Dub Jones, 1924-2024

We can now close the books on an interesting chapter in the history of professional football: The All-America Football Conference of 1946 to 1949, the league that produced 3 teams that joined the NFL. Namely, the Cleveland Browns, the San Francisco 49ers, and the Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts.

William Augustus Jones was born on December 29, 1924 in Arcadia, Louisiana, and grew up in nearby Ruston. He was a star two-way back at Louisiana State University, then transferred to the school then known as LSU's arch-rivals: Tulane University. It was World War II, and Tulane had a U.S. Navy training program.

After serving in The War, he turned pro, and he turned out to be the last surviving player who:

* Played for the 1st Southern team in major league sports, the 1946 Miami Seahawks of the All-America Football Conference.

* Played for a football team called the Brooklyn Dodgers, in the AAFC during the 1947 season.

* Played on the Cleveland Browns' AAFC Champions of 1948 and 1949. They had also won the title in that league in 1946 and 1947.

* Played in the AAFC at all.

* Played in the 1950 season-opening "merger" game between the AAFC Champion Browns and the 1948 and 1949 NFL Champion Philadelphia Eagles, which the Browns won, 35-10 in a stunning upset.

* Played on the Browns' NFL Champions of 1950 and 1954. 

* And he may also have been the last living player who regularly played both offense and defense. He was good enough to make the Pro Bowl in the 1951 and 1952 seasons.

Like many of the Browns in that era, he switched uniform numbers midway through his career, in his case from 86 to 40.

He was an assistant coach under Blanton Collier on the Browns' 1964 NFL Championship team. In other words, they've never won an NFL title without him being involved in some way. He died in Ruston yesterday, November 2, 2024, as the NFL's oldest living former player, just 57 days short of his 100th birthday.

With his death, there are now 2 surviving players from the 1955 NFL Champion Cleveland Browns: Bob Smith and Sam Palumbo.

And the oldest living former NFL player is George Sims, who just turned 97. He is from Seymour, in north Texas, a two-way back from Baylor University, who played for the Los Angeles Rams in 1949 and 1950.

Dub's son, Bert Jones, also starred at LSU, and was an All-Pro quarterback for the Baltimore Colts, making them the 1st father and son to both play in the Pro Bowl.