Episode 10: ESPN LIED about Bo Jackson!: Part 1.

Today we’re uncovering the incredible early years of Bo Jackson—the high school and college phenom who set the stage for one of the most remarkable athletic careers in history. From his record-breaking performances at McAdory High School in Alabama to his legendary college football career with the Auburn Tigers, where he won the Heisman Trophy in 1985, Bo Jackson was destined for greatness. We'll explore his dominance on the field, his track and baseball accomplishments, and the moments that made him a household name before he even turned pro. Whether you're searching for Bo Jackson's high school stats, Auburn Tigers highlights, or the story behind his rise to Heisman glory, this episode has it all. Join us as we dive into the origins of a sports legend!"

Credits:
Haylee Wolf: narration.
Mason Enis: theme music.

Copyright @ PineStreetProductions 2024. Any illegal reproduction of this content will result in immediate legal action.

Transcript

[Music] welcome sports fans to Gen X classic

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athletes from our generation this is Gen X classic sports sports talk for Gen xers by gen xers three two one all right

guys so this will be I can't even remember now I never know the episode numbers episode nine or 10 will be about

uh basically this is our great athletes series I'm going to call it because when I started this thing and talked to you

guys about it one of the things I said was yeah it's it's about Gen X things but that includes athletes teams and

events ball games so forth so um for me

before we jump into the specifics this is about Bo Jackson but what got me started on this was I was on vacation

during the summer and I needed a book to read and we went in a bookstore and I found about a 600 page

book about Jim Thorp and y'all probably remember the old Bert

Lancaster movie about Jim Thorp the old black and white uh Bert Lancaster movie

yeah me too I grew up watching that and I love Jim Thorp and I'm always

fascinated with him and so I read that book and man I'm telling you even though

he has zero to do with Gen X we will do an episode on that because there was so

much stuff in there I didn't know and what that got me to thinking about because 15 different times in there he's

mentioned as the greatest athlete ever of course and I think officially later

on in life he was deemed the greatest athlete of the first half of the 20th century because he was still alive in

the 50s or whatever and they had this vote and he was the top athlete from the early 1900s to

1950 but that got me to thinking about or remembering that ESPN did a list I

don't know if y'all remember but uh several years ago ESPN did a list of the greatest athletes of the 20th

century so by way of introducing Bo Jackson I'm gonna tell you or I'm GNA

ask you first of all what do you guys how do you define great athlete I mean

this is the kind of stuff we talk about over Golf and you know whatnot for eons

over games of pool back in the day what's what make what's what's a great athlete is it is a great ball is a ball

player and an athlete the same thing I mean this is just to kick us off I mean I there's no wrong

answer what do y'all think is an athlete and and ball player the same kind of

discussion or they different or is it does it matter is it just semantics or what well are golfers

athletes um yeah because of so I would say so because of all the hand ey coordination and things um

involved with that and you know you could say the same about race car drivers you know the

hand I was going that way too uh it was a trick question so I

know because we've talked about it before right there goes there goes Casey

again but we'll get him back yeah Mark I mean it's it's if hand die coordination means an athlete then of course any race

driver is fits that right right

does a ball have to be required I don't think a ball has to be required that's what I'm getting at um I think a great

athlete is anyone that can step into a sport and it just seems natural to them

they don't necessarily have to be great at it they don't have to set records but I think they just step into

it and it seems to be something that they can just do easily

yeah I think that's a big part of it Casey is as an athlete and a ball player the same discussion two different things

do you have to have a ball involved to be a great athlete or what do you think just generally no I think

uh sorry I lost you for a second there no we know we're just moving on without

you we don't care no uh yeah athletes yeah no it doesn't have to have you don't have to have a ball uh yeah I

agree I I read somewhere about the reflexes of of Open Wheel drivers Indie

drivers and such and probably NASCAR too and I was stunned at some of the guys they recorded their reflexes and hand

eye coordination and it was off the charts for all of them um I'll tell you what I I looked up the actual word

athlete and it says the D dictionary says one who participates in number one physical

exercise or Sports especially competitive

events event and Sport not the same thing either and the second definition

is one possessing the requisite strength agility and endurance for success in

sports so there you go Mark there's some physical traits thrown in there um I

used to think a ball had to be involved but that totally leaves out track and field for the most part right right

right so so after reading about Thorp I realized he excelled in some things that

didn't involve a ball and then he excelled and things it did so all right so having

said that where do y'all think Bo Jackson landed on ESPN's list of the

hund greatest now the the terminology is the ESPN greatest athletes of the 20th

century anything that starts with a 1900 where do you think Bo Jackson landed on that

list just to just to kick this off uh Mark what you think top 10 Casey

says top 10 Mark what do you think I don't think he's even in the top 10 I'm I'm going to say top

