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Vanderbilt's first football team with Jones holding ball. |
According to a wide variety of sources, Vanderbilt’s first
head football coach, Elliott H. Jones, was born to John Archibald Jones and
Mary Scott Jones in Camden on July 18, 1870, and he lived in Camden until the
age of 15 when he went off to Massachusetts to attend high school at the
prestigious Cambridge Latin School. In 1887, Jones entered Vanderbilt
University, where he cemented himself a place in college football history.
Vanderbilt organized its first football team in the fall of
1890 and played the first game in school history that year on Thanksgiving Day
(Nov. 27), defeating the Nashville Peabody Normal School, 40-0, at Nashville
Athletic Park. Jones served as head coach for Vanderbilt in that game, was
Vanderbilt’s team captain and also played fullback. Vandy went undefeated that
season because that was the only game they played that year.
Jones went on to serve as head football coach and played for
the Commodores during the 1891 and 1892 seasons. In 1891, Vandy went 3-1
overall, defeating Sewanee twice and splitting a home-and-away series with
Washington University of St. Louis, Mo.
During the 1892 season, the last with Jones as head coach,
Vandy went 4-4, recording wins over Tennessee (twice), Peabody Normal School
and Georgia Tech. Their losses came against Sewanee (twice), North Carolina and
Washington University of Missouri.
Jones attended Vanderbilt from 1887 to 1893, earning his
bachelor’s and law degrees, and he was also active in other sports in addition
to football. He played on Vanderbilt’s baseball team for two seasons and also
ran track and was on the college’s gymnasium team. In his spare time, he served
as the editor-in-chief of the college newspaper.
After college, Jones moved to Kansas City, Mo., where he
became a well-known, prominent lawyer with a large and important clientele. He
married Mattie M. Scarritt on Dec. 27, 1894, and they went on to have a large
family of children. Jones lived to the ripe old age of 81, passing away on Oct.
11, 1951, and today you can visit his grave in the Mount Washington Cemetery in
Independence, Mo.
It would be interesting to know what Jones would think about
modern college football. This season, Vanderbilt will play the University of
Alabama on Oct. 5 and the Commodores will play Auburn University on Nov. 2.
Interestingly, Jones never coached a game against Alabama or Auburn.
In the end, I’d like to hear from any readers with more information about Jones’ early years in Wilcox County and from anyone with more information about Jones’ prominent family. More than likely, some of his relatives still live in Wilcox County today.
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