are 22 grandchildren, 48 great-grandchildren. Dub met his wife, the former Schumpert Barnes of Ruston, in junior high in Ruston. They were married in 1946 and were two years away from their 80th wedding anniversary. Schump will turn 100 on December 12.