15 by the way everybody this is two of our founding fathers Mark and Casey on here with me tonight um actually Bo

Jackson it made me mad how far down the list he was Bo Jackson's number 72 on the

list out of a hundred there is no well

knowing what we know about ESPN you know some of that doesn't surprise me

but there's no way on Earth he's only the 72nd best athlete of the 20th

century are you kidding me that's that's that's

surprising well yeah because what do we know about Bo before we even talk about this what do we already know about Bo

Jackson maybe the best combination of a size strength and speed That Ever Walked

the the planet you know that kind of thing natural did not work out natural he says

he yeah didn't have time never never worked out he felt like there was a waste of time he he just had a

natural he just had the natural body for

it yeah I mean he's famous per saying he didn't like to practice he

didn't like to work out um it just came that so I don't know well how about the

fact how about the fact that he played professionally in Major League Baseball and the NFL right and was a Heisman

Trophy winner how I mean just the the the two major sports not that he was the

first to do that but in the 20th century especially the second half of the 20th

century that didn't happen and play at the highest level of the

competition just yeah so to get us in the mood of where we're going with this

let me give you the top five and and you tell all right so Michael Jordan is number one and and I'm I'm not propon a

proponent of even that necessarily I'm just telling you what the list is Michael Jordan ended up number one Babe

Ruth ended up number two Muhammad Ali is number three and by the way I kind of

see all of that and then Jim Brown is number four then you got Way Wayne Gretsky and

then Jesse Owens and then Jim Thorp came in at number

seven so I mean I don't disagree with that but I don't agree with Bo Jackson

being at freaking 72 no I don't either and and Casey

you you said you said top 10 I'm thinking yeah he hit he needs to at least be in the top

10 yeah you would think what they all call now recency bias would even have him in the top 15 or 20 meaning you know

he played for you know 30 years ago and okay so I just wanted to introduce this

by saying we know his reputation we he's on film he's on YouTube you can watch what he did as opposed to some of these

people and that's where he landed so having said all of that there's a couple

of stats we'll talk about at the very end of his discussion that to me seals the deal but but we'll get back to that

all right so y'all looked at the notes um I think we all knew bo uh he's born

in 1962 in Alabama I think we all knew that he was actually not much older than

Mark and I really he's he's not that much older um Bo was what in college

when we were in high school or so something like that yeah um I don't know how you pronounce

this but but for those who don't know he played it is that madori or Madie High

School MC a d o r y m madori or mcadie

high school I really don't know I don't either but he in football I

couldn't find a ton of stats but it said he had uh you know the the typical

thousand yards rushing he had one thing that popped out was 10.9 yards a carry

in high school that's pretty good uh 17 touchdowns I

mean there's tons of guys that do that but I did think it was interesting that he had uh he played running back

defensive end kicker and kick returner I thought that was pretty cool I'd never heard that he was had y'all ever heard

he played kicker no yeah underline that and said you know had no idea in other

words he never came off the field no he never came off the field and I didn't look up what size classification he

played in but I mean you know they they take football in Alabama pretty seriously so even if it was two or

threea he's he's never coming off the field for sure

um uh there I didn't find I'm sure it's out there but I didn't take the time to look for any footage of him or anything

playing high school ball I'm sure there's some out there uh for football

um baseball anything jump out you jump out at you from his baseball career that

I mentioned in the notes from high

school batting average yeah he batted 500 and once

again I don't care what class you're playing 500 is it's a pretty dang good B it's a pretty good batting average with

20 20 home runs um I don't see it on the notes here

um but I was just doing some research myself before we got on here and I

didn't write it down I love it how many how many no hitters did he throw in high

school did you see that I I have okay in my mind I thought I've read that before

that he had some and was a an excellent pitcher but I didn't have that in my notes but I thought I had heard that

before I'm gonna look it up real quick well along those lines obviously he

could pitch it said he struck out 14 in their County championship game which is nothing to sneeze at either at any level

and we glossed over it but he tied the National Record for home runs in a season with 20 home runs even now with

the with the phenomenal bat technology that they have 20 home runs is pretty good in the Casey right yeah I didn't

play with anybody none of us ever at our school knew anybody hit 20 home runs for sure and we had pretty good baseball

team so that's a lot of home runs for a high school kid

you see it anything about the no hitters it just said multiple uh

multiple well I mean there's video highlights of him throwing from The Outfield in major leagues and obviously

he gained arm strength but uh the guy had an absolute cannon from The Outfield I mean I could watch video all day long

him throwing people out from right field to Third and from center field to home and that kind of stuff he had a

