Jackson, TN – The Lane College Athletic Department has announced Dallas Cowboys legend Ed “Too Tall” Jones as the speaker for the 2023 Dinner with the Pros, to be held at Lane College on June 24th.
Ed “Too Tall” Jones
Jones was born in Jackson, Tennessee. He attended Merry High School where he played baseball and basketball. He only played three football games, because his high school did not sponsor the sport until his senior year. His basketball skills earned him All-America honors and scholarship offers from several NCAA Division I programs. He also had offers from Major League Baseball teams to play first base in their farm systems.
He ultimately signed with Tennessee State University to play basketball, but left the team after two seasons to concentrate on playing football under head coach John Merritt.
The 6 ft 9 in Jones received his famous nickname during his first football practice, after a teammate mentioned that his pants did not fit, because he was “too tall to play football”. In his new sport, he became a two-time All-American defensive lineman, playing on a team that lost only two games, en route to winning the black college football national championship in 1971 and 1973.
Jones ranks third in school history for sacks in a season (12) and fifth in career sacks (38). In 1999, he was voted to the 50th Anniversary Senior Bowl All-Time Team. He was inducted into the Black College Football Hall of Fame in 2013.
The defensive lineman was drafted number one overall by the Dallas Cowboys, becoming the first player from a historically black college program to be chosen number one in the NFL draft. He was a member of the famed “Doomsday Defense” squad of the 1970’s and retired in 1989 after 15 seasons with the Cowboys. He finished his career with a sack total of 106, was a three time Pro Bowl selection (1981 – 1983), and helped the Cowboys win Super Bowl XII.
Dinner with the Pros is the premier fundraiser for Lane College’s Athletic Department. The weekend consists of a celebrity basketball game presented by BSN and NIKE on Saturday, June 24th at 1:00 PM, and dinner featuring Ed “Too Tall” Jones that evening at 7:00 PM.
Source/Image: Lane College Department of Athletics
