Vincent “Bo” Jackson:
One of the Best Athletes to Ever Play Professional Sports
Vincent Jackson, also known as Bo Jackson started off his amazing career playing for Auburn Tigers. Bo not only played football and baseball in college, he also ran on their track team. During Bo Jackson’s freshman year at Auburn he ran the 60-yard dash in just 6.18 seconds for the track team. The stats and recorders that he put up in college were only a glimpse of what was to come for Bo Jackson and his career as a professional athlete. Bo during his short career as a professional athlete became one of the best athletes to ever play professional sports.
One might say to qualify as a great athlete and one of the best in his/her sport, that player has to have stats or records to back up their claim. Bo Jackson has no records in the NFL. He has tons of college football records, but that is college and not the NFL. Bo does have a few records in MLB, though. He hit the longest home run hit in Royals Stadium. Also he is the only player to play baseball with an artificial hip, and he is the only player to hit a home run with an artificial hip. He also is one of the very few to hit four consecutive home runs. Are those records enough to call him a great athlete, though? When you think of great athletes, you think of Joe Montana, Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, Jerry Rice, etc. The players with the records are the ones who are considered great. Some also say that if the player is not good enough to break a record or even come close to breaking a record than that athlete is not worth remembering. Bo Jackson did not come close to breaking the all time yards rushing or breaking the record for number of runs, so is he worth remembering or even worthy of being called a great athlete by that standard?
By looking Bo Jackson’s non-professional and professional careers can you with out a doubt consider him a great athlete, possible the best ever in professional sports. Bo was drafted in the fourth round of the draft by the Kansas City Royals. He played for the Royals minor league team in Memphis for a half season before he was called up to the majors. During his time in Memphis he had a .277 batting average, thirty runs, fifty-one hits in fifty-three games, twenty-two bases on balls, three stolen bases, and seven home runs.(Tops) He was the first Royal player in history to go from college to the pro’s in the same year. Before Bo, everyone had to play a full season in the minors before they could be called up to the majors.
Thirteen days after Bo Jackson moved up to the majors, he hit his first major league home run. Its distance was estimated at 475 feet over the center field fence, the longest home run ever in Royals Stadium.(Donrus) That was just the beginning of Bo Jackson in professional baseball. Two years later in 1989 Bo Jackson got the most votes out of any player in the American League to play in the All-Star Game. Bo’s first time up to the plate he smashed a solo home run to put the American League on the board and only down by one run. Later on in the game he caught a home run ball with his bare hand, stole a base, and was named MVP of the All-Star Game. Bo Jackson and Willie Mays are the only two people in baseball history to hit a home run and steal a base in the same All-Star Game.
Even though Bo called football his hobby, he was the best running back of his day. In 1982, Bo Jackson stepped on the Auburn football field and dashed for 829 yards on 127 carries, averaged 6.5 yards per carry, and scored nine TD's. With five 100-plus games in Bo Jackson’s freshman year of college, he was named to the Football News' Freshman All-America squad. His sophomore year in college (1983) he ran for 1,213 yards on 158 carries and scored twelve touchdowns. He was also named MVP of the Sugar Bowl that year. During the first game of Bo Jackson’s junior year he got injured and had to sit out for the next six straight games. He ended up with a total of 475 yards on 87 carries, six touch downs, and was named MVP of the Liberty Bowl in 1984. In 1985, Bo ran for 1,786 yards and seventeen touchdowns. Bo Jackson was the winner of the 51st annual Heisman Memorial Trophy as the most outstanding college football player in America. He was also named the College Football Player of the Year. Bo Jackson had eight 100-plus yard games (an Auburn Record), had four 200-plus yard games, and became the first Auburn back to rush for more than 4,000 yards. College football was just a glimpse of what Bo could have been like in the pro’s, if he had played in the pro’s for more than just four seasons, Bo Jackson’s career rushing college statistics:
