Iowa football coach Howard Jones stands alone

Iowa has had many great coaches over the years. In the last 100 years, four great coaches in particular come to mind: Kirk Ferentz, Hayden Fry, Forest Evashevski and Howard Jones. Each coach has a claim to excellence.

Evashevski won a Rose Bowl and had a winning percentage of .651. Hayden Fry was named coach of the year in 1981 and had a .613 winning percentage. The current coach at Iowa, Kirk Ferentz, was named coach of the year in 2002 and has a winning percentage that is currently .602.

Howard Jones had a winning percentage of .708 while at Iowa. He along with his fellow Iowa coaches is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. But when you take into account the rest of his career, both as a player and a coach, Howard Jones stands alone as one of the three greatest college players/coaches of all time.

Let's look at his record as player. During his three years as a starting player for Yale, 1905 to 1907, Yale did not lose a single game in each of those three seasons.

Yale was also the National Champion of College football. Jones went on to coach Yale in 1909 to a record of 10-0. After that, he took a break from coaching before he was appointed University of Iowa football coach in 1916. Over an eight-year career at Iowa, Jones had a record of 42 wins and only 17 losses. Iowa played the best teams in the country including Knute Rockne's Notre Dame.

Although Jones never won a national championship at Iowa, his Iowa teams were considered among the very best in the entire country, and admired by no less than the aforementioned Knute Rockne. But for a shocking turn of events in his personal life, Jones would no doubt have remained at Iowa for most if not the rest of is career.

The people of Iowa gave him a thank you send off fit for a king. Those who knew him best said it was one of the only times they saw Jones choke up in public. He loved Iowa, the university, the players and its fans. But for his wife suddenly leaving him and asking for a divorce, he would have stayed. As luck or fate would have it, he moved on to one season at Duke and then 16 glorious seasons at USC.

His record at USC ranks among the greatest in college football history. He won 121 games against only 36 losses. He brought his USC team to five Rose Bowls and won them all. He even beat Nute Rockne's fighting Irish when they were considered the best team in college football.

Praising Howard Jones in no way diminishes the admirable careers Of Forest Evashevski, Hayden Fry, and the current coach, Kirk Kerentz. It does remind us that Iowa tootball has a glorious history and one we all can be proud of. I am certain there will be many glorious years to come. In the meantime, let's cheer our team win or lose in the great tradition of University of Iowa football fans.

- Jim Turner, Fairfield