Playing Career
The "Steubenville Trio" (as Jones, Vincent, and Gilliam were called) arrived with Iowa football in bad shape. Iowa had had only one winning season in the previous ten years.
Cal Jones was a dominant figure on the field from 1953 to 1955. In 1953, Iowa finished the year ranked 9th in the final AP Poll, Iowa's best finish since the Ironmen in 1939. Jones was named as a first team All-American.
In 1954, Iowa again had a winning season. Jones was named as a consensus first team All-American, despite playing the entire year with a broken wrist. Jones broke it in practice before Iowa's first game but kept the injury concealed from the fans and media all year. That season, Jones also became the first college football player to be featured on the cover of the September 27, 1954 issue of Sports Illustrated magazine, which shows a tightly cropped slightly blurry image of Jones face wearing a football helmet. This was the 7th issue of Sports Illustrated.
In 1955, Cal Jones was named as Iowa's team captain. Though Iowa struggled to a 3–5–1 record, Jones was named as a consensus first team All-American for the second consecutive year. Cal Jones also won the 1955 Outland Trophy, which goes to the United States' top lineman. He was the first African-American player to win the prestigious award. Jones also finished tenth in the balloting for the Heisman Trophy, an impressive finish for a lineman.
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