Prez Jones

Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones, Sr.

• Born August 6, 1905 in Lake Charles, LA USA
• Died April 10, 1982 in Ruston, LA USA

Biographical Information

Prez Jones was a beloved and influential educator -- and a fine baseball coach to boot -- at Grambling State University.

Ralph W.E. Jones, the grandson of a slave, knew the value of education firsthand. His father, John S. Jones, was the first dean of Southern University and his mother was a schoolteacher.

After receiving his bachelor's degree from Southern in science and men's tailoring, Jones set out at the age of 19 for Grambling in 1926. It was then known as Lincoln Parish Training School, a two-year teachers' institute. He started out as an instructor in chemistry, physics and mathematics (one account says biology rather than math). The young professor even had to cut firewood.

Jones also started the school's baseball and football programs (establishing a marching band with instruments bought on credit from Sears Roebuck). He served as head baseball coach throughout his 51-year tenure.

He became college president in 1936, thus earning the nickname by which he is remembered. Grambling became a four-year college in 1944 and eventually a university in 1974.

Grambling became better known for its football team, thanks to the great coach Eddie Robinson, whom Jones hired in 1941. The Tigers' baseball team, however, has also been very respectable. It has turned out a dozen major-league players over the years, the first seven of whom played under Jones. The most successful were Tommie Agee and Ralph Garr. In SABR's biography of another Grambling alum, Matt Alexander, former scout Len Yochim described the team under Prez:

"I enjoyed scouting Grambling. Jones had clout, his players were sharp, humble, courteous, attentive, well schooled in baseball and obedient to their leader. His teams conducted infield drills that would outshine major-league clubs. When they were finished a scout could leave there satisfied he saw what a player could do. Does he have arm strength, body control, agility, quick reflexes, can he come in on a slow hit ball and make the body control play, catching the ball on the run and throwing with accuracy. The coach was well respected in baseball and as a person."

Grambling enjoyed its greatest baseball success in the 1960s; Jones was national college coach of the year in 1967.

In its July 12, 1971 issue, Sports Illustrated quoted the jovial Prez, pitching batting practice at age 65: "I'm still loving people. Prejudices tend to make people sick."

Jones retired in 1977 and was succeeded by Wilbert Ellis. He lived for five more years, passing away after being admitted at Lincoln General Hospital for gallstone surgery.

Jones was the subject of a 2006 biography by Frances Swayzer Conley: Prez Lives!: Remembering Grambling’s Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones.

In 2011, he was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame.

Related Sites

• Deriso, Nick. "Grambling Legends: R.W.E. ‘Prez’ Jones"
• Education: 'Prez' Talks Up a Breeze, TIME, Monday, Mar. 21, 1977
• "Ralph W.E. Jones, 78, Ex-Head of Grambling." New York Times, April 11, 1982.