Dub Jones (American football)

William Augustus "Dub" Jones (born December 29, 1924) is an American former professional football player who was a halfback for ten seasons in the National Football League (NFL) and the old All-America Football Conference (AAFC) in the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily for the Cleveland Browns.

He shares the NFL record for touchdowns scored in a single game, with six.

Jones was born into an athletic family in Louisiana and played a variety of sports, including football, at his high school in Ruston.

Jones attended Ruston High School starting in 1938, and played football under head coach L.J. "Hoss" Garrett.

The team won the state championship in 1941, his senior year.

Jones attended Louisiana State University on a scholarship for a year before being transferred to Tulane University in New Orleans as part of a World War II-era U.S. Navy training program.

He was small in stature and did not make the first team until his senior year in 1941.

Ruston's Bearcats football team won its first-ever state championship that year, with Jones playing left halfback and tailback.

Jones also played baseball and basketball and boxed in high school.

After graduating, Jones got a scholarship to attend Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, where one of his brothers played football.

He stayed there for a year before joining the U.S. Navy as American involvement in World War II intensified.

The Navy transferred him to a V-12 training program at Tulane University in New Orleans, where he played as a halfback and a safety in 1943 and 1944.

Jones carried the football for a total of 700 yards of rushing and scored four touchdowns in 1944, his junior year, and was named an All-American and an All-Southeastern Conference player by sportswriters.

He trained as a fireman aboard submarines while in the Navy, and in 1945 he played football for a military team at the Naval Submarine Base New London in New London, Connecticut.

He played football at Tulane for two seasons before joining the Miami Seahawks of the new AAFC in 1946.

The Seahawks traded Jones at the end of the 1946 season to the AAFC's Brooklyn Dodgers, who subsequently sent him to the Browns before the 1948 season.

That year, the Browns won all of their games and the AAFC championship.

Before beginning his professional career, he played in the 1946 Chicago College All-Star Game, a now-defunct annual contest between the National Football League champion and a squad of the country's best college players.

Led by quarterback and future teammate Otto Graham, the college players beat the Los Angeles Rams 16–0 that year.

Jones was selected by the Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL) with the second pick in the 1946 NFL Draft, but did not sign with the team as he pondered returning to LSU to finish his studies.

When the Miami Seahawks of the new All-America Football Conference (AAFC) offered him a $12,000 contract, however, he accepted it and joined the team.

The Seahawks won just three games in 1946, the AAFC's first season of play, and Jones was traded along with two other players to the Brooklyn Dodgers, another AAFC team, in December.

The Seahawks, meanwhile, folded and were moved to Baltimore after the season because of poor attendance and shaky finances.

Jones played sparingly for the Dodgers in the last three games of the 1946 season, rushing for 62 yards on 19 carries.

The Dodgers traded for Jones in part to replace Glenn Dobbs – a star tailback in Brooklyn's single-wing offense – because Dobbs was suffering from injuries.

Jones himself was hurt early in the 1947 season, however, when he was hit by Bill Willis of the Cleveland Browns.

Injuries to his knee, hip and clavicle forced him to sit out for several weeks.

He broke his hand when he returned and had to play exclusively on defense for the rest of the season.

Paul Brown, the head coach of the Browns, was impressed with Jones's defensive play for Brooklyn, and traded away the rights to University of Michigan star Bob Chappuis to acquire him in June 1948.

Jones began his career with the Browns as a defensive back, but was switched to halfback early in the 1948 season because his performance on defense wasn't up to Brown's standards.

Jones played on offense alongside Graham, the team's quarterback, and star fullback Marion Motley as the Browns won all of their games in 1948 and beat the Buffalo Bills for their third straight AAFC championship.

The team repeated as champions in 1949, but the AAFC dissolved at the end of the year and the Browns joined the NFL.

A tall flanker back who was both a running and receiving threat, Jones was a key part of Browns teams that won NFL championships in 1950, 1954 and 1955.

He was twice named to the Pro Bowl, the NFL's all-star game, including in 1951, when he set his touchdown record.

Jones retired after the 1955 season, but returned to the Browns as an assistant coach in 1963.

The Browns won the NFL championship the following year.

Jones left football for good in 1968 and went back to Ruston, where he worked with one of his sons in a general contracting business.

Jones is a member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame.

Jones was born in Arcadia, Louisiana, but moved with his mother and three brothers to nearby Ruston after his father died when he was three years old.

He played Little League Baseball as a child and went to watch boxing matches and baseball and football games at the nearby Louisiana Tech University.