Terry Jones
Bell Memorial - Inducted 2002
Regarded as one of Canada's top sports columnists both nationally and internationally, Terry Jones had a philosophy of bringing the story home with a focus on Alberta athletes.
Born and raised just down the road from the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame & Museum, the Lacombe native started his newspaper career with the weekly Lacombe Globe in junior high school, moving to the daily Red Deer Advocate in high school. Upon graduation, Jones joined the Edmonton Journal in 1967 before moving to the Edmonton Sun in 1982.
Terry Jones covered his 12th Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002 and covered more Olympics than any Canadian sportswriter in history. He also covered Alberta athletes at the Pan-American, Universiade, Goodwill, and every Commonwealth Games since 1978. The exceptionally versatile columnist has covered ten world figure skating championships and several other major international events, including the World Cup of Soccer, and the World Championships in Athletics. Terry Jones covered his 30th consecutive Grey Cup game in 2002 and more than 450 Stanley Cup playoff games, 19 Super Bowls, and 110 World Series games.
Author of the highly acclaimed best-selling book "Edmonton Hockey Knights '79 to 99'", in addition to several other books, Jones wrote both the first (The Great Gretzky) and last (An Oiler Forever) books on Wayne Gretzky.
Terry Jones was recognized for his journalism by winning the national award for amateur sports coverage (later named the Dough Gilbert Award) early in his career, the Sun Media's ultimate journalism award in 2001, and the Doug Creighton Award for Editorial Excellence.
After Induction
Terry Jones was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame/Football Reporters Hall of Fame in 2002. He was honoured a number of times by Sports Media Canada - with their Outstanding Sportswriting Award in 2003 and Lifetime Award in 2012. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011, the Edmonton Sports Hall of Fame in 2018, and the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame in 2019. Terry has covered 16 Olympic Games - a record for a Canadian journalist; 37 Grey Cups, 20 Super Bowls, 20 World Figure Skating Championships and numerous curling championships. In the early part of his career, he covered Wayne Gretzky and now as his career is winding down, he is covering Connor McDavid. As an author, his books include: The Great Gretzky (1981), Edmonton's Hockey Knights 79 to 99 (1998), Wayne Gretzky: An Oiler Forever (1999), The Ferbey Four: Kings of Canadian Curling (2007), and Epic Legacy of the Edmonton Eskimos – Boxed Set, 2016. Terry was employed by the Edmonton Journal from 1967 to 1982, and has been with the Edmonton sun from 1982 to 2020 (currently). Terry grew up in Lacombe, Alberta. When he was in Grade 7, he started writing sports stories for the Lacombe Globe. He was writing a syndicated sports column for a number of rural Alberta papers when he was in grade 9. The next year, he was writing for the Red Deer Advocate. Writing during his school years was the forerunner of an award-winning career that would become his full-time profession in 1967.
On October 27, 2017, as Terry marked his 50 years as a journalist, he commented,
“Edmonton’s sports history basically became my history. Nine of the first 10 Grey Cups I covered, the Eskimos were in the game. I covered the last two dynasties in Canadian sports, the five-in-a-row Eskimos and the five-time Stanley Cup winning Oilers….
I’ve travelled the world and the world of sports. But the best part of the 50 years has been Edmonton itself. This has been the best city to be a sports columnist in Canada not just because of the teams and the athletes but also because of the variety of major events to which it has played host. It not only has been the City of Champions, it’s been the City of Championships.”
Timeline:
2002 - Canadian Football Hall of Fame - Football Reporters Hall of Fame
2003 - Sports Media Canada – Outstanding Sportswriting Award
2011 - Hockey Hall of Fame - Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award – is given in recognition of distinguished members of the newspaper profession whose words have brought honour to journalism and to hockey.
2012 - Sports Media Canada – (George Gross Award Career/Lifetime Achievement)
2017 - October - 50th Anniversary as a journalist.
2018 - Edmonton Sports Hall of Fame - June
2019 - Canadian Curling Hall of Fame - March
Birthday: June 25, 1948
