Hall of Honor
A lithe 6-foot-8 forward, Jim Jones stunned opponents with a quick and deadly “soft touch” from long range to go with his expected point production from in close. He starred on Buccaneer basketball teams which won 49 of 63 games and two successive Midwest Conference titles in three years. As a junior and senior, while teamed with younger brother Kit, he not only was a unanimous all-conference first-team selection but also the league’s top scorer, averaging better than 20 points a game each season. Jones totaled 902 points, shooting 52.7 percent from the field and 77.7 percent from the free-throw line. He climaxed his collegiate career in 1967-68 by serving as team captain, winning MVP honors, and being named first recipient of the Pat Dawson Award for outstanding achievement in athletics, scholarship and leadership. Jones was drafted twice - first by the ABA’s Houston Mavericks and then by the Army, whose call had top priority. An all-Third Army Tournament first-team choice, he later played two years of professional basketball in Portugal. Jones next worked in community youth service before earning a master of fine arts degree; currently, he is an independent artist craftsman engaged in musical instrument construction in Virginia.
