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Florida women's coach Jones dies
After a lengthy battle with cancer, University of Florida women's track and field coach Tom Jones died Wednesday morning in Gainesville. He was 62.
Jones followed his passion for track for more than 35 years with head coaching stops at Florida (1992-07), Arizona State (1988-92), Texas-El Paso (1984-88) and North Carolina State (1978-84). During his head coaching career, Jones led his athletes to 335 All-America honors and his teams won 12 conference titles and two national championships. Jones was honored as the NCAA Coach of the Year three times and was a conference coach of the year on nine occasions, including seven times in the Southeastern Conference.
Under his watch, 23 school records were set at Florida and Jones guided Maicel Malone to the American record in the 400m that endured for 19 years (51.05). He also led the 1991 Arizona State 4x400m that broke the American record (3:29.77).
"Tom gave his heart and soul to coaching and mentoring his athletes," Florida athletics director Jeremy Foley said. "I'm at a loss for words how to describe what he's meant to the University of Florida. You can measure what he accomplished on the track - all the SEC titles and the All-Americans he coached. What you can't measure is the quality of the individuals, the student-athletes that Tom helped to shape and mold into tremendous people. No one did that better than Tom." Foley named women's track and field Associate Head Coach Steve Lemke as the interim head coach.
Jones oversaw the Florida women's track and field program for nearly half of its existence as he served as the head coach for 15 of the program's 35 seasons. Hired prior to the 1992 cross country season, Jones guided 71 athletes to 245 All-America honors on the track, while his teams posted 15 top-10 finishes at the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships. Under Jones, Florida turned in its highest NCAA finishes of second in 2003, 2004 and 2005, all at the indoor championships.
Jones led his squads to six Southeastern Conference titles (1997 indoor & outdoor, 1998 outdoor, 2002 indoor, 2003 outdoor, 2004 indoor), while helping his athletes claim 77 SEC individual or relay titles. He was named the NCAA Women's National Indoor Coach of the Year in 1997 and 2002, and the NCAA Outdoor Coach of the Year in 1997.
Many Olympians honed their skills under Jones' guidance as well. At Florida, he coached 2004 Olympians Novlene Williams (Jamaica) and Tiandra Ponteen (St. Kitts) among others. While at Arizona State, he tutored Nigerian Olympian Ime Akpan, Lynda Tolbert (USA) and eventual 1996 U.S. gold medal 4x400m participant Maicel Malone. In his stint at UTEP, Jones oversaw two-time Bahamas Olympian Norbert Elliott, U.S. Olympian Cynthia Henry, the Netherlands Olympian Frans Maas and Canadian Olympian Linda McCurdy. While at North Carolina State Jones saw athletes John Crist (USA) and Augustin Young (Jamaica) participate in the 1984 Olympics.
In addition to his enormous success on the track, Jones also guided the Gators to unparalleled success in the classroom. In his tenure as head coach, athletes under Jones' watch were named to the Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll 224 times, including at least 20 athletes in each of the last six years. Florida was honored as the 2003 U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Association's All-Academic Team of the Year. In the first two NCAA Graduation Success Rate reports, the Florida women's track and field team had perfect GSRs of 100 percent in both the fall of 2005 and 2006.
Jones is survived by his wife of 30 years, Sandy, his sons, Chris and Sean, daughter-in-law Kate, grand-daughters Sarah and Abby, and Terry Stanley. Services for Jones will be determined on Thursday.
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