ARKANSAS SPORTS HALL OF FAME: STEPHEN JONES

Stephen Jones more partner than passenger

Stephen Jones, the executive vice president and director of player personnel for the Dallas Cowboys, will join his father, Jerry, as one of four father-son combinations to be selected into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame when he is inducted Friday.
Stephen Jones, the executive vice president and director of player personnel for the Dallas Cowboys, will join his father, Jerry, as one of four father-son combinations to be selected into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame when he is inducted Friday.

The eighth in a series profiling the 2015 inductees into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.

FAYETTVILLE — Stephen Jones is, without a doubt, one of the most appreciative honorees that the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame has welcomed into its fraternity.

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Courtesy of the Dallas Cowboys

Dallas Cowboys Coach Jason Garrett (left) talks with Stephen Jones before a game against the Arizona Cardinals in 2011. Stephen Jones, along with his father Jerry, has helped the Cowboys become one of the world’s most valuable sports franchises.

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NWA Democrat-Gazette

Jerry Jones (left) is shown in this file photo with Frank Broyles.

Jones, a former University of Arkansas linebacker, is a Dallas Cowboys executive who recognizes his induction on Friday at the Statehouse Convention Center is a byproduct of a life spent in football, learning lessons that are difficult to come by outside the game.

Stephen Jones at a glance

BIRTHDATE June 21, 1964 (50)

HOMETOWN Little Rock

EDUCATION Little Rock Catholic High School, University of Arkansas (Chemical engineering, 1988)

JOB Chief operating officer, executive vice president and player personnel director for the Dallas Cowboys and president of AT&T Stadium

FAMILY Wife Karen (Hickman, of El Dorado) and children Jessica, Jordan, Caroline and John Stephen

NOTEWORTHY Three-year starting quarterback and all-state selection at Little Rock Catholic. … Four-year letterman as a linebacker and special teams standout at the University of Arkansas. … Went to work for JMC Exploration as an engineer after graduating from Arkansas, then took a job as vice president of the Dallas Cowboys after his father, Jerry, bought the team. … Member and past president of the Dallas Chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization. … Serves on the board of directors for the SMU Athletic Forum and the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association, and is also on the board for the Dallas Citizens Council and the Baylor Health Care System foundation.

“It’s certainly an honor for a young man who grew up in Arkansas and loved sports and loved everything about sports,” Jones said. “I love the Razorbacks, and I loved growing up following them. Then all of a sudden to have something be presented to you that is reserved for great players and things of that nature, I just have to pinch myself.”

Jones, scion of a family that has turned the Dallas Cowboys into one of the world’s most valuable sports franchises, has made more of a mark in football since his playing days as a Razorback.

Jones will join his father Jerry Jones, a starting lineman on Arkansas’ 1964 national championship team who is now the Cowboys’ owner, as one of a select group of father-son combinations in the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame. The others are believed to be Billy Ray Smith Sr. and Jr., and Clell Burnett and sons Bobby and Bill and Cabot Coach Mike Malham and his father Mike Malham Sr.

“Dad didn’t go in and I know I’m not going in based on how great of football players we were,” Stephen Jones said. “But at the same time, it’s an honor, and to be able to spend our lives in sports and be able to accomplish some wonderful things in the game and in the NFL and still have our ties to the University of Arkansas, knowing we both played up at Arkansas and both had great high school careers there in Little Rock and North Little Rock is very special for us.”

Jerry Jones said he can’t imagine a father-son combination where the son has contributed any more to the father’s success than what Stephen has done.

“He’s been an integral part all along,” Jerry Jones said. “When we decided to be involved with the Cowboys and when we decided to live a life in sports and live a life from a competitive standpoint, he has been a major part of any success that we’ve had.”

Ken Hatfield, who was a teammate of Jerry Jones and was Arkansas’ head coach for Stephen Jones’ four seasons after he redshirted during Coach Lou Holtz’s final season, said it was no surprise that Jerry used to sneak in to Razorbacks’ practices to watch his son.

“He was the same type of player as his father,” Hatfield said of Stephen. “He was a tough, hard guy. What you saw is what you got every day. He never gave less than his best all the time.

“It’s such a great joy for a father to come and watch his son play and play exactly the same way he did, which was give the best you had all the time, to be an outstanding teammate and to encourage other people. He was a lot of fun and a joy to be around too.”

Stephen and his father are saluted as scrappy football players and even more savvy businessmen.

The Cowboys, purchased by Jerry Jones in 1989 from Bum Bright for an estimated $140 million, were valued at $2.3 billion last year by Forbes magazine, making them the world’s fifth-most valuable sports franchise and the second-most valuable in the U.S. behind the New York Yankees.

Stephen Jones, the president of AT&T Stadium in addition to his duties with the Cowboys, is credited with helping Dallas cleverly manage its salary cup to keep its biggest stars during its run of Super Bowl victories in 1992, 1993 and 1995. He played a key role in the franchise’s conception and building of AT&T Stadium, which opened in 2009, and was essential in forging the roster that led the Cowboys to the 2014 NFC East title.

“One of the hardest things is to develop a winning culture,” Stephen Jones said. “Obviously we had that in the early 1990s when we won three Super Bowls in four years. We’ve struggled to get that recently, but obviously this year we’ve really come across the right culture, the right chemistry.

“And it’s a very young football team. It’s the third-youngest team in football, not unlike those teams in the 1990s. I think this group learned how to be winners.”

Stephen Jones was recently appointed to the league’s often-noted competition committee.

He says the Dez Bryant play at the goal line in Dallas’ playoff loss at Green Bay, ruled an incomplete pass by the replay official, is the type of play the NFL must address this offseason.

“There’s no question it will,” he said. “It’s a controversial rule and one we know is a difficult one. We have a lot of angst about it, year in and year out. This certainly magnified that and obviously we were touched by it.”

Jones said there were many other plays that factored in to the Cowboys’ 26-21 loss.

“But obviously when fans look at that, any type of football fan, people want great plays like that to be acknowledged. Most people who played the game of football know that in its truest sense is a catch. We’ve got to figure out how to better work the rule, apply the rule so we don’t take away these great catches.”

Jerry Jones said working without a blueprint for how to run an NFL franchise forced the family to put its nose to the grindstone from the outset.

“Stephen, as well as the rest of my family, had to really roll our sleeves up,” he said. “We didn’t have a lineage, of, this is the way grandpa used to do it, or this is the way my daddy did it.

“The bottom line is, almost from the get-go, there was so much to do that Stephen had to go do it. He had to come up with ideas and come up with solutions for the ideas. So much of what I get credit for were his and my family’s effort and work.”

Stephen Jones said he will forever cherish the institution he will be joining Friday.

“It’s very special to me because obviously my father is in there and people like Larry Lacewell and Barry Switzer and people that I’ve worked with certainly makes it even more special that I get to join a group of men like that,” he said.

Stephen Jones said the intrinsic value of a life in football has rewards far beyond individual and team accomplishments.

“The greatest memories I have are being part of a team and working toward having a winning football team,” he said. “It’s the bonds you create and the friendships you create.

“At the end of the day, I think the game of football does prepare you for life. My son [John Stephen] plays it.

“We’re in a critical time right now for player health and safety. People look at it. My sister, my wife, they ask tough questions. Is your game safe? I think it is. I think it’s worth it to play in terms of what you get out of it. … I think it develops boys and young people into being men.”

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