Georgia-born college football coach dies at 90

By LARRY HARTSTEIN

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Frank Jones, who coached football at Decatur and Cordele high schools in the 1950s before leading the Presbyterian College and University of Richmond programs, died in Richmond on Saturday at age 90.

Jones was born in Tifton and grew up in Macon. He’s perhaps best known for turning around a Richmond team that had the nation’s longest losing streak.

“First of all, he was a gentleman,” Ray Tate, a former Richmond player who worked on Jones’ coaching staff, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “Second of all, he was a darn good football coach. Football was really in trouble at the University of Richmond when he got there. He changed that.”

Under Jones, the Spiders won the Southern Conference in 1968 and 1971, and he was named coach of the year three times. His last season as head coach was 1973. Richmond’s Athletic Hall of Fame inducted him in 1989.

Before going to Richmond, Jones served as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator at Mississippi State.

“He touched a lot of lives, and did it in a very positive way,” Buster O’Brien, a Richmond quarterback in the late 1960s, told the Times-Dispatch.