Year Games Attempts
Yards Average
TD’s Long Avg/Game
1982 11
127 829
6.5
9 53 75.4
1983 11
158 1213
7.7
12 80 110.3
1984 6
87 475
5.5
6 53
79.2
1985 11
278 1786
6.4
17 76 162.4
Totals 38
650 4303
6.6
44 80 113.2
Bo was drafted number one in he NFL draft and being offered a five year, seven million dollar contract to play football
for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he turned down the chance to play football to pursue his career in baseball. After Bo Jackson
finished his first season of baseball, he signed with the Los Angeles Raiders. In his first year in the NFL, he rushed for 554
yards and averaged 6.8 yards a run. During Bo’s NFL career he rushed for a total of 2,782 yards and 18 touchdowns in four
years. Keep in mind that throughout those four years Bo Jackson rushed beside another great running back of that time,
Marcus Allen. Bo averaged 695.5 yards a year even though he was competing with Marcus Allen for ball time. It is a great
achievement if a running back rushes for 1,000 yards in a season (16 games). Because Bo played two sports, baseball and
football, he only got to play in 11 of the 16 games each season. Bo Jackson averaged almost 700 yards a season, even though
he shared ball time (rushes) with veteran running back Marcus Allen. Most teams only have one major back and it is hard for
that running back to reach 1,000 yards in a season. Basically Bo Jackson ran for more yards in 11 weeks than some running
backs did in 16 weeks.
One very impressive thing that Bo Jackson did accomplish is that after his injury he did come back to play baseball for the Chicago White Sox. During his return to baseball, Bo’s stats were only descent, not outstanding. is just another reason why some say Bo Jackson was not a great athlete. Bo coming back to play baseball does not make him a great athlete it just means he was very dedicated to his team and to being a baseball player. Only his actual play of the game should determine whether, he was a great athlete or not.
On the other hand Bo did have the best batting average in spring training following his injury batting .370. He also had the most runs batted in and the most hits during spring training. (Jet, 4) “Needless to say, Jackson rebounded in 1993 to play a key role on the American League West Division Champion Chicago White Sox.” (Jet, 7) Bo Jackson clinched the Division Title for White Sox’s in 1993 with a three run home run in the sixth inning against Seattle, which was the first division championship the White Sox’s had earned since 1983. (Jet, 5) Bo Jackson also prior to his injury was voted MVP of the All-Star game and then nine months later voted into the NFL Pro Bowl, which he did not play in due to his injury which he suffered in the playoffs against the Browns.
“Bo Jackson, was the first genuine two-sport, all - star pro athlete and, apologies to Deion Sanders, maybe the last. He
had Hall of Frame-level seasons, to be sure. In 1989, while playing for the Kansas City Royals, he hit 32 home runs, drove in
105 run, and was named MVP of the All-Star Game. Ten days after that baseball season ended, he joined the
Los Angeles Raiders and in just 11 games rushed for 950 yards. The next season he was picked for the Pro-Bowl. But because of his
injury couldn’t turn those seasons into Hall of Fame careers.” (Hoffer, p.52) Bo Jackson is the only player to be in both the
Pro-Bowl, All-Star Game, and win the Heisman. How could anyone not say that this man was a great all around athlete one of
the best athletes this world will ever see. Then in a split second that was all taken away from him in the playoffs of 1991, when
he injured his hip and broke through a vein. Bo Jackson did not see his injury as a problem; he saw it as a
challenge. He persevered through his injury and rehab to come back and play baseball only 353 days after he injured his hip, when many
people and doctors said he would not ever be able to play sports again.
(Jet, 6) Bo Jackson over came the odds of playing baseball again and he made his mark on the football field as well. This man is a true hero and a true champion. Bo Jackson is
one of the best athletes of all time in professional sports, if not the best. Bo Jackson the winner of the Heisman Trophy, voted
into the Pro-Bowl, and not only voted into the All-Star Game, but voted the MVP of the All-Star Game. Who needs records
when you have a stats like that?
1989 All-Star Game Bo Breaks Out of Kingdome
1985 Heisman Trophy Winner College Football Hall of Fame
Athletes that have excelled in more than one sport Bo Jackson - Auburn Tigers