Winning a national championship wasn’t the ultimate for Will Jones. Scoring an NCAA Tournament-record 54 points doesn’t top his list, either. Trying out for the U.S. Olympic team twice didn’t make the cut.
Jones’ No. 11 jersey was hoisted to the rafters of Bender Arena on Saturday. American University honored perhaps its greatest player by adding Jones alongside Kermit Washington and soccer player Michael Brady to the top of the District facility. Jones was installed in the Eagles Hall of Fame in 1971, but retiring his number seemed so much more important to him.
“When your jersey gets hung, you’re in the sky and put there forever,” he said. “People don’t always [visit] the hall of fame, but everybody in the field house will look up there. That’s close to heaven. You can’t top this.”
Jones is best remembered for coaching the University of the District of Columbia to the 1982 Division II national crown. Earl Jones and Michael Britt fueled one of the best local teams ever. The Firebirds could have played with Maryland’s 2002 national champions or Georgetown’s 1984 titlists. They were fast and furious in a gym that literally rocked because the band never halted its halftime show on the mezzanine.
“Take a kid like Chris Webber. All the money in the world, but he’s never won a championship. Allen Iverson never won a championship,” Jones said. “All the awards they win they would trade to be a champion.”
But Jones was a legend beforehand. He’s rarelymentioned among the District’s greatest players ever like Elgin Baylor, Austin Carr, Adrian Dantley and JoJo Hunter, but the longtime hoop watchers say the Dunbar High star was hot enough to attract plenty of college recruiters at a time when black players’ options were limited.
Jones almost didn’t play college basketball. His father needed help supporting the family. That is, until discovering college was free through the basketball scholarship. Those papers were signed right then and there.
AU invested wisely in the 5-foot-9 guard, who scored a then-school record 1,982 points from 1957-60 while leading the Division-II Eagles to three Final Four appearances. Jones was a 1960 first team All-American and the final cut from the Olympic team that summer. He didn’t make the 1964 cut, either. It was a great career, though, while averaging 20.9 points. Jones just wishes someone could provide him game films.
“People think the pros are the end of the world, but it’s not true,” Jones said. “Things [like retiring a jersey] lets the little guy know they might get up there. I earned it. I did a little playing. I wore out a lot of people.”
Jones stayed in local basketball. He coached Robinson High from 1970-75, then was a Maryland assistant for five seasons before spending 20 years at UDC as coach and athletic director.
Nowadays, Jones spends his mornings by the water near his Virginia Beach home. Reads the paper, eats a bagel as a “resident of the beach.”
“I spend a lot of time doing things that people think is boring,” he said. “For 35-40 years, I never painted a room, changed a pipe or worked a lawn mower. My No. 1 store is Home Depot or Lowe’s. I go see how to lay tile on floor and love it. The only person I rush to the door for is my dog — Poochie.”
It’s a well-deserved retirement. And a well deserved honor for one of the District’s basketball legends.
Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Contact him at [email protected].
