Early Years
Jones was born in Chester, Pennsylvania. He was a standout in football when he came to Cardinal O'Hara High School as a freshman. Coach Stratts had no choice but to put him in as a freshman. Jones broke many records at O'Hara and finished his career up with a Philadelphia Catholic League Championship. In that game he scored four touchdowns.
He was the No. 1 overall recruit in the nation, and could not decide between Penn State and Virginia Tech, eventually choosing to be a Hokie to the surprise of many. He said, "If you're a blue-chipper from Pennsylvania, you go to Penn State. But I've always been a little contrary. On the day of my press conference, I still hadn't decided between Virginia Tech and PSU. As I sat down in front of everybody, I had both jerseys with me. I pulled the Penn State jersey out of a bag and said, "I will ... not be attending Penn State." Then I ripped off my sweater and had a Mike Vick jersey on underneath. The entire room was flabbergasted. Afterward, I got plenty of hate mail, lots of it racial. People weren't afraid to use the N-word."
Read more about this topic: Kevin Jones (American Football)
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or years:
“We have good reason to believe that memories of early childhood do not persist in consciousness because of the absence or fragmentary character of language covering this period. Words serve as fixatives for mental images. . . . Even at the end of the second year of life when word tags exist for a number of objects in the child’s life, these words are discrete and do not yet bind together the parts of an experience or organize them in a way that can produce a coherent memory.”
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“Spring still makes spring in the mind,
When sixty years are told;
Love wakes anew this throbbing heart,
And we are never old.”
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