The Jerry Jones Family and the Dallas Cowboys

For the past 11 years, Jerry Jones and his family have owned and operated the Dallas Cowboys with a management style that places just as much of an emphasis on community leadership as it does on the goal of winning the Super Bowl. The dominant theme which underscores the Cowboys role in the community is to maximize the visibility, energy and celebrity of the world's most recognizable sports franchise and use those dynamic forces as a powerful means to help others.

The results on the field have brought championships to Dallas. The results away from the field have touched the lives of thousands

THE MISSION

"In the area of community service, our organization's mission is built upon an overall philosophy of helping those who don't have the strength, the resources or the means to help themselves," says Jones. "As a sports entity that has enjoyed unprecedented success and recognition for four decades, we feel a very strong obligation to transfer that championship tradition and the magic that it creates toward the bigger purpose of making a difference."

Jones enlists the talents, skills and resources of his entire family, all of the Cowboys players, and every member of the organization to provide a cutting edge approach to community outreach. "Any personal contact with an individual member of our organization can provide help for hundreds of people in need," adds Jones. "The star on the helmet can move mountains."

A FAMILY PASSION

The operation of the Dallas Cowboys is a very visible family passion for Gene and Jerry Jones and their three children. Jerry Jones serves as the club's owner and general manager, while Stephen Jones (player personnel), Charlotte Jones Anderson (marketing, special events and community relations) and Jerry Jones, Jr. (legal operations) are all actively involved with the daily management of the club as vice presidents. Their shared dedication to community involvement has been a family source of pride for several years, and it extends far beyond the realm of the athletic world.

Gene Jones is also a current member of the advisory board for the Meadows School for the Arts at Southern Methodist University, the board of directors for the John G. Tower Center for Political Studies at SMU, the advisory board for Family Gateway and the Children's Education Fund advisory board. She has previously served on the advisory board for the March of Dimes, the executive board of TACA and the executive board of the Mental Health Center. She has also been a member of the Dallas Symphony League and the Associates of the Dallas Museum of Art. In addition, she has been a past honorary chairman for major fund-raising events that benefited Neurofibromatosis and the Easter Seals Society.

In the spring of 1998, the Jones' hosted a celebrity fundraiser at their home with Lauren Becall as the featured guest. On that one evening, for the benefit of SMU's Meadows Foundation, the family helped produce the single largest fund raising event in University history. As a result of her efforts, the University established the Gene Jones Scholarship in her honor.

Jerry Jones has a lifetime association with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. He currently serves as a national trustee for the Southwest region of the organization, and he was recently named the Man of the Year by the Boys and Girls Clubs of Little Rock, Arkansas.