On December 1, 2007, Hawaii trailed the University of Washington by 21 points, twice, before June Jones's team scored the game's final 28 points and won 35-28, completing the only undefeated regular season in the program's history. Jones, the coach who built that Hawaii program and spent four decades spreading the run-and-shoot passing offense through college and professional football, died October 29, 2026, in Oregon, at 73. Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, who was on the field that night, later called the comeback "very, very special."

That Hawaii team finished 12-0, earned the program's first berth in a Bowl Championship Series game, and lost the Sugar Bowl 41-10 to Georgia on January 1, 2008, behind quarterback Colt Brennan, a Heisman Trophy finalist that season. According to Hawaii Athletics, the Warriors scored the final 28 points of the Washington game after twice falling behind by three touchdowns, winning it on a touchdown pass with 44 seconds left.

Jones had learned the offense that defined his career long before he ever coached it. Playing quarterback at Oregon, then the University of Hawaii, and finally Portland State in the mid-1970s, he ran the pass-first scheme being built by Portland State coach Mouse Davis: the run-and-shoot. From there he played five NFL seasons with the Atlanta Falcons and one in the Canadian Football League with the Toronto Argonauts, mostly as a backup, before turning to coaching, including a stint as quarterbacks coach under Davis with the Detroit Lions in 1989 and 1990. "When he was coaching in the USFL and then NFL in the '80s, nobody was throwing the football like that," former Kentucky coach Hal Mumme told Bleacher Report. "Our little club of people that really threw the football was very small. You could name us on one hand all the way from high school to the NFL, and June was the leader of it. Everybody wanted to know what June was doing, and how he was doing it. He was a pioneer." Jones later co-designed a coaching certification program with Davis to pass the system on to others.

He got his first coaching job back at Hawaii, as a graduate assistant in 1983, then worked his way to the Atlanta Falcons, where he became offensive coordinator and, in 1994, head coach. His three seasons in charge did not produce a winning record, and he later spent ten games as the San Diego Chargers' interim head coach in 1998. It was a return to Hawaii in 1999 that defined him: he was named national Coach of the Year in his first season, and over nine years he won 76 games, still the most in program history, with two Western Athletic Conference titles. Quarterback Timmy Chang, playing under him, finished his college career in 2004 with 17,072 passing yards, the most in major college football history at the time. "Coach Jones was a father figure, a mentor, and a visionary who revolutionized the game," Chang, now Hawaii's head coach, said after Jones's death, according to ESPN. "He believed in a young kid from Hawai'i and gave me the opportunity of a lifetime to run his offense. And his impact didn't stop when my playing days ended. He guided me every step of the way as I transitioned into coaching."

Jones left Hawaii for Southern Methodist University in 2008, inheriting a program that had gone years without a winning season. He led the Mustangs to four consecutive bowl games and Conference USA division titles in 2009 and 2010 before resigning two games into the 2014 season. "Coach Jones helped restore a winning tradition on the Hilltop," the university said afterward. "Our thoughts are with his family, friends and the countless players and coaches whose lives he touched."

He kept coaching for another decade without a permanent address. He was offensive coordinator at Kapolei High School in Hawaii in 2016, then joined the Canadian Football League's Hamilton Tiger-Cats as offensive coordinator in 2017. When Hamilton started that season 0-8, Jones took over as interim head coach and went 6-4 the rest of the way, enough to earn the full-time job for 2018. The Tiger-Cats went 8-10 that year and reached the East Division final before he resigned ahead of the following season. "His belief in his players and commitment to helping them succeed left a lasting impression on those who worked alongside him," the Tiger-Cats said in a statement to TSN. His final coaching job was offensive coordinator of the XFL's Seattle Sea Dragons in 2023. The University of Hawaii inducted him into its Circle of Honor in 2024.

What persists is the offense and the people who ran it. Chang now calls plays as Hawaii's head coach from the same system Jones taught him as a teenager. The certification program Jones built with Mouse Davis still trains coaches in the run-and-shoot. And the number in the Hawaii record book, 76 wins, nine seasons, two conference titles, one unbeaten regular season, has outlasted every coach who followed him.