1. Vincent Edward "Bo" Jackson was born on November 30,1962 and is an American former professional baseball and football player.
82 Facts About Bo Jackson
1. 2.
Bo Jackson is the only professional athlete in history to be named an All-Star in two major North American sports.
3.
Bo Jackson played college baseball as an outfielder and college football as a running back for the Auburn Tigers, and won the Heisman Trophy in 1985.
4.
Bo Jackson played in the National Football League for the Los Angeles Raiders and in Major League Baseball for the Kansas City Royals, Chicago White Sox, and California Angels.
5.
Bo Jackson was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1996.
6.
Bo Jackson expanded into other pursuits, including the completion of his Bachelor of Science degree in Family and Child Development at Auburn.
7.
Bo Jackson still holds the NFL record for most runs for 90+ yards from scrimmage with two.
8.
Bo Jackson, the eighth of ten children, was born on November 30,1962, and raised in Bessemer, Alabama.
9.
Bo Jackson's family described him as a "wild boar hog," as he would constantly get into trouble.
10.
Bo Jackson attended McAdory High School in McCalla, where he rushed for 1,175 yards as a running back as a high school senior.
11.
Bo Jackson hit 20 home runs in 25 games for McCalla's baseball team during his senior season.
12.
Bo Jackson was a two-time state champion in the decathlon.
13.
In 1982, Bo Jackson set state school records for indoor high jump and triple jump.
14.
In June 1982, Bo Jackson was selected by the New York Yankees in the second round of the 1982 Major League Baseball draft, but he instead chose to attend Auburn University on a football scholarship because he promised his mother he would be the first in the family to go to a major college.
15.
Bo Jackson was recruited by head coach Pat Dye and then Auburn assistant coach Bobby Wallace alongside defensive head coach Dominic Sauer.
16.
Bo Jackson shared the backfield with quarterback Randy Campbell, Lionel "Little Train" James and Tommie Agee.
17.
Bo Jackson finished his career with an average of 6.6 yards per carry, which set the SEC record.
18.
In 1983, as a sophomore, Bo Jackson rushed for 1,213 yards on 158 carries, for an average of 7.7 yards per carry, which was the second-best single-season average in SEC history.
19.
Auburn finished the season by winning the Sugar Bowl against Michigan, where Bo Jackson was named Most Valuable Player.
20.
In 1985, Bo Jackson rushed for 1,786 yards, which was the second-best single-season performance in SEC history.
21.
Bo Jackson finished his career at Auburn with 4,575 all-purpose yards and 45 total touchdowns, 43 rushing and two receiving, with a 6.6 yards per carry average.
22.
Bo Jackson's is one of only three numbers retired at Auburn.
23.
Bo Jackson missed much of his senior season after being ruled ineligible by the NCAA following a visit with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which he believes tried to sabotage his baseball career.
24.
Bo Jackson had a minor shoulder injury in the beginning of his collegiate football career, which didn't cause him issues in the long term.
25.
At the time, Bo Jackson was 22 years old, and trying to make an even bigger name for himself than he already had in his football career.
26.
Bo Jackson considered a career in track and field, but sprinting would not gain him the financial security of MLB or the NFL, nor would he have sufficient time to train, given his other commitments.
27.
Bo Jackson stated he did not attend the 1986 Scouting Combine: "I did not go because I was already picked to be the first person to go in the draft," Jackson said.
28.
Bo Jackson was selected with the first overall pick of the 1986 NFL draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but he refused to play for them because a visit to team facilities that the Buccaneers said was NCAA-approved but was actually not, caused him to miss the remainder of his final college baseball season.
29.
Bo Jackson believes that the failure to obtain NCAA approval was deliberate and was intended by the Buccaneers to get him to play football instead of baseball.
30.
Bo Jackson vowed not to sign with Tampa Bay should they draft him, but they proceeded anyway.
31.
Bo Jackson kept his vow and opted to play baseball for the Kansas City Royals, the defending World Series champions, who drafted him in the fourth round, in the 1986 Major League Baseball draft.
32.
Shortly after the draft, Bo Jackson signed a three-year contract with the Royals worth just over $1 million.
33.
Bo Jackson spent 53 games with the Memphis Chicks, the Royals' Class AA minor league affiliate, and was called up to the majors in September 1986.
34.
Bo Jackson made the Royals' roster in 1987 as a left fielder, and batted.
35.
The time-out wasn't granted, but Bo Jackson recovered to swing and hit the pitch over the left-field wall for a home run despite taking one hand off the bat at the beginning of the at bat.
36.
Bo Jackson began to show his true potential in 1989, when he was voted to start for the American League All-Star team, and was named the game's MVP for his play on both offense and defense.
37.
Bo Jackson then stole second base, making him the second player in All-Star Game history to hit a home run and steal a base in the same game.
38.
Bo Jackson finished the game 2-for-4 with one run scored and two RBI.
39.
On July 11,1990, against the Orioles, Bo Jackson performed his famous "wall run", when he caught a ball six strides away from the wall.
40.
Bo Jackson's fourth came off Randy Johnson, after hitting his first three before a stint on the disabled list.
41.
On March 13,2024, the Royals announced that Bo Jackson had been elected to the Royals Hall of Fame and would be inducted before the team's June 29 game against Cleveland.
