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PLYMOUTH — Sitting at some booths in the rear room of the Press Box Sports Bar on Tuesday evening, about a dozen men gathered to reminisce about their time playing basketball at St. Vincent’s High School, while remembering their beloved basketball coach, Joseph “Red” Jones.

Jones coached basketball at the school from 1963 until it shut its doors in 1970. In all, he earned 120 wins and won multiple championship games, as well as special sportsmanship trophies.

Press Box owner Mike Shusta played under the blue and white of the St. Vincent Vinnies under Jones’ leadership. After Jones’s passing last summer — and with the help of his sons, Bill and Bobby Jones — Shusta decided to create a memorial to his coach at the bar.

“He had to be one of the best coaches to ever come out of the Valley,” Shusta said of Jones, who got his nickname thanks to the hue of his hair.

“The guy knew basketball — he made you want to play hard,” Shusta recalled.

By 7 p.m, Bill and Bobby Jones arrived with a box full of Vinnies basketball memorabilia. As the box was placed on a table and the items revealed, the group gathered around to see what treasures — and memories — were inside.

Known for his discipline and teaching of manners on the court, and his sense of humor off the court, team members continued to refer to the sportsmanship awards that Jones would win.

Bill Jones, known to many as President and CEO of United Way of the Wyoming Valley, said those mementos were among his father’s most prized possessions.

Bob Williams played basketball under Jones at St. Vincent’s. While he had many fond memories of the team and his coach, Williams said it was Jones’s dedication to the sport that stands out.

“I think (what stuck with me), just his dedication to a particular vocation that he had — and that was coaching,” Williams said. “He took it very seriously. Where other people saw it as a pastime, to him it was a full-time profession.”

Along with the sportsmanship awards, Bill Jones also pulled out an old red scrapbook full of newspaper clippings and photographs of the basketball players, as well as two very important (and still partially inflated) basketballs.

Tossing one ball to Shusta that had the number “100” in black marker on it, Bill Jones said that ball was used when the team earned its 100th win — a significant feat for a school that had only about 100 students enrolled.

The other ball was thrown to 1967 graduate Stanley Simonds — it was the ball Simonds used when he scored a whopping 40 points during a championship game against Saint Mary’s at what was then Wilkes College. With Simonds’ aim on-point, the Vinnies came out victorious by a score of 63-60.

“It was just one of those nights, everything I shot just went in,” Simonds said of the game, in which he was a guard. “I didn’t think he had the ball (all this time).”

Speaking with each of the men, it quickly became apparent that Jones had not one family, but two.

Many of the men said that the success of the team was due to his direction, and that the coach not only made them into a family, but acted as a father figure. In fact, the men said when Jones passed away last July, one of his former players traveled across the country just to come back and attend his funeral services.

Bobby Jones said that feeling of team love and togetherness was felt even within the Jones family.

“It was almost like we had another set of brothers,” he said. “He just treated every player like each was his son.”

While the men gathered around the items, reliving old memories and events, the Jones brothers said they were happy to help reunite the men not only with the times, but with memories of their father.

Now, with the help of Shusta, the brothers said their father’s memory can live on.

“These are the things that survived through multiple moves and the 1972 flood,” Bill Jones said. “These were things that were always important to him.”

Paul Murphy leafs through an old scrap book about the former St. Vincent’s basketball program by revered coach Joseph “Red” Jones.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_vinnies4_faa-3.jpg.optimal.jpgPaul Murphy leafs through an old scrap book about the former St. Vincent’s basketball program by revered coach Joseph “Red” Jones. Fred Adams | For Times Leader

Steve Rosick points out members of the former St. Vincent’s basketball team in a photo contained in an old scrap book as Fred Merman and John Rosick look on at the Press Box Sports Bar in Plymouth.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_vinnies3_faa-3.jpg.optimal.jpgSteve Rosick points out members of the former St. Vincent’s basketball team in a photo contained in an old scrap book as Fred Merman and John Rosick look on at the Press Box Sports Bar in Plymouth. Fred Adams | For Times Leader

Former players from St. Vincent’s 1960s basketball team gathered at the Press Box Sports Bar in Plymouth to celebrate old times and participate in the handover of some memorabilia to be displayed in the bar. From front left: Bobby Jones, Bill Jones, John Rosick, Stan Simonds, Steve Rosick, Mike Shusta, Bob Burns. From back left: Jim Ricci, Fred Merman, Paul Murphy and Bob Williams.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_vinnies1_faa-3.jpg.optimal.jpgFormer players from St. Vincent’s 1960s basketball team gathered at the Press Box Sports Bar in Plymouth to celebrate old times and participate in the handover of some memorabilia to be displayed in the bar. From front left: Bobby Jones, Bill Jones, John Rosick, Stan Simonds, Steve Rosick, Mike Shusta, Bob Burns. From back left: Jim Ricci, Fred Merman, Paul Murphy and Bob Williams. Fred Adams | For Times Leader

Bill Jones, son of the late St. Vincent’s basketball coach Joseph “Red” Jones, removes sportsmanship awards and a basketball from a box he brought to the Press Box Sports Bar in Plymouth on Tuesday. The items will be displayed at the bar as a tribute to the coach and his winning teams from the 1960s.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_vinnies5_faa-3.jpg.optimal.jpgBill Jones, son of the late St. Vincent’s basketball coach Joseph “Red” Jones, removes sportsmanship awards and a basketball from a box he brought to the Press Box Sports Bar in Plymouth on Tuesday. The items will be displayed at the bar as a tribute to the coach and his winning teams from the 1960s. Fred Adams | For Times Leader

By Marcella Kester

For the Times Leader