Jerry Jones

Jerral Wayne Jones Sr. (born October 13, 1942) is an American billionaire businessman who is the owner, president, and general manager of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He bought the team from Bum Bright in 1989.

Jones was born in Los Angeles, California, and moved to North Little Rock, Arkansas, as a child. His parents owned an independent grocery store. Jones was a running back at North Little Rock High School, graduating in 1960. Afterward, his family moved to Springfield, Missouri, where his father led a successful insurance company. Jones attended the University of Arkansas, co-captaining the 1964 national championship football team. Following graduation, he became an executive vice president at his family's insurance company. After selling it, the Joneses established Buena Vista Animal Paradise.

Jones was born on October 13, 1942, in Los Angeles, California, to John "Pat" and Arminta Jones. The family moved back to North Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1945. His parents owned two branches of Pat's Super Market in the Rose City neighborhood of North Little Rock. Jones was a running back at North Little Rock High School, graduating in 1960.

After his graduation, Jones' parents moved to Springfield, Missouri, where Pat was president and chairman of Modern Security Life Insurance Co. The company, which an advertisement billed as a "one in a million" company, saw its assets increase from $440,299.76 in its first statement in 1961 to $6,230,607 in 1965 ($4,643,041.96 to $62,365,606.91 in 2024). After graduating from the University of Arkansas, Jerral W. Jones was listed as an executive vice president. With the success of the company, the Joneses assembled the 5,500-acre (2,200 ha) Buena Vista Ranch east of Springfield in Rogersville, Missouri, in the Ozark Mountains. In 1971, after selling the insurance company, the couple carved out 400 acres (160 ha) of their ranch to start Buena Vista Animal Paradise, where tourists could visit exotic animals (now Wild Animal Safari in Strafford, Missouri).

Jones attended the University of Arkansas, where he was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity. He was co-captain of Arkansas' 1964 national championship football team. He was an offensive lineman for College Football Hall of Fame coach Frank Broyles and a teammate of college football and NFL coach Jimmy Johnson, whom Jones hired as his first head coach after purchasing the Cowboys.

Other notable teammates were Glen Ray Hines, a consensus All-American offensive tackle; Ken Hatfield, who went on to coach several major programs including Arkansas; Jim Lindsey; future Outland Trophy winner Loyd Phillips; and College Football Hall of Fame linebacker Ronnie Caveness. Several future head coaches were assistant coaches for Broyles on the Razorbacks' staff during Jones' college career in Fayetteville, including three more members of the College Football Hall of Fame: Hayden Fry (Southern Methodist University, North Texas State University, and the University of Iowa); Johnny Majors (Iowa State University, University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Tennessee), and Barry Switzer (University of Oklahoma, and later head coach of the Cowboys under Jones).

According to an interview with Jones on HBO, after graduating from college in 1965, he borrowed a million dollars from Jimmy Hoffa's Teamsters union to open up a string of Shakey's Pizza Parlor restaurants in Missouri. When that venture failed, Jones was given a job at his father's insurance company, Modern Security Life of Springfield, Missouri. He received his master's degree in business in 1970. After several other unsuccessful business ventures (including an attempt, again using Teamsters money, to purchase the American Football League's San Diego Chargers in 1966), he began an oil and gas exploration business in Arkansas, Jones Oil and Land Lease, which became successful. His privately held company currently does natural resource prospecting.

In 2008, Jones formed a partnership with Yankee Global Enterprises to create Legends Hospitality, a food, beverage, merchandise, retail, and stadium operations corporation serving entertainment venues.

On February 25, 1989, Jones purchased the Cowboys from H. R. "Bum" Bright for $140 million (equivalent to $310 million in 2024). Soon after the purchase, he fired longtime coach Tom Landry, to that point the only coach in the team's history, in favor of his old teammate at Arkansas, Jimmy Johnson. At the time Johnson was the head coach of the University of Miami Hurricanes, whom he had led to a national championship in 1987. A few months later, Jones fired longtime general manager Tex Schramm and assumed complete control over football matters.

After a slow start under Jones and Johnson (the first season under Jones, a 1–15 finish, remains second only to the team's winless inaugural season in terms of futility), they quickly built a team often considered one of the best NFL franchises of the 1990s. The Cowboys won Super Bowl XXVII in the 1992 season, as well as Super Bowl XXVIII the following year. Johnson then departed and was replaced by Barry Switzer, who won Super Bowl XXX in the 1995 season.

At the time of the sale, the financially troubled Bright claimed to be losing $1 million per month on the franchise. During Jones' tenure, the Cowboys have appreciated in value to an estimated $12.5 billion, turning its owner into a billionaire in the process. Much of the league's financial success since 1989 has been credited to Jones himself. In particular, he was decisive in securing Fox as the NFC's primary broadcaster at a time when the traditional "Big Three" networks were trying to convince the league into accepting a rollback in television rights fees.

Increased television revenues have played a decisive role in securing the NFL's place as the world's richest sports league, with revenues of well over $1.2 billion per season.

Jones was fined $25,000 by the NFL for publicly criticizing referee Ed Hochuli after Hochuli made a call in a game between the San Diego Chargers and the Denver Broncos on September 14, 2008. Jones made comments both to the press and on his radio show, saying Hochuli was one of the most criticized officials in the NFL. This was Jones' first fine by the NFL.

Jones was the inspiration for the character Baxter Cain (Robert Vaughn), owner of the Dallas Felons, in the 1998 film BASEketball. He had a brief cameo appearance as himself in the 1998 made-for-television reunion movie Dallas: War of the Ewings.

Jones and Deion Sanders appeared together in several television commercials during Sanders' time with the Cowboys.

Jones also appeared as himself in a 1996 episode of the television show Coach and in a 2007 television commercial for Diet Pepsi MAX, which also featured then Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips and quarterback Tony Romo.

He appeared as himself in the seventh season of the HBO series Entourage in 2010, in an episode of the TNT incarnation of Dallas titled "Truth and Consequences", which aired on July 4, 2012, in a series of commercials for the 2012 season of ESPN's Monday Night Football, and in the season 4 premiere of The League. In 2013, Jones narrated a documentary film on former teammate and business partner Jim Lindsey.

Jones also appeared in a 2013 Pepsi commercial, walking into an elevator filled with three men wearing New York Giants apparel, who look at him with discontent.

Three-time Super Bowl champion – XXVII, XXVIII, XXX (as owner, president and GM of the Dallas Cowboys)

1964 FWAA College Football National Championship (as a member of the Arkansas Razorbacks)

2010 NFF Gridiron Club of Dallas Distinguished Texan Award

1993 Outstanding Team ESPY Award (as owner, president and GM of the Dallas Cowboys)

Missouri Sports Hall of Fame (class of 1998)

Jones married Eugenia Chambers in 1963, whom he met while both were college undergraduates. They have three children. Stephen is the Cowboys' chief operating officer, executive vice president, and director of player personnel. Charlotte is the Cowboys' executive vice president and chief brand officer. Jerry Jones Jr. is the Cowboys' chief sales and marketing officer/vice president. Jones splits his time between a home in Highland Park, Texas and a home in Destin, Florida.

Jones was close friends and neighbors with Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt. The two lived in an upscale neighborhood in Dallas. Since 1998, their teams have played for the Preston Road Trophy, which was commissioned by Hunt to add a competitive nature to their friendship. When the trophy changed hands, Hunt and Jones usually played pranks on the other.