SN Archive (1985): How good was Bo Jackson? The absurd Auburn tall tales behind the GOAT two-sport prospect

With scouts searching for the most appropriate superlatives to describe him, it's no exaggeration to portray Bo Jackson as the nation's most talented amateur athlete.

The fact he is a leading candidate for this year's Heisman Trophy and the key player on the No. I rated team in The Sporting News preseason college football rankings already puts him into an elite category. And Himes believes that if you lined up all current major league players and compared them with Jackson, he would emerge as the most physically blessed of the bunch.

In Jackson, we have a rare chance to see an athletic gem emerging and developing before our eyes. This is a man with storybook talents. Humans just aren't supposed to be this good at one sport, much less at everything Jackson can dominate.

Try to think of even one athlete within memory who could boast, “I am the best (amateur) football and baseball player in the country.” There simply haven't been any.

“I think,” Jackson said, “that if I wanted to lose 30 pounds (he weighs 222) and become a sprinter and beat Carl Lewis, I could do it.”

Why should he believe otherwise? At his current weight, he can run 40 yards in 4.2 seconds and 100 meters in 10.39 seconds, which makes him nearly a world-class track star without training very hard. Olympic sprinter Harvey Glance told one of his coaches at Auburn that, for the first 10 yards out of the blocks, Jackson is the most dominating runner he has faced. Jackson twice won the Alabama high school decathlon championship despite not running the mile either time.

He despises weight-lifting but can walk in off the street and bench press 400-plus pounds.

Stories about his athletic prowess are so numerous that he has become the Paul Bunyan of Auburn.

One time, before an Auburn game in the Superdome in New Orleans, Auburn punters were trying to kick a football off the overhanging scoreboard. Jackson walked over, without warming up, picked up a ball and bounced a throw off the board on his first attempt.

“I've seen him throw the football 80 yards without a warm-up,” said Jack Crowe, Auburn's offensive coordinator. “I've heard he can throw it 100 yards, but after 80, everything else is overkill. He could become our quarterback with three days' work.”

They're still talking about a home run Jackson hit this last spring against the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga. Jackson didn't get a hit his first two times at bat. Each trip, he would look into the press box, where Vince Dooley, the Georgia football coach, was sitting. Dooley would wink. The third time up, Jackson got his full power into a pitch.

The ball soared over the fence in left-center field 385 yards away and caromed off the top of an 85-foot light tower—on the way up. “If it doesn't hit the light tower, it goes 600 feet,” the Auburn folks will tell you. “It was probably more like 425 feet,” said Hal Baird, the Auburn baseball coach and former minor league player. “But it still was the longest home run I've ever seen an amateur hit. I played against Dave Kingman and I never saw him hit one that far.”

After blasting his homer, Jackson looked toward Dooley, who shook his head and laughed. Jackson hit two more home runs in that game and smacked a double off the top of the wall. The Georgia fans booed the last hit. “Can I try out for your football team?” Jackson asked Dooley after the game. “You have to make our baseball team first,” Dooley said with a big smile.

Bo Jackson on the August 26, 1985 cover of The Sporting News

SN

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: AUGUST 26, 1985

• 'Just win, baby.' Inside Al Davis's master plan to restore Raiders
• Review: Vin Scully and Harry Caray's new show
• Why Darryl Strawberry is a new man
• John Riggins, unfiltered
• The Sporting News is about to turn 100 years old

Jackson is already a legendary football figure at Auburn. Only quarterback Pat Sullivan, the 1971 Heisman Trophy winner, is held in more esteem.

And now that the Tigers have abandoned the wishbone and switched to the I-formation, Jackson should have 20 to 30 carries a game instead of his career average of 13. Mix in a line that returns intact from last season's SEC-best total offense unit and combine everything with a far easier early-season schedule than the Tigers have faced in recent years and Jackson, who has never had more than 22 attempts in a game, has the chance to run up some stunning statistics.

