June Jones

June Sheldon Jones III (born February 19, 1953) is an American football coach and former player who was most recently the offensive coordinator of the Seattle Sea Dragons.

Jones played the quarterback position on three college teams: Oregon (1971–1972), Hawaii (1973–1974), and Portland State (1975–1976).

It is during his time at Portland State that he was introduced to the run and shoot offense by Mouse Davis.

It would be an offense that he would later champion throughout his coaching career.

His two seasons at Portland State resulted in totals of 5,798 yards passing with 50 TD against 20 INT.

He became the first quarterback to give the run and shoot legitimacy as a quarterback-friendly offense.

In the years prior, Portland State very rarely had success throwing the ball.

Thereafter, he entered professional football, playing for the Atlanta Falcons (1977–1981) of the National Football League and the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (1982).

In four seasons with the Falcons, Jones completed 75 of 166 passes for 923 yards with three touchdowns and seven interceptions.

In 1983, Jones started his coaching career as a graduate assistant under Dick Tomey at the University of Hawaii.

He then spent two years in the USFL, first as the wide receivers coach for the Houston Gamblers (1984), then as the offensive coordinator for the Denver Gold (1985).

Following the demise of the USFL, Jones spent the 1986 season working as an offensive assistant for the Ottawa Rough Riders of the CFL.

In 1987, he got his first NFL coaching position serving as the quarterbacks coach on Jerry Glanville's staff with the Houston Oilers.

After Glanville was released by the Oilers, he would join the Detroit Lions coaching staff upon the recommendation of Mouse Davis, his college head coach at Portland State who was serving as the team's offensive coordinator.

Jones reunited with Glanville upon joining the Atlanta Falcons organization in 1991 as its assistant head coach.

Previously, he coached in the National Football League (NFL): a three-year tenure as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons from 1994 to 1996 and a ten-game stint as interim head coach of the San Diego Chargers in 1998; he also spent 1 1⁄2 seasons as head coach of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the Canadian Football League (CFL).

Jones was also formerly the General Manager and Head Coach of the Houston Roughnecks.

Jones played professionally as a quarterback in the NFL and CFL.

He played college ball with the Oregon Ducks, Hawaii Rainbow Warriors and Portland State Vikings.

Jones grew up in Portland, Oregon, the second of four children born to Marilyn and June Jones Jr.

In 1994, Jones replaced Glanville as the team's head coach, a move that caused a rift between the two.

Reportedly, they did not speak to each other for several years thereafter.

In 1995, Jones's second season as head coach, the Falcons went to the playoffs, losing in the first round to the Green Bay Packers.

The following year, the Falcons posted a 3–13 record, leading to Jones's dismissal.

Jones's coaching record over three seasons in Atlanta was nineteen wins and twenty-nine losses.

He also clashed with quarterback Jeff George during his final season, including a well-publicized and widely broadcast profanity-laced shouting match during a September 22 game against the Philadelphia Eagles.

The feud contributed to both men's release by the organization.

Jones returned to coaching when the San Diego Chargers hired him as quarterbacks coach on January 20, 1998.

On October 13, 1998, head coach Kevin Gilbride was fired after the sixth game and Jones became the interim head coach.

The Chargers won three of ten games coached by Jones, giving him a career NFL coaching record of 22 wins and 36 losses.

Jones joined the University of Hawaii-Manoa football team as head coach, replacing Fred von Appen, who was fired when the team lost 18 games in a row, including all twelve games in the 1998 season.

Jones led the Warriors to a 9–4 record and a share of the Western Athletic Conference football championship in the 1999 season, making it the most dramatic turnaround in NCAA football history.

until that record was surpassed by Tulane in the 2022-23 season.

With Jones's success on the field, and media-friendly persona off the field, he instantly became one of the most famous people in Hawaii, with some people making "June Jones for Governor" T-shirts.

Reflecting his offensive philosophy, bumper stickers sporting the slogan "June would throw" appeared.

These referenced legendary Hawaiian lifeguard Eddie Aikau, of whom it is said, "Eddie would go" (into big surf).

Joe Moore of KHON-TV in Honolulu faulted Jones for discarding long-standing traditions, such as changing music played during home games, and the change in the uniforms and team nickname during his tenure.

(Later, in the 2000s, Jones would hire Glanville as defensive coordinator at Hawaii.) As head coach, Jones installed the run and shoot offense he learned under Mouse Davis.

Initially, quarterback Jeff George flourished under the system, passing for 3,734 yards and 23 touchdowns in Jones's first year and 4,143 yards and 24 touchdowns his second year.

Jones was the head football coach at the University of Hawaii at Manoa from 1999 to 2007 and was the head football coach at Southern Methodist University (SMU) from 2008 to 2014, before resigning on September 8, 2014.