Byline: BUD POLIQUIN POST-STANDARD COLUMNIST
Fifty years ago, give or take a memory's wink, little Ed Jones began to climb into his dad's lap on the family farm just outside Jackson, Tenn., and together -- father and son -- they'd gaze at the radio and listen to rat-a-tat voices describing fights from faraway arenas.
Jack Jones, the old man -- and the only one in the house of 10 with farmer's blood in the veins -- loved it. All of it. The roars of the distant crowds. The visuals of all those left jabs and right crosses. The rush of knowing that somebody, with toes up, was being counted out.
And so, the kid loved it, too.
'I'd see the expression on his face,' Jones recalled the other day, 'and being a son who wanted to be like his dad, I couldn't wait to make my father proud of me.'
He'd be a boxer. That's what little Ed Jones would some day be. Yes, sir, he'd be a boxer. And Papa Jack would be there at ringside, howling as his boy, one of his eight children, traded hands with perfect strangers.
Well, things happened. Jack died when Ed was 17. And Ed, who'd gravitate to basketball and to baseball and to football, grew and grew and grew until he was finally tagged with the nickname, 'Too Tall,' which he eventually lugged with him to Dallas where he'd star for 15 seasons with the NFL's Cowboys.
There was a year there, however, when Jones -- then 28 and a veteran of three Super Bowls -- turned in his lone-starred helmet and went about the business of channeling Jack. And while every football fan in America believed that 'Too Tall' Jones, the decorated 6-foot-9 defensive end, had lost his mind, he'll tell you today that he re-discovered his soul.
'Growing up,' the big man offered, 'our fathers would bring us kids outside, take some fertilizer and draw a square like a boxing ring. Then they'd get some chairs, light up their cigars and say, 'Go on. Fight.' Because of that, believe me, we all learned to get along.
'Those were good times. I loved those days. Because of them I always believed that some day I'd return to my boxing roots.'
He's 57 now and forever on the lookout for some gifted unknown that he can guide to a crown in one weight class or another. But while he waits for his champion, 'Too Tall' Jones -- who'll serve as a grand marshal during Sunday's Boxing Hall of Fame Induction Weekend parade in Canastota -- will often think, fairly glowing, back to 1979.
Or to that year, five seasons into his NFL career, when he gazed at the heavyweight landscape dotted with the likes of Larry Holmes and Earnie Shavers and Ken Norton and Leon Spinks and Mike Weaver and John Tate and Trevor Berbick and Michael Dokes and Gerrie Coetzee ... and boldly decided to make a run at the title, knowing all the while that his dad would be beaming on high.
'I was on a two-year plan where I was going to fight and spar as much as I could,' Jones said. 'I figured after two years, I'd start taking on Top 20 fighters, and that would determine when I would fight a guy in the Top 10. That was the plan. That was the way I was going to go about chasing my dream.'
Alas, he would fall short. Simply, he was too tall ... too awkward ... too late to the vicious game. And so, after six largely forgettable bouts -- during which Jones did go 6-0, for what it matters -- he hung up the gloves, returned to the Cowboys (for whom he never missed a single game on either side of his hiatus) and stuck with them for 10 more NFL campaigns.
'Boxing was the turning point in my life,' he said. 'I would not be sitting here with a 15-year pro football career under my belt if not for boxing. Taking the year off to box was like taking an elephant off of my back. After that, I enjoyed playing every single down for the Cowboys for the next 10 seasons. I've been at peace ever since I fought in 1979.'
Funny, but a review of his debut -- a nationally televised affair against Yaqui Meneses, a pug out of Mexico who was either 19-6 or 10-5, depending on the sketchy source of one's info -- makes one wonder why 'Too Tall' remains so fondly reflective.
Fair or not, it is that bout for which Jones, the boxer, is most remembered. And it is that bout, nearly cancelled the day before due to the inevitable money squabbling, which could serve as the cautionary tale for all those considering enlisting in the sport wherein people beat each other up for the pleasure of others.
For openers, the decaying ring out there in Las Cruces, N.M., very nearly collapsed earlier in the week. And upon Jones' entrance into the patched-up thing on that autumn Saturday afternoon there were the remnants -- seeds and juice -- of a watermelon, heretofore sitting on the belly of some supine sap, that had been split by a sword swung by a blindfolded, would-be Samurai warrior as a kind of pre-fight lounge act.
And the bout? Well, in the sixth round of the six-round match, 'Too Tall' took a left to the temple that staggered him ... he was subsequently pushed to the slippery canvas by Meneses (who was giving away seven inches and 54 pounds, but no malice) ... and then, while down, he was clubbed again, illegally, with another left.
Somehow, fuzzy head and all, Jones survived. And when it was announced that he'd won a split decision, 'Too Tall' -- once an admired All-Pro Cowboy and now a perceived clumsy bully -- was booed by the gathering of 9,100, showered with balled-up programs and moved to declare in the aftermath of it all that he was, to use the word he uttered that day, 'embarrassed.'
That was, though, nearly 30 years ago. Or some 20 years after he'd climbed into his dad's lap in that Tennessee farmhouse. And it led to a cleansing of a mind, a body and a spirit that allowed Ed Jones, who'd walk up the lonely stairs five more times before reappearing in the Dallas huddle, to fairly skip through the three decades that have followed.
And now, he's in Canastota to wave on Sunday from a moving car as it trundles along a cheery boulevard. The truth of the matter is that 'Too Tall' -- famous for football, fulfilled because of boxing -- couldn't be happier. And if you ask him during this weekend, he'll tell you so.
Bud Poliquin's column and his 'To The Point' observations appear regularly in The Post-Standard, and his blog is freshly written every weekday at syracuse.com. He can be heard on Sports Radio 620 WHEN (AM 620) Mondays through Fridays between 3-6 p.m. Telephone: 315-470-2213; e-mail: bpoliquin@syracuse.com.
Schedule of events
Today
7 a.m.- 3 p.m. -- Golf Tournament of Boxing Champions (Casolwood Golf Course)
8:30 a.m. -- 105K Race, Fun Run
10 a.m.- 4 p.m. -- Boxing Autograph Card Show (Canastota High School)
11 a.m.-5 p.m. -- Ringside Lectures (Museum Grounds)
1 p.m. -- Celebrity Workout Session (Museum Grounds)
5:30-6:30 p.m. -- VIP 'Gala' Cocktail Reception (Greystone)
8 p.m. -- Banquet of Champions (Syracuse Oncenter Complex)
Sunday
9:30 a.m. -- U.S Postal Service Tribute (Museum Grounds)
10-11 a.m. -- Ringside Lectures (Museum Grounds)
1 p.m. -- Parade of Champions (Downtown District)
2:30 p.m. -- Hall of Fame Induction & Enshrinement (Museum Grounds)
3:30 p.m. -- Farewell Celebration (Museum)
