Reggie Jones played all the games in childhood, but he grew to fall in love with the most basic sport of all, the one without a ball.
In both 1972 and 1973, he was Saginaw High’s Class A state sprint champ in track and field, in both the 100 and the 220 dashes. This is a sprint athlete’s double-double.
He made it a triple by leading the ’73 Trojans to the team championship. This is the 50th anniversary.
“Every kid thinks they have to play football or basketball,” he says, “and I participated in them all, with my friends, just to be on a team and to be involved. But when I was blindsided and injured (left leg) in football during my junior year, my attention turned to track.”
He was fortunate that at Saginaw High, unlike at most other schools, track and field is among the featured sports, with 10 state Class A team titles.
Also, he was boosted by the presence of the school’s legendary coach, Claude Marsh, back before yards became meters and cinder tracks became rubberized.
“Coach Marsh did everything for me, but he told me never to worry about paying him back,” Jones recalls. “He only asked that I simply pass it on, help someone else.”
This outlook helped inspire Reggie to an eventual career in public education in Tennessee, the state where he made his home after his Saginaw High success led to a scholarship with the orange-and-white-clad Volunteers track team. He became a nine-time college All-American, with two individual sprint crowns and other trophies with relay quartets, along with a U-Tenn NCAA team championship.
At his 1974-75 peak, Jones was a total-event honoree in such noted spring meets as the Penn Relays and the Dogwood Relays. He defeated Soviet Union foes during the most frosty times of the old Cold War, but injuries to the same left “football leg” ended his hopes to qualify for the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.
Reggie did not wallow in disappointment for a career that lasted only a few short years, but he relied on his faith to move forward and to appreciate all the accomplishments during that time. For example, a bright spot along the way had been his opportunity to meet Jesse Owens, the 1936 Olympics hero.
With surgery and rehab (this was the 1970s, prior to all the advances of the past half-century), he bounced back as senior captain of the Tennessee tracksters. He carried his shoulders with pride, even though his world-class top speed was gone.
“I stuck it out until the end,” he recalls, “but it wasn’t the same.”
High school damage to his knee ligaments did not seem long-term when he was piling up victories, but chunks of cartilage slowly invaded the joint. Track athletes were starting to turn professional at the time, and Jones still could have joined the circuit, even no longer as a superstar, but the earnings potential was only a fraction of nowadays. Reggie now was married and ready to become a family breadwinner.
His U-Tenn bachelor’s degree in education became even more significant than all the trophies and medals.
“I always knew I would become a teacher, ever since junior high (at Arthur Eddy),” Jones says, looking back. “A lot of the kids looked up to me, partly because of my success in the athletic program, and the teachers would ask me to teach some of the classes and the lessons.”
His first employment was in Memphis, still his residence five decades later, which was nearly a 400-mile move west from his college digs in Knoxville, and for more than 40 years he continued his career in Tennessee K-12 schools, teaching industrial arts (voc-ed) and also drivers’ training. He retired in 2021 because the time had come, not connected in any way to the COVID-19 pandemic, but his coaching has continued on a volunteer, no-fee basis.
“Retirement is an adjustment,” Reggie notes. “You can’t just sit around and watch TV, and the lessons that Coach Marsh taught about giving back will always hold true.”
Jones savors his Saginaw High trophies and medals and photos. Foremost is with the 1973 Class A state team champions, and among them are his baton-mates on the victorious 880-yard relay team. They are Bob Chapman, Larry Foster and Willie Dawkins. Their winning time was 1:28.8, or 1 minute and 28.8 seconds, which would be like running an entire mile in less than three minutes.
Top sprinters exceed 25 mph. Reggie’s best high school time for 100 yards was 9.6 seconds (or 10.5 for 100 meters), and for 220 yards, 21.2 (or 21.1 for 200 meters). At his zenith as a college freshman, he dipped to lows of 9.1 (9.9) and 20.1 (19.9).
World records for Jamaica’s Usain Bolt in today’s metrics are 9.6 seconds compared to Jones at 9.9 for 100 meters, and 19.2 for 200 meters compared to 19.9, which means Reggie would be within a single stride in the 100 and within two steps in the 200.
We may think of speedsters as shorter fireplugs who dart like lasers. but Usain Bolt is 6-foot-5. Jones ran at 6-foot-2.
“Many of the top sprinters are taller,” he says, “The key is to get into stride as quickly as possible. Coaches will tell you to keep your knees up, but your arms are at least as important. Keep them pumping, because arm movement drives the legs.”
Those directions are specific to sprinting, but Jones sends a message for any sport.
“Work ethic is a must,” he advises. “Once you get to a higher level, the hardest workers will prevail.”
For more details on Reggie Jones’ record-setting track and field career, visit the Saginaw County Sports Hall of Fame Website. He also is a member of the sports hall for the University of Tennessee.