“I'm anxious to see him as a tailback,” said Crowe. “I don't think we've had a chance to see the real Bo Jackson yet.” Not that the old Bo was bad: he has already averaged 6.8 yards a carry and gained 2,517 career yards, which is third best in school history even though he missed most of last season after suffering a shoulder separation at the end of a 53-yard run during a 103-yard effort against Texas in the second game on the schedule. He trails Joe Cribbs (3,368 yards) and James Brooks (3,523) on the Auburn career rushing list.

Jackson also has been an instrumental figure in the revitalization of Auburn football.

SN 140:Ranking the greatest 140 sports moments of all-time

Before Coach Pat Dye arrived in 1981 and Jackson came along the following season, the Tigers had won just one SEC title in history and hadn't beaten archrival Alabama in 10 years. In the last three seasons, Auburn has defeated Alabama twice and won the SEC championship in '83.

Jackson, of course, was the hero of both triumphs over Alabama, scoring the winning touchdown on a goal-line leap as a freshman and gaining 256 yards as a sophomore. “When he went over the top and we beat their damn butts, he became an all-time hero,” said Auburn sports information director David Housel.

“I think that if I wanted to lose 30 pounds and become a sprinter and beat Carl Lewis, I could do it.”

• Bo Jackson

Auburn fans can even forgive Jackson for last year's botch against the hated Crimson Tide. He failed to hear an audible and went the wrong way on a fourth-and-goal play from the Alabama 1-yard line. Teammate Brent Full-wood, left without blocking, was stopped for a loss and Auburn was beaten, 17-15. Jackson hid in the showers, forgetting he had gained 118 yards even though it was only his second full game since returning quicker than expected from the shoulder injury.

“I'll tell you this,” said Dye, “if we get in that situation again, Bo Jackson is going to get the ball every time.” And why shouldn't he? Just looking at this 6-1 building block of muscle and power would convince anyone to stand back and let him do the work.

Bo Jackson and Auburn coach Pat Dye

Manny Rubio-Imagn Images

Jackson has a bulging 46-inch chest and 26-inch thighs, which are far too big for the pants that fit his 32-inch waist. But it is his arms that grab your attention. They are the size of tree trunks, rippling with muscles developed the old-fashion way, through natural exercise and not weight-room sweat. He has fullback strength, world-class speed and natural elusiveness and instincts.

Because he wears No. 34 and plays in the Deep South, he usually is compared to Herschel Walker, who wore the same uniform number at Georgia and had many of the same attributes. But Jackson is stronger and relies less on speed and more on moves than Walker.

“When I think of Herschel, I think of a 10.2 sprinter,” said Dye. “When I think of Bo, I think of a 10.3 sprinter who can also high jump 6-10. Bo's just a better all-round athlete.”

Because he has been bred in an unrelenting football environment, it is assumed by almost everyone at Auburn that Jackson will quickly abandon any baseball ambitions for a career in the NFL.

Baseball has always seemed more of a lark for Bo. He ran track as a sophomore at Auburn and hadn't played baseball for two years (he hit .279, with four homers, in 26 games as a freshman) when he went out for the Tigers' squad last spring and became the starting center fielder. Jackson hit .401, with 17 home runs and 43 runs batted in. He also struck out 41 times, but that didn't discourage scouts, who knew that when he put the ball in play, he batted a lusty .557.

Baseball officials expected him to return for his senior year at Auburn, so he was still left when the Angels picked in the 20th round of the June draft. The SEC has a rule forbidding athletes from signing a pro contract in one sport while maintaining their eligibility in everything else, but the Angels were willing to challenge it in court so that Jackson could imitate John Elway and play in the minors for a summer before going back to school for his senior season in football.

But Jackson declined to even go to Southern California on his own and discuss his future with the Angels. If he had, he would have been offered, according to Himes, “the richest contract any draft choice has ever received. We wanted to make it worth his while to give up football and say, 'Yes, I will commit myself to baseball the rest of my life.'“

Jackson has told Dye he will play both football and baseball his senior year and then make up his mind about his future. “He's never lied to me yet,” said Dye.

