Minium: Bob Jones was a Hard-Nosed, Winning Coach, But Also a Loving Father and Grandfather

By Harry Minium

Father's Day can bring up a myriad of emotions for dads.

If your father is still around, it's likely a time of celebration and joy. But if you've lost a child or recently lost your father, or never had a dad, it can bring on a sense of grief and sadness.

Old Dominion University Basketball Coach Jeff Jones isn't quite sure how he will feel on Sunday.

"I haven't really thought about it. And I think that's been intentional on my part," Jones said, as his eyes welled with tears and he choked up with emotion.

It's likely you don't know that Bob Jones, Jeff's father, and a famous coach in his own right, passed away five weeks ago. It wasn't mentioned by the local media or on our websites.

But Jeff's father had a remarkable life, one worth celebrating, especially as we celebrate the fathers in our lives on Sunday.

Bob Jones looked remarkably like Jeff, his oldest son, and was a successful high school and college coach. He was an assistant coach on two Division II national championship teams at Kentucky Wesleyan, and after being named head coach, won a national title in 1973, when he was named the Division II Coach of the Year.



He was a successful baseball coach at both the high school and collegiate level.

He was also a pretty good human being.

He taught special education students and often volunteered in the community to help kids.

His innate sense of goodness was revealed during his funeral, when a former Kentucky Wesleyan baseball player stood up and told a story about him.

It was April 4, 1968, the day Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Kentucky Wesleyan was playing at Florida A&M, an historically Black university. FAMU's athletic director interrupted the game, walked toward the Wesleyan bench and told Jones that Dr. King had been assassinated.

"You'd better get your team out of here," he said.

There were riots nationwide and the students on the Tallahassee, Florida, campus were understandably angry. Some began to rock the bus as Wesleyan's team departed.

An hour or so down the road, the team stopped to eat.

"The team had one African-American player," Jeff said. "The guy at the front door says, 'You guys can come on in, but that boy will have to eat in the back.' "

That "boy."

At the time, teams from predominantly white schools tolerated Black players being forced to eat in the kitchen at restaurants.

But not Bob Jones.



He responded by saying, "(bleep) you. We're out of here."

Jeff hadn't heard that story until the funeral.

"You find out all kinds of things about your parents later in life," Jeff said. "I liked that story. I liked it very much."
 
Bob Jones had a hard side to him as a coach, but not so much to his sons and daughter.

"My mom was the disciplinarian," Jones said.

"To us, he was affectionate and fun. He was great dad. There was that kind of contrast, between being strong and tough as a coach, but at home, he was gentle and caring."

Jeff and his brother, Doug, were standout basketball players from an early age. They both attended Kentucky Wesleyan practices, and when practice was over, they would play one-on-one in the gym until Bob Jones was ready to go home.

Jeff knew his father was a great coach, but he set boundaries early on.

"When I was in the seventh or eighth grade, I told my Dad I didn't want him to be my coach," Jeff said. "I wanted him to be my father."

Bob Jones smiled and readily agreed.



Bob Jones had a wry sense of humor, which his family saw when they would come together at the Outer Banks almost every summer.

Bob Jones loved to tease Jeff's two daughters, Meghann and Madison. One time he poured ketchup onto a butcher knife, then added a few tufts of hair he cut from his head, and ran indoors and yelled that that he'd been attacked by a bear.

They were fooled only momentarily.

As Jeff Jones moved into head coaching, Bob Jones tagged along for the ride. Jones became close with many of his son's players at both the University of Virginia and American University.

Bob Jones once attended a U.Va. practice with Doug Jones just before the Cavaliers were set to play Notre Dame. Afterwards, he approached assistant coach Dennis Wolff (who is now at ODU) and told him that U.Va. standout Junior Burrough simply could not play against the Fighting Irish.  

"He was pathetic," Wolff remembers Bob Jones telling him.

Turns out that Junior Burrough was simply not a good practice player. He scored 20 points the next night. Jeff said his dad was stunned.

Jeff Jones came to ODU eight years ago, and his players here didn't have as much a chance to meet Bob. He was sick much of the last decade of his life. He had open heart surgery several years ago and was treated for cancer.

Cancer runs in the family. Jeff's mother, Carol, beat breast cancer a few years ago. Jeff has battled prostate cancer since 2015. Bob Jones also beat cancer, albeit just shortly before he died.



At his viewing in Alexandria, Kentucky, there was a long line around the building for three hours. The next day, Grant's Lick Baptist Church was full for his funeral. Former U.Va. players sent flowers and testimonials poured in from around the country.

Rex Chapman, the former University of Kentucky and Charlotte Hornets star, described Bob Jones as "his first idol" on Twitter. Chapman was a standout at Apollo High School in Owensboro, Kentucky, the same school Jeff attended. He often attended Bob Jones' summer camps.

A few paragraphs from Bob Jones' obituary stood out to me.

"Bob will be remembered as a gentle giant who embraced God and his loved ones with an unyielding heart. Bob was also a man of contrasts. His extreme toughness on the court was matched by the tenderness his family evoked.

"He was a demanding coach, and he didn't suffer fools. But if he liked you, his fierce loyalty and protectiveness were profound. He had strong convictions and was greatly respected, but never took himself too seriously.



"The only thing better than Bob's big open smile, which you saw in every photograph, was Bob's big, open heart."

I had the privilege of interviewing Bob Jones a couple of years ago, just before Jeff won his 500th game in November of 2019. Earlier that year, Jeff had cried unashamedly into a towel after his team won its first Conference USA title.

As Bob Jones told me, "The only one crying harder than Jeff was me.

"I know this sounds like a father, but I truly believe if anyone deserves that kind of recognition, it's Jeff.

"This hasn't been easy for him. Nothing has been given to him. He had to work for everything.

"I'm proud of his 500th win. It's a tremendous accomplishment.

"But his humbleness, how he treats people, how he tries to help others he doesn't even know, all of that makes me the proudest of all as a father."

Here's hoping that being reminded of his father's praise will give Jeff Jones a little comfort on Father's Day.

Minium worked 39 years at The Virginian-Pilot, where he was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and won 28 state and national writing awards. He writes news stories, features and commentaries for odusports.com and odu.edu Follow him on Twitter @Harry_MiniumODU, Instagram @hbminium1 or email hminium@odu.edu