Dub Jones, a star halfback on the early Cleveland Browns teams of the 1940s and 1950s, has passed away, per a team announcement. He was 99.
Jones played for Cleveland from 1948-55, earning two Pro Bowls and one first-team All-Pro selection along the way. He rushed for 2,210 yards and 21 touchdowns in 10 professional seasons and caught 171 passes for 2,874 yards and 20 touchdowns in his career.
Jones is one of four NFL players to score six touchdowns in a single game.
Jones was born in Dec. 1924 in Arcadia, Louisiana. He began his college football career at LSU before transferring to Tulane in 1944. In 1946, Jones joined the Miami Seahawks of the brand-new All-America Football Conference, one of the early rival leagues to the NFL.
The Seahawks struggled financially and on the gridiron, and Jones was traded to the AAFC’s Brooklyn Dodgers midway through his first season. He played 10 games for the Dodgers from 1946-47 after returning from an injury.
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After the 1947 season, Jones was drafted by the Cleveland Browns, the best team in the AAFC — and one of three teams that was absorbed into the NFL after the league folded in 1949.
The Browns won AAFC championships in 1948 and 1949, and their dominance carried over into the NFL with Otto Graham at quarterback and Jones as one of his primary offensive weapons. He was a key part of the Browns teams that won NFL championships in 1950, 1954, and 1955.
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The NFL staged an All-Star Game every year from 1938-42 but ceased the event amid World War II. The game resumed (as the “Pro Bowl”) following the 1950 season. Jones made the league’s second-ever Pro Bowl team in 1951 after starting all 12 games and rushing for six touchdowns and 492 yards on 104 carries, and catching 30 passes for 570 yards and five touchdowns.
Jones became the second player in NFL history to score six touchdowns in a game on Nov. 25, 1951, against the Chicago Bears in Cleveland. Only Hall of Famers Ernie Nevers and Gale Sayers, and current New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara, have matched the record.
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Eight years after his final season as a player, Jones returned to the Browns as an assistant coach in 1963. He called the offense for the Browns and stayed on Cleveland’s coaching staff until 1968.
In 1973, Jones’ son Bert debuted as a quarterback with the Baltimore Colts. The younger Jones would enjoy a 10-year playing career of his own, leading the Colts to three playoff berths and winning the NFL’s MVP award in 1973.
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Jones was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 1982 and the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame in 1984. He was inducted into the Browns Legends program in 2004.
According to the Browns, Jones is survived by four sons, three daughters, 22 grandchildren, 48 great-grandchildren, and his wife, Schump, whom he met in junior high school in Ruston, Louisiana.
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