Howard Jones coached football for a variety of schools compiling an overall record of 194-64-21 and 5 National Championships. During his time at Yale, he played for a team that won 28 games and only tied twice but never lost.
Yale claims three national championships for all of the seasons involved. Jones graduated in 1908 and then became the head coach of the Syracuse Orangemen who he took 6-3-1 before becoming the Yale head coach. He took Yale 10-0 in 1909 and claimed the national championship for that season. During that season they beat Syracuse in the first contest in which two brothers competed against each other as head coaches. Howard’s brother Tad Jones was the Orangemen coach and Yale won 15-0.
In 1910, Jones took to the Buckeyes becoming Ohio State’s head coach for just one season. He took that team 6-1-3. He would then spend the next five years taking care of personal business but returned to coach Yale. He took them 5-2-3 in 1913 but decided to move on to Iowa. His first two years saw two of the most dismal losses of his career losing to Minnesota 67-0 (1916) and then to Nebraska 47-0 (1917).
In 1918, Iowa began a five-game winning streak against Minnesota and then shut out Nebraska. Nebraska would never score another point against a team coached by Howard Jones. Among other notable accomplishments, Jones coached the University of South California for 16 seasons. At USC he won seven Pacific Coast Conference championships and four more national championships. During a game against Stanford, Jones is said to have entered the Stanford locker room where he noticed All-American halfback Bobby Grayson tending to an injured knee. Jones went back to his team and told them not hit Grayson’s leg, which they never did.