But Jackson is a great gamesman when it comes to dealing with his ambitions. Throughout his Auburn career, whenever the United States Football League came courting, he would leave the door ajar just enough to intrigue and tantalize both the media and Auburn rooters. He's doing the same now.

“I don't think I will make up my mind until after next spring,” said Jackson. “Everyone says I have to ride buses (in the minors) if I sign with baseball. I hate buses and I don't want to ride them for 3½ years. But who says I have to be there that long? Why can't I get a contract that gets me into the majors right away? How good can I be in baseball? The sky's the limit. All it takes is practice. I think I can step in right now into the majors and play. I just love the game. It's one-on-one with the pitcher when you are hitting and one-on-one with the catcher when you are on base and one-on-one with the hitter when you are on defense and one-on-one with the pitcher when he hits you and you go after him."

But then there is football. “You've got to be a football hero,” says the song, and there's nothing like a football hero at Auburn.

“In football, once I get the ball, it's 11-on-one,” Jackson said, leaning back in his chair. This was serious stuff. He wasn't even chewing on his usual drinking straw. “In baseball, it's concentration. In football, in my case, it's more instinct and fear. Fear of the defense. It's like living my childhood bully days all over."

“I can go out there and run over people and bang people and stomp on people and it's not illegal. I can bang heads all day in games, I can go as long as the lights are on in the stadium. But on Monday through Thursday, for practices, I'd rather be fishing.”

So what is a man to do? “Maybe I'll take these two pieces of paper,” he said, ripping a notebook page in half, “and write 'baseball' on one and 'football' on the other and let someone pull one out of a hat.”

Himes, sitting with his fingers crossed in Anaheim, hopes baseball still has a 50-50 chance.

“He'd go back into the draft pool and we might never have an opportunity to sign him again,” Himes said, “but I'd be delighted as a fan to see him come into our sport. “You don't see this kind of talent come along very often. He has Jim Rice kind of power and Willie Wilson type speed. He's a strength and speed guy, like Kirk Gibson, but he's stronger and bigger and has a better arm than Gibson. He could have an effect on baseball like Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays, and he's bigger and faster than either of them.”

He also could make a Brink's truck full of extra money over a full career if he chose baseball. But football has two attractions: the initial money usually is greater, and playing time as a rookie is almost assured. But he doesn't want to play in a cold-weather NFL city.

In baseball, Jackson would have to spend at least some months in the minors, despite what he might believe, so the gem can be polished. “He needs 600 at-bats, a year and a half,” said Himes. “He's got to refine all that talent. Right now, he's succeeding on raw ability. He needs to add the little subtleties.”

But even now, there are no major questions about Jackson's baseball potential.

Baird, his Auburn baseball coach, said scouts were still unsure last season about his throwing arm. “So this one game against Mississippi State, this guy on second tags up against him,” Baird remembered. “Bo catches the ball in deep center and doesn't even plant his feet right before he throws. The thing comes in on a rope and the guy's out easily at third. I looked in the stands and this scout just tossed his sheet up in the air. He had his answer."

"He came out late for the team, and a week before the season opened he wasn't starting. Then we said to ourselves, he's got to be in there. I mean, that's how close we came to being known as the coaches who kept Bo Jackson on the bench.”

Jackson, a righthand-ed batter, runs to first base in less than four seconds, which is elite speed even for lefthanded hitters. Pitching from the mound with no warmup, his fastball was timed at 88 miles an hour—and that was by a radar gun that tends to give slow readings.

Jackson's impact as an athlete is such that even Dye, who is a throwback to the stereotypical no-non-sense, all-discipline football coach, has been affected. “I may coach the rest of my life and never have another one like him,” said Dye.

In the Auburn system, all players are treated with the same heavy hand, yet the staff stopped berating Jackson early in his career. He still doesn't attack practice with the vigor and concentration the coaches want, but they tolerate his independence while hoping he'll become what Dye calls “an inspirational leader this season.”

