Ralph Jones Ralph Robert " Curley " Jones ( September 22 , 1880 – July 26 , 1951 ) was an American high school and college football and basketball coach . He also served as the head coach for the Chicago Bears of the NFL from 1930 to 1932 . Early years . State of Indiana . Jones was an integral part of the development of high school basketball in Indiana and a successful college coach at Purdue and Illinois . He was the recipient of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame ' s inaugural Centennial Award on November 27 , 2010 . It is believed that Jones was the first high school basketball coach in the state of Indiana . While still a high school student , he organized the team at Indianapolis Shortridge High School in 1899 — the first high school team in Indiana . Jones led the Indianapolis YMCA to statewide prominence , and then led the Crawfordsville YMCA , both of which claimed state YMCA championships under his guidance . Due to his success with YMCA - based leagues , Butler University contracted Jones to coach basketball for the 1903 - 04 season . This was the first " official " head coaching job in the long and successful career Jones would continue for the next 30 years . Jones continued his coaching at Crawfordsville , this time at the local high school and additionally took on the head coaching duties of Wabash College . His teams at both institutions featured Hall of Fame inductees Ward " Piggy " Lambert , Pete Vaughn and David Glascock , with the 1906 - 07 Crawfordsville squad finishing 12 - 0 ( prior to the first high school state tournament ) and his 1907 - 08 Wabash team going 24 - 0 . While at Wabash , his team was selected from only 300 students , yet in five years lost only four games , twice to Notre Dame and once to Purdue . Known as the " Little Giants " , Jones ' s Wabash teams compiled a record of 75 – 6 and defeated teams from much larger institutions , including Illinois , Purdue , Indiana , Minnesota and Notre Dame . During this same time period , Jones ' s Crawfordsville High School teams lost only one game . Purdue University . Jones moved on to Purdue in 1910 , beginning a three - year tenure that resulted in a 32 - 9 record and the first two Big Nine championships in program history ( 1911 and 1912 ) . He also mentored the first All - American in Purdue basketball history , as Dave Charters garnered consensus honors in both 1910 and 1911 . University of Illinois . After his three seasons at Purdue , Jones headed to the University of Illinois , where he piloted the Illini to the 1915 Helms National Championship . During his tenure at Illinois , Jones took a mediocre team and within two years established a dominant system that led to a perfect 12 - 0 record in 1915 as well as the national championship . Jones ' s basketball teams at Illinois won 85 games and lost 34 . He also won two Big Ten or " Big Nine " titles . Jones also was the athletic director for two years as well as being the assistant football coach to Bob Zuppke from 1913 through 1920 . After Jones left Illinois , he went to Lake Forest Academy in Lake Forest , Illinois . He was there for 10 years coaching both basketball and football . His football teams won 76 games and lost only six games in his 10 years . During this tenure , his basketball teams had a record of 94 - 9 . Chicago Bears . After George Halas retired as a player - coach in 1930 , he hired Jones to take over his team as head coach . Even though Jones led the team to a 24 - 10 - 7 record , due to the economic depression which was affecting every business across the United States , the financial health of the franchise began to suffer . With many people out of work , fewer and fewer individuals could pay for the cost of a ticket to attend a Bears game . Consequently , even though the team won the NFL championship in 1932 , by the end of the season the franchise had lost approximately $ 18 , 000 . Dutch Sternaman sold his half of the team to Halas , and Halas resumed coaching the team in order to save the cost of a head coach ' s salary During his tenure with the Bears , Jones lined the quarterback directly under center , the first time this had been done . Next , he spaced out the offensive line and devised blocking schemes that would open holes in the defense . He refined the T - formation by introducing wide ends and a halfback in motion . While Jones was head coach , Bronko Nagurski made his NFL debut as a member of the Chicago Bears . His . 706 winning percentage is the best in Bears history . During his time at Lake Forest Academy , Jones tinkered with simple options on the basic T - formation . Many coaches were searching for answers to an easy - to - teach formation that was also not easy to defend . Jones approached George Halas with various diagrammed options . Not until Clark Shaughnessy , head coach at the University of Chicago , approached Halas with very complex formations in 1935 did the " T " become effective . Many coaches contributed to the success of the T - formation that swept college and pro football in 1940 . Shaughnessy ' s Stanford University team went 10 – 0 and defeated the University of Nebraska in the Rose Bowl with his elaborate T - formation . Weeks later , Halas ' s Bears defeated the Washington Redskins 73 - 0 with the same system . Jones left the Bears to become athletic director at Lake Forest College in that Illinois town . All told , Jones tallied 404 wins in his coaching career for a winning record of better than 83 percent . He also mentored nine college All - Americans . Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Ward Lambert dedicated his 1932 book , " Practical Basketball " , to " Ralph Jones , my coach . "