Legendary Atlanta Falcons head coach June Jones dead at 73: Team pays tribute to ‘visionary’ after spell in hospice care

June Jones, the former NFL and college football coach who helped pioneer the run-and-shoot offense, has died at 73.

The Portland, Oregon native and one-time Atlanta Falcons quarterback entered hospice care two weeks ago, a close family friend told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Jones would later serve as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons from 1994 until 1996, but it was his eight years running the University of Hawaii football program that he may be best remembered for. 

‘We mourn the passing of former head coach June Jones,’ read a Falcons team statement. ‘A visionary in the passing game, Coach Jones will be remembered with gratitude for his contributions to our organization and the lasting impact he made on those he coached and mentored. We extend our deepest condolences to his family, friends, and all who knew and loved him.’

After turning down a chance to coach the NFL’s San Diego Chargers, Jones instead joined a Warriors program that was coming off an 0-12 season. Within a year, Hawaii would improve to 9-4 and tie for first in the Western Athletic Conference.

The Warriors would only improve from there, ultimately going 12-0 in 2007 before losing to Georgia in the Sugar Bowl that season. 

Jones led the Warriors to six bowl games and a pair of WAC titles, while quarterback Colt Brennan was named a Heisman finalist in 2006. Sadly, Brennan died in 2021 after ingesting a fatal dose of fentanyl in Newport Beach, California. He was just 37.

‘He’s obviously done a lot for me because he gave me a chance and that’s really what I was looking for,’ Brennan told reporters years earlier. ‘He really gave me the confidence to take my game to the next level and give me the confidence to play like an All-American.’

A contract dispute at Hawaii led Jones to leave for SMU in 2008. He was let go with the Mustangs at 0-2 during the 2014 season, but resurfaced in the Canadian Football League, where he briefly played in 1982.

He would ultimately coach several XFL teams before stepping away from the game in 2023.

Jones is survived by his wife, Diane, and their four children.

Some of June’s most notable coaching work came with the 1987 and 1988 Houston Oilers, who helped popularize the run-and-shoot offense with another former CFL quarterback, Warren Moon. Working with Jones, the 32-year-old Moon was named to the first of eight consecutive Pro Bowl teams in 1988.

‘The Run & Shoot fundamentally changed the way the Pass Game is taught,’ retired coach Dan Casey wrote on X. ‘It gave QB’s & WR’s the freedom to adjust routes and find space. I’ll never forget staying up until 2am EST watching his Hawaii teams score 60+.’

The offensive scheme relied heavily on spreading out defenses with three- and four-receiver sets and focusing heavily on short, high-percentage passes and on-the-fly route adjustments.

‘When he was coaching in the USFL and then NFL in the ’80s, nobody was throwing the football like that,’ former Kentucky coach Hal Mumme told The Athletic. ‘Our little club of people that really threw the football was very small. You could name us on one hand all the way from high school to the NFL, and June was the leader of it. Everybody wanted to know what June was doing, and how he was doing it. He was a pioneer.

‘We were kindred spirits in the way we played football,’ Mumme continued. ‘The vertical routes is what he was so good at. It was the way he taught it. He was such a technician. He knew what to teach. Nowadays, it’s commonplace where you watch a game and everybody’s throwing a back-shoulder pass. 

‘He was doing that in the early 2000s at Hawaii. In those days, though, nobody was really doing that. He taught me to do it hands-on. He taught everybody how to do it. Now everybody’s doing it, even high school teams.

‘He was a great guy. He had such a legacy.’

For his career, Jones was 22-36 as a head coach in the NFL and 112-84 at the college level.