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Timeline: An American success story


Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
1942
■ Oct. 13:
Jerral “Jerry” Wayne Jones, the son of J.W. “Pat” Jones and Arminta Jones, is born in Los Angeles. His family later moves to North Little Rock, Ark.

1963
Marries Eugenia “Gene” Chambers, the 1960 Miss Arkansas USA.

1964
■ June 21:
Son Stephen is born.

Jones was co-captain and a starting guard on Arkansas’ undefeated 1964 national championship team.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

1965
■ Jan. 1:
Jerry is co-captain and a starting guard on Arkansas’ football team, which finishes a perfect 11-0 season by beating Nebraska 10-7 in the Cotton Bowl. Ranked No. 2 in the regular-season-ending polls, the Razorbacks are named national champions by the Football Writers Association of America. Two future Dallas Cowboys head coaches are on the squad: Jimmy Johnson is a guard, and Barry Switzer is an assistant coach.

Receives a degree in business from the University of Arkansas.

Works as an executive vice president at Modern Security Life of Springfield, an insurance company in Missouri owned by his father.

1966
■ July 26: Daughter Charlotte is born.

1967
Considers purchasing the AFL San Diego Chargers but opts to complete his master’s degree at Arkansas.

1969
■ Sept. 27: Son Jerry Jr. is born.

1970
Receives an MBA from Arkansas.

1971
Launches Jones Oil and Land Lease, an energy exploration firm.

1989
■ Feb. 25: Buys the Dallas Cowboys franchise and lease rights to Texas Stadium from H.R. “Bum” Bright for $140 million. In the process, Jones dismisses longtime Cowboys legend Tom Landry, the only coach in franchise history, and hires Johnson, his old Arkansas teammate. When the sale is approved in April by the NFL, team president and general manager Tex Schramm resigns after 29 years with the club and Jones assumes both roles.

Jones, with NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, pumps his fist after owners approve his purchase of the Cowboys.
Photo by: AP IMAGES

■ April 23: The Cowboys select quarterback Troy Aikman with the first selection in the NFL draft.

1990
■ April 22: The Cowboys select running back Emmitt Smith in the first round of the NFL draft. Smith would go on to play 15 seasons for the Cowboys and become the NFL’s all-time rushing leader. Smith, Aikman and 1988 first-rounder Michael Irwin become known as the “Triplets” who would lead the Cowboys to unprecedented success in the ’90s.

1993
■ Jan. 31: The Cowboys win Super Bowl XXVII, their first championship since the 1977 season, crushing the Bills 52-17.

1994
■ Jan. 30: The Cowboys beat Buffalo again in a Super Bowl rematch, this time 30-13, for their second consecutive championship.

■ March: Johnson steps down as Dallas’ coach and Switzer, longtime Oklahoma coach and an assistant at Arkansas during Jones’ college days, is hired.

■ July: Ernst & Young features Jones among its top 10 people chosen for Entrepreneur of the Year.

Talking with coach Barry Switzer, another former Arkansas football connection
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

1995
■ May: Financial World magazine proclaims the Cowboys as the most valuable organization in U.S. professional sports, estimated at $238 million.

■ October: Jones signs marketing deals with Nike and Pepsi, estimated at $40 million, avoiding the league’s revenue-sharing requirements by earmarking the deals for Texas Stadium instead of the franchise. The NFL’s official partners were Reebok and Coca-Cola, respectively. NFL Properties files a lawsuit in Federal District Court in New York that seeks $300 million in damages from Jones, who files a countersuit for $750 million. Both lawsuits are dropped a year later, and both sponsors remain with the team more than two decades later.

1996
■ Jan. 28: The Cowboys become the first team in NFL history to win three Super Bowls in four years, beating Pittsburgh 27-17 in Super Bowl XXX.

2004
■ November: In Arlington, Texas, voters pass a referendum that puts the city on the hook for half of a proposed $650 million stadium for the Cowboys.

2007
■ May: NFL owners select the Cowboys’ proposed stadium as site of the 2011 Super Bowl.

2008
■ October: The Cowboys, New York Yankees, Goldman Sachs and venture capital group CIC Partners announce that they have founded Legends Hospitality Management, a company that will operate catering, concessions, retail merchandising and other facility management services for sports and entertainment venues.

Speaking during the ribbon cutting for Cowboys Stadium
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

2009
■ June: Cowboys Stadium opens. With a standing-room capacity of 105,000, its $1.2 billion price tag is nearly double what original projections had been. With a footprint of 3 million square feet, the facility is three times bigger than Texas Stadium.

2010
■ Jan. 9: The Cowboys beat the Eagles in a wild-card playoff game, the franchise’s first postseason victory since 1996.

■ Feb. 14: 108,713 people attend the NBA All-Star Game at Cowboys Stadium, setting a Guiness World Record for the largest attendance at a basketball game.

Jones listens as Mavs owner Mark Cuban announces the record basketball attendance.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

2011
■ Feb. 6: Cowboys Stadium hosts Super Bowl XLV. To increase seating capacity, 15,000 temporary seats are installed. Moments before the game, though, 1,250 seats are deemed unusable, causing fans to be relocated and, in some cases, miss the game entirely.

■ Feb. 9: The Cowboys and the NFL are named in a class-action lawsuit seeking more than $5 million over the unavailability of Super Bowl seats. Jones and the Cowboys are later dismissed as parties in the suit since the plaintiffs’ contracts, or tickets, were solely with the NFL.

2013
AT&T signs on for naming rights to the Cowboys’ stadium. Media reports peg the average annual value at between $17 million and $19 million.

2015
■ January: Jones is named the 2014 NFL Executive of the Year.

2016
■ January: NFL owners vote 30-2 in a secret ballot to ratify the St. Louis Rams’ relocation to Los Angeles. Old-guard power brokers Dan Rooney, John Mara and Jerry Richardson backed a plan to build a new stadium in Carson, Calif., while Jones led a successful campaign to win support for the Inglewood development.

■ July: The Ford Center at The Star, a 91-acre development that houses the Cowboys’ team offices, opens in Frisco. The project includes a 12,000-seat indoor stadium and 398,000 square feet of office space surrounded by retail, restaurants and a luxury hotel.


■ September: Forbes’ NFL valuations estimate the Cowboys at a league-leading $4.2 billion.

2017
■ February: Jones is named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, to be inducted this summer.

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