Vincent Edward “Bo” Jackson (11/ 30/62)
Bo Jackson is the 8th of 10 children to Florence Bonds and A.D. Adams, born in the state of Alabama.
Bo attended high school in Alabama – McAdory High School in McCalla where he won two state decathlon championships. Significant is that he was a 6’9″ high jumper–before heading to Auburn University in Auburn Alabama.
At Auburn Bo won the converted Heisman Trophy in 1985 and by all accounts had a stellar two-sport career while a student athlete at Auburn. Along with football he played baseball.
In 1990 the late sportswriter Dick Schaap published Bo Knows Bo, the cover for the book was the famous photo of Jackson with football shoulder pads showing while holding a bat across the back of his neck. Schaap opens the book by brilliantly letting other professional athletes tell us how amazing, how great, Bo Jackson was as a football and baseball player. We hear from the likes of Howie Long (NFL) and George Bret (Major League Baseball) as well as the great Michael Jordan.
On January 13, 1991 in a football game against the Cincinnati Bengals Bo Jackson was injured. Unknown at the time, this injury would lead to his retirement from football and three years later early retirement from baseball.
Now all that we have is “What If?” What if Bo had the career long achievements–in both sports–that would have rounded out all the spectacular things he was doing on the football field and on the baseball diamond.
These were cut short on that day in 1991. Blazing downfield for long touchdown runs; 500 foot bombs for home runs; running up, across stadium walls; chasing down fly balls and throwing runners out at home plate or breaking bats over his thigh:
Athletes like Bo Jackson come along once in a lifetime. He remains one of few athletes to be named an All-Star in both baseball and football. And, if you check the data obe of few Heisman winners who go on to play as exceptionally in the pro game as they played to win the Heisman.
Although his talents were short lived we in SportsWorld are better off that he did come along when he did.