Added Crowe: “It was very frustrating for us initially until we learned he has his own habits and style. Bo knows what is best for Bo. We just want him to try to handle it within the framework we set up. If he doesn't, we won't win the national championship.”

Bo Jackson

Manny Rubio-Imagn Images

But there is no question Jackson is prepared to do whatever it takes to win that title for Auburn. “I want people to remember me at Auburn by what I do my senior season,” he said. If he wins the Heisman in the process, it would be the climax to a rags-to-riches life story that would make a great Hollywood movie, if Hollywood cared anymore about old-fashioned heroes.

Jackson, one of 10 children, grew up in poverty in the Birmingham suburb of Bessemer. His mother, a motel worker, and his father, a steelworker, never married. He describes himself as the ultimate neighborhood bully, beating up on smaller kids and getting into constant trouble. His friends said he was as tough as a wild boar and soon everyone was calling him “Bo” instead of using his given name, Vincent.

When he and a bunch of friends killed some hogs during a sixth-grade prank, his mother wanted to send him to reform school, where she had placed an older brother. But the owner of the hogs, a minister, talked her out of it and Jackson soon followed the lead of his buddies and began participating in school sports. He already had realized in the third grade that he had some special gifts. That's when he was outrunning everyone else in grammar school, including the sixth graders.

By the time he was a senior at McAdory High School in the town of McCalla, near Bessemer, he held state track records in the decathlon, the 60- and 100-yard dashes, the 60- and 120-yard high hurdles, the long jump and high jump. He hit .447 as a senior in baseball, slugging 20 home runs in 25 games to tie a national high school record.

The New York Yankees selected him in the second round of the June 1982 draft and were ready to offer him a $250,000 signing bonus, but Jackson wanted no part of a long stay in the minors, despite the big bonus.

He was all-state running back in football, but Crowe said he was “better known as a defensive end. There were two other guys on his team who carried the ball more.” Still, he gained enough yards (1,173 in 108 carries, an average of 10.9 yards a carry) to be courted heavily by Alabama and Auburn.

When a Crimson Tide assistant told him that if he went to Auburn, he'd never beat Alabama, Jackson made up his mind where he was going to school. And that's what made his winning touchdown in the 23-22 victory over Bear Bryant's last Alabama team so sweet his freshman year. “If it hadn't been for sports, I'd be in the state prison,” said Jackson, a man with deep religious convictions who doesn't smoke or drink.

He stuttered when he first went to Auburn and he still speaks deliberately, but he now actively seeks out opportunities to preach to children about “the evils of drugs and drinking. You know what messes up most athletes? Drugs, that's what. I found that the kids will listen to me more than their parents, because they see me knocking heads out there on Saturdays.”

When his pro career is over, Jackson, who is majoring in family and child development, says he hopes to start a boys' club “so I can get the kids off the streets. I saw what almost happened to me. When I was growing up, I had nobody to lead me. I thought I was doing right, but 99¾ percent of the time, what I was doing was all wrong. I don't want that to happen to anyone else.”

But everything at Auburn has not been all headlines and happiness. Worn down by a long season and the harassment of his coaches, he almost left school his freshman year, just days before the Alabama game. He got as far as the bus station, then turned back after sitting there for hours.

Quiet and introverted, he had to push himself to blend socially with his peers and only now is emerging from his cocoon, having become a practical joker of some repute.

SN 140:Auburn's 'Kick Six' comes in at No. 24 in our greatest moments

When the shoulder injury last season derailed both his quest for the Heisman and Auburn's national title hopes, he packed his bag and was ready to return home and consider USFL offers. “A few of my friends knew what I was doing and they called my mother even though I asked them not to,” he said. “She talked me out of leaving.”

Now there are no thoughts of leaving, only of what possibilities the future could hold.

“Money's not important,” said Jackson. “It just causes trouble. I really don't have to prove anything. I've proved to the people back home that I could change from being one of the neighborhood bad guys to one of the nice guys. I've proved I could make something out of myself. All I'm going to do this season is step out on the field and be the meanest SOB out there. Everything else after that will take care of itself.”