Legendary Reading baseball figure Paul "Cooter" Jones dies at 90
Apr. 16—Like his former Reading High baseball teammates, Rolland Green has enormous respect and admiration for Paul "Cooter" Jones, who died Thursday at the age of 90.
Jones coached the Red Knights for 24 seasons (1973-96) and guided them to six league championships and PIAA and District 3 titles in 1983.
Green has been the baseball coach at Fleetwood since 2001. Each time he led the Tigers into George Field when Jones served as Reading's scorekeeper and public address announcer, he made sure to climb the grandstand to see his former coach and teacher.
"The first thing I'd do as soon as I got there was look up to the press box," Green recalled. "If Coach was there, I'd run up there to talk to him. I wouldn't even walk to the dugout with the kids. He had that much of an impact on my life."
Green, Pat Tulley and Jeff Kantner all played on the 1983 team, the first Reading team to win a state championship in any sport in 43 years. They're all in their mid-50s now and they still call Jones "Coach".
"It's just the type of person he was," said Tulley, the Gov. Mifflin athletic director. "We all looked up to him. It wasn't just during high school. It was that way forever. He was Coach. Everybody felt that way. It was the proper thing to do."
Jones was much more than a coach, though.
Born in North Carolina, he first came to the area in the 1950s as a minor league shortstop with the Reading Indians. He raised four children here and made it his home. He played parts of six seasons here before he retired in 1959. He was Reading's all-time home run leader for 40 years and was twice an Eastern League All-Star.
Jones played with Berks County resident Rocky Colavito and Roger Maris and against Willie Mays, yet he rarely spoke about his playing career.
"I don't know anybody who didn't love him for who he was," Kantner said. "He made everybody feel important. He brought the best out of everybody. You couldn't do anything but respect that man."
Jones began teaching phys ed in the Reading School District in 1962, primarily at Northeast Junior High. He coached baseball and junior high basketball and football.
He was a fixture at Reading High games. He operated the Geigle Complex scoreboard for basketball games for nearly 50 years. He was the PA announcer for football and baseball games for nearly 30 years.
"I would say that he's a legend," Reading High athletic director Allen McCloud said. "Once a Red Knight, always a Red Knight. He always wanted to be a part of the program, whether it was doing the clock or keeping the scorebook.
"That kept him going. That kept his spirits up. He loved doing it. He enjoyed it. It was something that he knew he was going to be doing until he couldn't do it."
Jones also served as an official scorer for Reading Fightin Phils games at FirstEnergy Stadium for more than 25 years. The franchise named him a King of Baseballtown several years ago.
"Cooter was a sweet man," said Kevin Sklenarik, executive director of baseball operations for the Fightins. "He was a great man. He had tremendous passion not only for baseball, but for the City of Reading and for this stadium.
"He loved coming to the ballpark. I'm a better person for knowing him. He didn't like to talk about himself. He'd rather ask how you were doing and try to get to know who you were."
Sklenarik said Jones had a great memory for games, even those back in the 1950s. His former players said he could remember the details of every game Reading High played during its 27-2 season in 1983.
In their PIAA Class 3A opener, the Red Knights fell behind Berwick 7-0 in the first inning. When they returned to the dugout at Newport, Jones offered then encouragement, not scorn.
"He kept everybody focused," Tulley said. "He wasn't going to let us quit. We kept battling and battling and we ended up winning 8-7. That in itself says everything you need to know about the guy. He battled to the last out. He had us battle to the last out."
Reading High faced heavily favored Beaver in the state championship game at Shippensburg. The Red Knights trailed 1-0 in the fifth inning. After a walk to Derek Patton and two outs, Jones walked down the third-base line to Kantner, who was batting.
"He looked at me," Kantner said, "put his arm around my shoulder and said, 'Unbutton your shirt and let it rip. This is your last chance.' I've never forgotten that to this day."
Kantner laced a double to drive in Patton and scored the go-ahead run on Keith Miller's single. Green made the 2-1 lead stand and finished with a six-hitter for the win and the title.
"When we pulled into George Field, the whole city was there to welcome us back," Green said. "The bus drove onto the field. That's what stood out, all the community support that we had. I still get chills thinking about that."
Green said Jones inspired him to become a coach and that his style is similar to his mentor's style.
"Coaches like him are gone," Kantner said. "He set you up for life in general, not just sports. You earned his respect by doing your job. With him, you earned your job by hustling. He'd never doubt you. He'd always back you 100%."
Tulley said Jones' most enduring legacy will be the way he treated people.
"He was a baseball guy true and true," Tulley said. "He was also just a great guy. My teammates and I were just fortunate to have a guy like him coach us. I've never heard a person say a bad word about the guy. That says a lot about him."
