NORFOLK — Jeff Jones won nearly 600 games as a college basketball coach, reaching the NCAA Tournament eight times with three schools.
A star point guard, Jones left the University of Virginia as its all-time assists leader before serving as head coach at his alma mater for eight seasons.
After 13 seasons as head coach at American University, Jones won 203 games while guiding Old Dominion for 11 years before health issues helped send him into retirement.
But the enviable list of accomplishments might pale in comparison to what Jones was doing as he pulled them off.
Jones, who retired in February 2024, drew people to him throughout his career. Over the weekend at Chartway Arena, many of them checked back in.
A prostate cancer survivor, Jones conceived and spearheaded the effort to bring what he hopes is the first Coaches vs. Cancer Legends Gala to his former home arena.
The event, born when Jones began to consider constructive ways to use his newly found downtime, brought in some of coaching’s top names while raising more than $400,000 toward cancer research.
Retired coaches Roy Williams, Jim Boeheim, Gary Williams, Bruce Weber, Phil Martelli, Wendy Larry and Tubby Smith were among those mingling with fans.
Boeheim, Gary Williams, Roy Williams and all-everything ODU legend Nancy Lieberman joined Martelli for a discussion in front of about 400 people — including a who’s who of Hampton Roads philanthropists — on a stage above Chartway’s festooned floor.
Martelli, for one, wasn’t going to miss it.
“Jeff Jones, he’s just such good people that they could say to you, ‘Throw rocks at each other,’ ” said Martelli, the 2004 AP Coach of the Year while at Saint Joseph’s. “OK. Can we help? As long as we can help.
“If we can help one person, one family have a little bit better quality of life as they fight this disease, this dreadful disease, count us in.”
Donors who bought tickets for the 40-plus round tables spread across the arena’s concrete floor enjoyed a buffet dinner, a premium open bar and live string music. A silent auction, auxiliary games and contests and a paddle-raise generated still more funds.
Retiring after 40 years, ODU’s Jeff Jones leaves a lasting legacy of influence
Working with Coaches vs. Cancer, the American Cancer Society and the National Association of Basketball Coaches, as well as a slew of sponsors, Jones helped organize an event he first dreamed up two Final Fours ago.
As the festivities neared their start Friday, Jones helped usher his fellow retired coaches to media members for interviews.
Jones credited the event’s experienced organizers with bringing things together, though he hardly remained above the fray.
Jones chauffeured Lieberman and Roy Williams from the airport to their hotel.
“I got my hands dirty a little bit,” Jones said. “I tried to do my part. But it wouldn’t have gotten completed without everybody’s effort.”
In Chartway’s lobby, as last-minute preparations were finalized in the arena, Martelli and Roy Williams posed for photos with fans. ODU’s current men’s and women’s players welcomed people through the main entrance.
Since launching in 1993, Coaches vs. Cancer has raised more than $179 million to support the efforts of the ACA, including screening.
Gary Williams, who won a national title as Maryland’s coach in 2002, lost his mother to cancer. He called attending the gala “a no-brainer.”
“As you get older, you see two things: You see some of your friends die from cancer, and you see some of your friends that have had cancer and beat it,” Williams said. “And it’s because of things like Coaches vs. Cancer that creates the revenue for cancer research that has a lot to do with that sometimes.”
Former Old Dominion men’s basketball coach Jeff Jones was joined by Phil Martelli (from left), Gary Williams, Nancy Lieberman, Roy Williams, Tubby Smith and Jim Boeheim for a gala at Friday, Sept. 12, 2025 at Chartway Arena in Norfolk. (Courtesy photo)
All the coaches present had some previous tie to Jones. For Martelli, it dates back to when future Connecticut women’s legend Geno Auriemma served as a high school junior-varsity coach under Martelli.
Auriemma praised Jones, then a young player, as being “a rugrat” who was “like one of us.”
Jones, through his commitment to the profession, has only endeared himself to Martelli ever since.
“He’s like a Mount Rushmore guy for me — guy,” Martelli said. “Coaching is a different thing. That’s not who he is. It’s what he does. And Jeff Jones is a guy.”
Gary Williams remembered Jones as one of the UVA players who helped knock his Boston College team out of the 1983 NCAA Tournament before losing to eventual champion North Carolina State.
Roy Williams recalled seeing Jones as a freshman player, the same year Williams started as an assistant to Dean Smith at North Carolina.
Williams later won three national titles as his alma mater’s head coach.
Standing beside Martelli in Chartway’s bustling lobby, Roy Williams, 75, chuckled at Martelli’s suggestion of throwing rocks for charity — even if Jones asked.
“Yeah, I’d do that,” Williams said. “I would rather throw them instead of trying to dodge them at my age now.”
Jones, 65, retired after suffering a midseason heart attack while ODU’s team was in Hawaii for a tournament. He then needed treatment for his cancer, which was first discovered in 2015.
Jones said doctors are “keeping an eye” on the cancer, with checkups every three months. With proper supervision, he’s prepared to continue living with it.
“It’s always going to be there,” Jones said. “They told me it’s not going to cure. But it’s manageable. I feel great.”
Meanwhile, Jones serves as an advisor to head and assistant coaches across all sports at ODU.
Friday’s event, he hopes, was the first of many. (Donations, Jones pointed out, are still being accepted.) To him, it’s a natural progression for a man who spent more than 40 years in college coaching.
“It’s combining two great passions in my life — the fight against cancer and working with Coaches vs. Cancer and basketball and the coaching profession,” Jones said. “It just kind of came together.”
David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com.
To donate online
Visit www.hamptonroads.acsgala.org and click on “JOIN US” in the upper right corner.
To donate by check, via mail
American Cancer Society
Coaches vs. Cancer Legends Gala – SK#YS57QE
PO Box 4110, Glen Allen, VA 23058
