Paul Jones won three provincial titles (1977-78, 1979-80, 1980-81) as a member of the York men's basketball team and was awarded the Kitch McPherson Trophy as most valuable player of the Ontario championship game in 1981. A two-time OUAA all-star (1980, 1981), he participated in the CIAU national championship tournament four times and won two bronze medals in 1978 and 1979. In 1983, he won a silver medal as a member of the team that represented Canada in the Commonwealth Basketball Tournament in New Zealand. After his career at York, Jones went into broadcasting, serving as the play-by-play voice of the NBA's Toronto Raptors on FAN 590 radio broadcasts in Toronto.
The York University Sport Hall of Fame is not the place many would have expected Paul Jones to end up after an inauspicious start to his interuniversity career. A skinny, five-foot-ten kid at age 17, Jones was far from impressive on the basketball court when he first came to York.
“When I walked into the office that first day, Bob [Bain] didn’t even know my name,” Jones says about his first experience with the head coach. “He told me that I probably wouldn’t play but that they’d keep me on for potential. I decided not to join the team that year and instead concentrate on my studies.”
A growth spurt and a year of practicing on his own paved the way for his inclusion on the team and his future success in the sport.
Following two seasons as a role player, Jones became a star on a squad that was dominating the OUAA. He was named an all-star twice and led the team to consecutive provincial titles. In the 1981 championship game, Jones put on a masterful performance that led his team to victory and earned him game MVP honours. That award highlighted just how far he had come in his years at the University.
“Jonesy grew from being a young but enthusiastic man who did not elect to play basketball in his first year to someone who was the difference in the OUAA championship game four years later,” said Bain. “He was able to focus his love of the game into tenacious defence at one end of the court and a totally unselfish offensive perspective at the other. In a sense, he was the ultimate coach’s dream.”
That enthusiastic and determined attitude has carried Jones throughout his life. He couldn’t find a teaching job after earning his education degree from the University of Western Ontario, so he did occasional teaching while beginning a career in broadcasting with TSN.
When Jones landed a full-time teaching job that included coaching basketball, he turned his efforts to the children but stuck with his broadcasting duties on the side. He always made sure to instil in his students the same message his father had taught him growing up.
“I told kids all the time about perseverance,” said Jones. “I was a late-maturing kid but my dad told me to hang in and do my best and I passed that message along to the kids I coached.”
Eventually, thanks to his hard work, his other career took off and Jones left teaching to focus on broadcasting. He can now be heard as the play-by-play voice of the Toronto Raptors on FAN 590 radio broadcasts in the city and he has also recently done work for Sportsnet and Raptors NBA TV.
“I began at TSN as a role player and kept learning and working and eventually I got to where I am now,” said Jones. “I learned a lot about perseverance through sports and from my time at York. Basketball taught me a lot about how to handle things, how to be disciplined, how to compete and how to be successful.”
