William "Dub" Jones, an offensive standout on the Cleveland Browns dynasty of the 1940s-1950s, died on Saturday, the team announced. He was 99 years old.
Jones stands as the second player in NFL history to score six touchdowns in a game, which he did with the Browns in 1951. It's a scoring feat that remains atop the league record books and has been matched only by Hall of Famers Ernie Nevers and Gale Sayers and current New Orleans Saints standout Alvin Kamara.
Jones' career was hardly limited to setting a single-game league standard, though.
Jones spent a decade in in the All-America Football Conference/NFL from 1946-1955 and left with a decorated resume that included two Pro Bowls, an All-Pro selection, two AAFC titles and three NFL championships. The No. 2 overall selection of the 1946 NFL Draft by the Chicago Cardinals, Jones played for three teams -- the Brooklyn Dodgers, Miami Seahawks and Cleveland Browns -- but never the Cards.
A versatile threat who helped to transform the offensive game, Jones played defensive back, halfback and flanker. Over 114 career games (73 starts), Jones finished his career with 2,210 rushing yards, 2,874 yards receiving and 41 total scores (21 rushing, 20 receiving). Also a kick returner, Jones tallied 5,740 all-purpose yards.
Dub and his wife Schump had seven children. Jones' son Bert played 10 NFL seasons and was the 1976 Associated Press Most Valuable Player for the Baltimore Colts.
Following his playing career, the elder Jones returned to the Browns from 1963-1968 as an assistant, coaching future Hall of Famers Jim Brown, Leroy Kelly and Paul Warfield.
Though he was drafted to the NFL by the Cardinals, Dub Jones decided to sign with Miami in the AAFC. During his rookie season, Jones was traded from Miami to Brooklyn. It was legendary Browns head coach Paul Brown who sought Jones out for his play in the defensive backfield and acquired him via trade.
Jones' career took off when he joined the Browns. All of his aforementioned accolades and titles won came during his Cleveland tenure, as he became a crucial contributor during the best of times for the Browns.
From 1946-1955, the Brown-coached Browns went to an astonishing 10 consecutive championship games (four AAFC title tilts prior to six straight NFL Championship Games) with seven victories.
Jones joined the championship parade in 1948 as part of one of the finest football teams time has forgotten. That season, Cleveland -- boasting Hall of Fame talent such as Otto Graham, Marion Motley, Mac Speedie, Dante Lavelli and Lou Groza -- went a perfect 14-0 after demolishing the Buffalo Bills, 49-7, for the AAFC crown.
Beginning his time with the Browns as a DB, Jones was moved to halfback by Brown. It was a position switch that was monumental not just for Jones' career, but very much for pro football going forward. Jones' switch pioneered the use of motion on offense and is credited with creating the flanker position, which spotlighted the 6-foot-4, 200-pounder's blend of size and agility.
It was amid the Browns' 1951 season that Jones sparkled in a one-game showing that has lived atop the history books for more than 70 years.
A stick of scoring dynamite, Jones exploded for six touchdowns in Cleveland's 42-21 rout of the Chicago Bears on Nov. 25, 1951, at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. He had four TD rushes and two TD catches: a 2-yard run, a 34-yard reception, a 12-yard rush, a 27-yard run, a 43-yard scamper and a 43-yard scoring catch. Chasing Nevers' 1929 standard of six touchdowns, Jones was a score behind with the game decided thanks to a 35-7 lead in the final quarter.
That didn't stop Graham from airing it out to his teammate for the record, as the quarterback called an audible and let fly on a pass that Jones hauled in for history.
"Paul Brown is certainly not one to have a record in mind," Jones told Yahoo! Sports in 2020. "He wasn't involved in that."
Jones had 116 yards rushing on just nine carries (12.8 yards per carry) to go with 80 receiving yards on three catches in his celebrated showing.
It was the high point of his finest career season, one in which he had a career-high 492 yards rushing, 570 yards receiving and a career-best 12 total touchdowns. Having scored six rushing touchdowns and five receiving in 1950, Jones added seven rushing TDs and five TD catches in 1951, becoming the first player in the NFL with five-plus rushing TDs and five-plus receiving TDs in multiple and/or back-to-back seasons. Following the '51 campaign, Brown memorably tabbed Jones the "most underrated player in the league."
A remnant of the grandest of autumns in Cleveland, Jones was part of one of pro football's first and most dominant dynasties and forever etched his name in history with one of the greatest games of all time.