42.
Bo Jackson played two seasons appearing in 23 games in 1991 and 85 games in 1993.
43.
Bo Jackson appeared on White Sox' disabled roster during the 1992 season due to completing hip replacement surgery earlier that year.
44.
In three games, Bo Jackson was hitless in 10 at-bats with three walks and a run scored as the White Sox lost to the Toronto Blue Jays in six games.
45.
Bo Jackson recovered the ball by trading an autographed bat for it, and stated he planned to have it bronzed and placed on her dresser.
46.
On January 31,1994, Bo Jackson signed a one-year, $1 million contract with the California Angels.
47.
In 1989, Bo Jackson ranked fourth in the American League in both home runs, with 32, and RBI, with 105.
48.
Bo Jackson was told by the Buccaneers that the trip had been cleared by the NCAA and SEC.
49.
Years later, Bo Jackson told ESPN that he has long believed the Buccaneers sabotaged his collegiate baseball career "because of the season I was having".
50.
Along similar lines, Dye told the Times that once Bo Jackson concluded that the Tampa Bay trip was "a tactical move", it ended any chance of him ever playing for the Buccaneers.
51.
Bo Jackson turned down the Buccaneers' $7.6 million, five-year contract in favor of a $1.07 million, three-year contract with the Kansas City Royals, and the Buccaneers forfeited his rights before the 1987 draft.
52.
Bo Jackson joined the Raiders in time for their Week 8 matchup against the New England Patriots, where he rushed for a total of 37 yards on eight carries.
53.
Bo Jackson shared the backfield with Marcus Allen, himself an All-Pro and former Heisman Trophy winner, but eventually supplanted him as the featured running back despite being listed as the team's fullback.
54.
Bo Jackson responded by running over Bosworth on his way to a touchdown near the goal line.
55.
Bo Jackson made a 91-yard run in the second quarter, to the outside, untouched down the sideline.
56.
Bo Jackson rushed for 221 yards that night and two touchdowns.
57.
Bo Jackson played in seven games, starting five, and scored a total of six touchdowns.
58.
The next year, Bo Jackson played in ten of the Raiders' sixteen games with nine starts, recording a total of 580 yards and three touchdowns.
59.
In eleven games, with nine starts, Bo Jackson rushed for a total of 950 yards with a 5.5 yards per carry average and four touchdowns.
60.
Bo Jackson sustained an NFL career-ending hip injury from a seemingly routine tackle at the end of a 34-yard run in a playoff game on January 13,1991, against the Bengals.
61.
Bo Jackson caught 40 passes for 352 yards and two touchdowns.
62.
Bo Jackson would be forced to retire from football, and was then cut by the Royals in spring training.
63.
Bo Jackson became a popular figure for his athleticism in multiple sports through the late 1980s and early 1990s.
64.
Jackson has his own video game for the original Game Boy portable gaming system, Bo Jackson's Hit and Run.
65.
Bo Jackson can be unlocked as a player in ESPN NFL Football.
66.
Bo Jackson made an appearance in the 2004 video game NFL Street 2.
67.
Bo Jackson made his first appearance in the modern Madden series, Madden 15 and Madden 16.
68.
Bo Jackson later returned in Madden NFL 20 as part of the Madden Ultimate Team 10th Anniversary promo, before getting a community-made Golden Ticket card.
69.
Bo Jackson was a character in ProStars, an NBC Saturday morning cartoon show which features Wayne Gretzky and Michael Jordan fighting crime and helping children; though he made physical cameos in the live-action segments of several episodes, his cartoon counterpart was voiced by actor Dave Fennoy.
70.
Bo Jackson likewise appeared in animated form in the Captain N: The Game Master episode "Battle of the Baseball Know-It-Alls", this time voiced by Canadian actor Blu Mankuma.
71.
In 1995, Bo Jackson completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Family and Child Development at Auburn to fulfill the promise he made to his mother.
72.
Bo Jackson later appeared in small roles in the films The Chamber, The Pandora Project and Fakin' Da Funk.
73.
Bo Jackson served as the President of the HealthSouth Sports Medicine Council, part of Birmingham, Alabama-based HealthSouth Corporation.
74.
The Chicago White Sox chose Bo Jackson to throw the ceremonial first pitch before Game 2 of the 2005 World Series.
75.
On May 9,2009, Bo Jackson delivered the commencement speech at Auburn University's graduation ceremony, about the benefits of stepping out of one's comfort zone.
76.
In 2017, First Community was acquired by Busey Bank, and Bo Jackson left the board.
77.
On July 12,2010, Bo Jackson threw the ceremonial first pitch before the 2010 Home Run Derby at Angel Stadium and participated in the celebrity softball game.
78.
Bo Jackson was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2016.
79.
Bo Jackson has been married to Linda, a rehabilitation counselor, since 1987.
80.
Bo Jackson is known frequently to refer to himself in the third person, a habit he has had since his childhood due to his severe stutter which made it difficult for him to say "I".
81.
The bike tour lasted five days where Bo Jackson visited towns that had been demolished by the series of tornadoes.
82.
In 2022, Bo Jackson donated $170,000 to pay for the funeral expenses for the victims' families following the massacre of 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas.