Jones was a Florida native who graduated from Jacksonville High School in 1922. While in high school, he was a member of the school's football, basketball, baseball and track teams. He received varsity letters in football all four years and was an all-state player in his senior year. He lettered in basketball during his junior and senior years and was an all-state player as a senior. As a senior, he was also Jacksonville's individual point leader in track.
University of Florida
After graduating from high school, Jones enrolled at the University of Florida in Gainesville. He played at the halfback position for coach James Van Fleet and coach Tom Sebring's Florida Gators football teams from 1923 to 1925. In his first season on the freshman team, the team won the southern crown for freshmen squads. Memorably, he scored all of the Gators' points in a 16 to 6, second-half comeback victory in the rain over the Alabama Crimson Tide in 1923. The scores came on runs of 10 yards around right end, a 12-yard place kick, and a 20-yard run around right end. During his three seasons on the Gators varsity, the team compiled a win-loss-tie record of 20–5–2, the best three-year stretch in team history. As a senior in 1925, he was the captain of the Gators team that compiled an 8–2 record – the best record in the first twenty seasons of the Gators football team. That year, Jones scored a total of 16 touchdowns – eight rushing, six receiving and two kick returns; his 108 points remained a Gators single-season record for 44 years. After the conclusion of the 1925 season, he was invited to play in the inaugural East–West Shrine Game, the first Gator ever invited to a post-season all-star bowl game. Jones also played for coach James White's Florida Gators men's basketball team in 1924 and 1925, and was twice selected as the team captain, after first serving as the team manager for two years. He graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1926, and was later inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great."
Business and athletic administration career
After earning his law degree, Jones began practicing law in the law office of Giles Patterson. From 1927 to 1930, Jones was employed by the Atlantic National Bank of Jacksonville as publicity director and statistician. In June 1930, Jones became the University of Florida's athletic director, a position he held until May 1936. While serving as athletic director, he agreed to reimburse bus fare for sports broadcaster Red Barber to give a 15-minute talks on WJAX before Florida football games. Barber later wrote that his arrangement with Jones was the first "fee" he ever received for broadcasting on a commercial station. In May 1936, Jones left the University of Florida to accept a position as executive vice president with Miami Federal Savings and Loan. Jones later became a Cadillac executive in Miami. He was also active in politics and was a supporter of Florida Governor Daniel T. McCarty, and served as a surrogate speaker for McCarty during his initial, unsuccessful campaign for governor in 1948.
