Columnist Ron Kantowski: Ex-Rebel football standout Jones dies at 36

Tuesday, June 12, 2001 | 10:19 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's notes column appears Tuesday. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or 259-4088.

The second-most prolific running back to ever carry the football at UNLV is dead.

Kirk Jones, who to this day stands second on the Rebels' career rushing chart, had a fatal heart attack at his home in Diamond Bar, Calif., on Saturday. He was 36.

"We lost one of our own," said former Rebels quarterback Steve Stallworth, who will be the first to tell you he made a career of handing off the football to Jones during the mid-1980s.

But Jones' best season at UNLV was 1984, when he played in the same backfield with Randall Cunningham. The Long Beach, Calif., native stepped off 1,007 yards that season, averaging 6.5 yards per carry as the Rebels went 11-2 and beat Toledo in the California Bowl.

Although Jones never went on to the superstardom that was predicted for him -- he was recruited by UCLA, Southern Cal, Texas and Oklahoma, among others, as a Parade All-American out of high school -- he still finished his four-year UNLV career with 2,656 rushing yards. That's second only to former NFL rookie of the year Mike Thomas (3,149).

"He was the first big recruit UNLV was able to snag," said Stallworth, who succeeded Cunningham as the Rebels' starting quarterback. "This is just unbelievable."

Sun football writer Steve Guiremand, who covered Jones in high school at Poly High in Long Beach, Calif., said a lot of jaws dropped when Jones decided to play his college ball at UNLV instead of for one of the national powerhouses.

"That was the biggest shocker until John Williams, who everybody thought was going to UCLA, went to LSU instead," Guiremand said.

Jones, who lived in Las Vegas for several years before returning to Southern California, reportedly was one of the finalists for the head coaching job at his alma mater, a national high school powerhouse.

Services for Jones, who is survived by his wife, Jan, and three sons, are scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday at New Hope Baptist Church, 1160 E. New York St., in Long Beach. Flowers can be sent to Colonial Mortuary, 215 Euclid Ave., in Long Beach.

It isn't often that rival race car drivers become friends but that's exactly what Sam Schmidt and Davey Hamilton became during their Indy Racing League careers. A couple of years ago, their friendship even was the basis for an IRL TV spot, in which Hamilton excitedly told Schmidt all about the new paint job on his helmet -- only to discover that Schmidt's helmet had the same design.

But the racing gods haven't exactly smiled -- not even so much as a Mona Lisa grin -- on the racing pals. Schmidt is now a paraplegic, the result of a preseason testing crash at Walt Disney World some 18 months ago. Hamilton underwent more surgery in Indianapolis Monday, in an attempt to save his foot that was pulverized in a violent accident at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday.

As fate would have it, Hamilton was driving a car owned by his buddy Schmidt.

But at least one NASCAR veteran said Earnhardt was fortunate to have the career he did. Speaking bluntly in a Washington Post expose on the commercialism of NASCAR, Rick Mast said it is doubtful a car owner would hire a gruff guy like Earnhardt to drive on today's sponsor-driven Winston Cup circuit.

"The heroes of the past couldn't survive today," Mast said. "Dale Earnhardt could come in here right now and wouldn't have a prayer. He'd never make the first Winston Cup race because nobody would give him a shot. He couldn't go before the corporate board of that sponsor and do what I call 'suave 'em'.

"Dale got very good at that stuff eventually. But in those early days, he wasn't. All he could do was drive that racecar."

NASCAR icon Richard Petty said most sponsors today enter racing for one reason -- to sell their product.

"If they think winning will sell the most product, they don't worry about the celebrity part," Petty said in the Washington Post report. "On the other hand, if they look at racing and say 'We want to do a lot of TV commercials here and stuff,' they'll say 'We've got to have somebody that can almost talk English here.' "

But so far, that hasn't ruled out Ward Burton.

For instance, these are the guys who were honored on this year's ballot: Barney Aaron, George Benton, Paul Berlenbach, Jim Braddock, Lester Bromberg, Don Chargin, Ralph Citro, Bill Gallo, Sam Ichinose, Ismael Laguna, Billy Papke, Laszlo Papp, Willie Pastrano, Ultiminio Ramos, Randy Turpin and Midget Wolgast.

And here you thought the Iowa Cubs' roster was unrecognizable.

Of course, all of those guys could fight better than me. But Chargin's claim to fame, according to the Associated Press, was promoting a Jerry Quarry vs. Jimmy Ellis fight. Papke murdered his estranged wife and then committed suicide. Turpin also committed suicide.

Maybe Pete Rose can submit his application for the boxing hall of fame instead of the baseball one. All he did was bet on his team, although he did punch out Bud Harrelson at second base in the playoffs.

That might be enough to get him in on the second ballot.