Jerry Jones

While studying at the ‘University of Arkansas, Jones met Gene, who had formerly won a beauty pageant. They got married in 1963 and have three children and nine grandchildren. All their children hold high-profile positions in the ‘Dallas Cowboys’ team.

In the 1998 film ‘BASEketball’, the character of Baxter Cain, the owner of the team ‘Dallas Felons’ is based on him.

Jones has set up the ‘Gene and Jerry Jones Family Arlington Youth Foundation’ to help various charities that work for the youth in Arlington, Texas.

Jerry Jones was born to Arminta and J.W. Jones in Los Angeles, California, and spent his childhood in North Little Rock, Arkansas. His father owned an insurance company. Jerry was schooled at ‘North Little Rock High School’, where he played football in the ‘running back’ position.

He accepted a football scholarship from the ‘University of Arkansas’ and was the co-captain and starting guard in the Arkansas football team. His teammates included Glen Ray Hines and Jimmy Johnson and the team won the ‘National Championship’ in 1964 under the Hall of Fame coach Frank Broyles.

After his graduation in 1965, Jones worked as an ‘Executive Vice President’ at ‘Modern Security Life of Springfield’, an insurance company in Missouri owned by his father.

In 1967, he got a chance to purchase the AFL team ‘San Diego Chargers’ but chose not to so that he could complete his master’s degree at Arkansas.

In 1970, he earned a master’s degree in business and tried many business ventures, but success eluded him until he started an oil and gas exploration company in Oklahoma, which was hugely successful. Over the next two decades, his business expanded rapidly and he established offices all over western USA and even in Canada.

In 1989, Jones purchased the NFL team ‘Dallas Cowboys’ and their stadium in Texas for $140 million from the previous owner H.R. Bright. Prior to the purchase, the team was performing badly, with a 3-13 record until then.

Immediately after the acquisition, he sacked the existing coach Tom Landry, much to the chagrin of the fans and replaced him with his friend and teammate from the college team, Jimmy Johnson. Even general manager Tex Schramm lasted for only a few months and was replaced by Jones himself.

Jerry Jones’s purchase of ‘Dallas Cowboys’ sparked a turnaround in the team’s fortunes. Jones made radical changes in the coaching staff, became personally involved in the administrative matters and substantially improved the team’s finances, which led to the team’s most successful run in its history as they won the ‘Super Bowl’ thrice in four years.