James Jones (running back, born 1958)
American football player (born 1958)
James Jones, Jr. (born December 6, 1958) is an American former professional football player who was a running back and kick returner for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Mississippi State Bulldogs.
Early life
Jones attended Vicksburg High School, before moving on to Mississippi State University. He was a three-year starter and had a junior year to remember, when he was one of the nation's scoring leaders and received second-team All-SEC honors.
In 1978, while playing in a pass-oriented offense, he led the team in rushing with 687 yards (5.3 yards per carry) and 10 rushing touchdowns, 24 receptions for 237 yards, and 3 receiving touchdowns, completed 2 passes for 63 yards and 2 touchdowns, and had 3 two-point conversions. He was the nation's seventh leading scorer with 13 touchdowns for 78 points. Against Memphis State University, he rushed for 114 yards on 10 carries (including a 72-yard run) and scored 4 touchdowns. Against Louisiana State University, he registered 162 rushing yards (third in school history) on 30 carries.
In 1979, he was lost for the last 7 games of the year after suffering a knee injury during a 28-9 victory against the University of Tennessee.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “James Jones (running back, born 1958)” is american football player (born 1958). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through James, Jones and running, not as a finished interpretation.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6136955. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1958, 1978 and 1979.
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This entry incorporates text from “James Jones (running back, born 1958)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.