Thurman Lee “Tugboat” Jones (April 6, 1918 – January 16, 1988) is a former American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 player and coach. For more than 20 years he successfully coached high school football

High school football

High school football, in North America, refers to the game of football as it is played in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both of these nations....

 in the state of Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

.

A native of Wilson, Oklahoma

Wilson, Oklahoma

Wilson is a Town in Carter County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 1,584 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Ardmore, Oklahoma Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Wilson is located at ....

, Jones attended Abilene Christian University

Abilene Christian University

Abilene Christian University is a private university located in Abilene, Texas, affiliated with Churches of Christ. ACU was founded in 1906, as Childers Classical Institute...

, where he played running back

Running back

A running back is a gridiron football position, who is typically lined up in the offensive backfield. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback for a rushing play, to catch passes from out of the backfield, and to block.There are usually one or two running...

 and defensive back

Defensive back

In American football and Canadian football, defensive backs are the players on the defensive team who take positions somewhat back from the line of scrimmage; they are distinguished from the defensive line players and linebackers, who take positions directly behind or close to the line of...

. In 1941 he joined the NFL's Brooklyn Dodgers

Brooklyn Dodgers (NFL)

The Brooklyn Dodgers were an American football team that played in the National Football League from 1930 to 1943, and in 1944 as the Brooklyn Tigers. The team played its home games at Ebbets Field. In 1945, because of financial difficulties, the team was merged with the Boston Yanks...

, but did not see much playing time and eventually finished his playing career after the 1942 NFL season

1942 NFL season

The 1942 NFL season was the 23rd regular season of the National Football League. Before the season, many players left for service in World War II, thus depleting the rosters of all the teams....

; instead he pursued a coaching career.

In 1943 he became head coach at Electra

Electra High School

Electra High School is a public school in Electra, Texas . It is part of the Electra Independent School District and serves students in grades nine through twelve. It is part of the Electra Independent School District located in western Wichita County...

, a small community near Wichita Falls, Texas

Wichita Falls, Texas

Wichita Falls is a city in and the county seat of Wichita County, Texas, United States, United States. Wichita Falls is the principal city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay and Wichita counties. According to the U.S. Census estimate of 2010,...

. Under his guidance, Electra was able to shut down Wichita Falls

Wichita Falls High School

Wichita Falls High School or WFHS is a public school in Wichita Falls, Texas . It is part of the Wichita Falls Independent School District and is one of the district's three high schools....

, one of the state's powerhouses at the time, with an obviously inferior team. So in 1944, when Wichita Falls coach Ted Jeffries

Ted Jeffries

Theodore L. “Ted” Jeffries was an American football coach. He served as head coach at Wichita Falls High School from 1933–43, taking the school to its first state championship in 1941. Jeffries later coached at Lamar University, at a time when the school was still a junior college. In 1947, he...

 left the school for Lamar College

Lamar University

Lamar University, often referred to as Lamar or LU, is a comprehensive coeducational public research university located in Beaumont, Texas, United States. Lamar confers bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees and is classified as a Doctoral Research University by the Carnegie Commission on Higher...

, Jones was hired as his successor. In 1945, Jones guided Wichita Falls into the state semifinals, where they faced Rusty Russell's

Rusty Russell (American football)

Harvey N. "Rusty" Russell was an American football coach. He is mostly known for head coaching Southern Methodist University from 1950-52 as well as the longtime head coach at an Orphanage in Fort Worth Texas, The Masonic Home and School...

 Highland Park

Highland Park High School (University Park, Texas)

Highland Park High School is located in University Park, Texas.Highland Park is a part of the Highland Park Independent School District. It serves all of the city of University Park, most of the town of Highland Park, and portions of Dallas.-History:...

 squad from Dallas

Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

, led by Doak Walker

Doak Walker

Ewell Doak Walker, Jr. was an American football player who is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was a teammate of Bobby Layne in high school and the NFL.-Early life:...

 and Bobby Layne

Bobby Layne

Robert Lawrence "Bobby" Layne was an American football quarterback who played for 15 seasons in the National Football League. He played for the Chicago Bears in 1948, the New York Bulldogs in 1949, the Detroit Lions from 1950–1958, and the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1958–1962...

. Wichita Falls had little chance and lost 18–0.

Jones was briefly head coach at Midwestern State University

Midwestern State University

Midwestern State University is a public liberal arts college in Wichita Falls, Texas, and a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges...

 in 1947 and the following year, served as an assistant coach at Texas A&M University

Texas A&M University

Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...

, but returned to the high school level to coach at Midland High School

Midland High School (Midland, Texas)

Midland High School is a public high school located in Midland, Texas and is part of Midland Independent School District. The original Midland High School was built in 1926 and was moved twenty-three years later to a new building in 1949 where it currently sits today...

 in 1952. Four seasons later, Jones moved to Dallas, taking over at Highland Park, where he rewarded the boosters by producing a state championship in 1957. That year's Highland Park team also stopped Abilene High

Abilene High School (Abilene, Texas)

Abilene High School is a public high school located in Abilene, Texas and is part of the Abilene Independent School District. Abilene High School is the name given to three different schools in the past 150 years. The first Abilene High was an old warehouse. Not long after that, the school was...

's 49-game winning streak. Jones left in 1959, but returned to Highland Park in 1963. He ultimately left Dallas in 1967. Jones also coached at the University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

.