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If you are like me, you like rooting for people and players more than teams in playoffs and tournaments. When you are out looking for a guy to root for in this year’s NCAA Tournament, might I suggest Rob Jones from the University of San Diego.
The Matadors pulled the improbable upset of Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference tourney to earn a tournament bid. While Jones shares the last name with 1,000’s and millions of others, his grandfather was one of a kind. Jones is the son of Jim Jones Jr. who was the son of the infamous Jim Jones.. Yes, that Jim Jones who killed 900 of his followers in 1978 after luring them out of the United States and into Guyana.
The simple game of basketball saved Jim Jones Jr.’s life. He was playing basketball in “Jonestown” on the horrible day in which his father coerced 900 men, women and children to drink juice spiked with lethal poison. Were it not for basketball, Jim Jones Jr. would not have lived and thus we would never know Rob Jones.
ESPN has a more detailed article on Jones’ story and what he has had to endure as the grandson of one of the United States 101 most notorious criminals. Click here to read the story.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Emil Calomino // Mar 15, 2008 at 9:07 am
Very interesting story, I never knew that. Good luck to the U of San Diego and Rob.
I do know because of the incident we got a hell of a drink, the “Jonestown Punch”. It is wonderful when in warm locations like Miami and the Islands.
2 CWilson // Mar 16, 2008 at 8:09 am
I am willing to bet that if the Jonestown incident happen these days and then someone made a drink named after it, we would have press conferences, protests, faceoffs on cable news programs and boycotts of the liquor used in the drink. That’s how sensitive a nation we have become.
3 Emil Calomino // Mar 18, 2008 at 1:18 pm
You’re probably right about this. Isn’t Jonestown Punch a great name though for a drink. Imagine if someone came up with an “Oklahoma City Oyster” because you have to smash it to pieces to eat it, there would be all kinds of protests.
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