Canon uh Casey did you know Bo Jackson ran track or does it make sense to you that he ran track in high school uh I

mean it makes sense being the athlete that he was I didn't know that yeah there was something about that

that's pretty funny the note um at the at the the fourth bullet note on his high school career was yeah he won the

decathlon twice yeah he won the triple jump state record triple jump yeah he had a state

record in the high jump none of that surprises me but my but the note that I laughed the most about was that he hated

the 1500 meter run part of the uh the cathline so much that he made sure he

had enough points accumulated to not have to run it at all because it was the last

competition I mean impressive you know who else do you know who else I've read that

about Jim Thorp he did the same thing he hat and and it makes sense when you

think about how they're built uh B was very very muscular and heavier 220 220

lbs there's no way he liked the distance running there's there's no chance he lik distance running and Jim Thorp did the

exact same thing Jim Thorp won all of his uh he and de CAF Lines by avoiding

the the final event which was always the distance run by scoring enough points to

win it without having to do it I thought that was I mean that's just hysterical to me so b's no dummy he knows to avoid

that dang long run did y'all know the the the bullet

point down at the bottom of his high school about when he got drafted out of high school did y'all know

that yeah that I did know yeah I thought it was very

interesting Casey did you know that that he got drafted by the Yankees out of high school Bo did didn't know that no I

didn't either um and by the way take note of what round it was in

second round in the 1982 Major League Baseball draft that dude could play some baseball if he got drafted that

high just to jump in here I'm I'm going back and looking something I was trying

to find that the what I learned about the no hitters and this this is

funny um it's a story written here about his high school career and it said Bo

Jackson attempted to steal 91 bases in high school he attempted to steal

91 he stole 90 he got thrown out once that's that's a pretty good

percentage and I don't know how big he was in high school but I'm assuming that was 200 plus pounds coming at you around

you know every time he did CU you know he play he was 220 or 30 in the pros he

had to be 195 and up you know and High School you would think

sure which begs the question if we if we if we see that he was that good at

running bases and and therefore got drafted in the second round and could hit home runs and hit for average he got

drafted in the second round so does it make you wonder why the hell did he go to Auburn to play

football I mean you know have you have you did you ponder that at all because I did second round's pretty high and yeah

nice contract I'm sure yeah I mean it makes you

wonder I'm I'm sure you know he could have made some money going straight to I mean there's a sign yeah there's a

signing bonus there but maybe he didn't feel like he was ready and who knows I have I've never read or heard him talk

about it but maybe he just loved football more but um second round that's

pretty pretty salty out of high school okay so that kind of does away

with high school U what do you guys remember about Bo in college I mean we I

guess I should say it this way do y'all have a first memory sort of of Bo Jackson period I'm assuming it would be

high uh college but any thoughts have you thought about just kind of where you heard of the guy or

whatever I don't know um I don't really remember watching him too much in high school uh unless he was playing like LSU

or Arkansas someone that I was probably watching at that time I just knew he was

good yeah Casey do you have you're younger than us do you have any memory of him not really in

college um if I'm not mistaken Auburn played Arkansas in Memphis or something

one year in a bowl game maybe the blue bonnet or something like that does that ring a bell at all that's not the is

that the blue is that the Bonnet no that's Liberty right yeah Liberty B yeah

so Arkansas played him in a bowl game back then um man Arkansas fans hate me

because I always stumble over these simple things but I can't remember what bowl it was in I know the Liberty is in

Memphis I just don't remember what bowl they played him in um anyway I remember

him from back then because of that game I just that's where I sort of um started

hearing the about the running back but who was the big running back in the SEC right before him I mean they kind of

came in there one right after the other he was right after who herel herel

Hershel yeah I mean bo bo came in there uh right after Hershel and who was one of Bo's teammates speaking of two sport

athletes who was one of Bo's teammates uh that ended up in Major League Baseball I think they were teammates

Frank Thomas didn't he play uh baseball and football at Auburn both

I want to say you're correct I think they overlapped at least a year I mean you know I'm I didn't look it up I'm

just going off of fuzzy memory here but Frank uh obviously picked well

when he chose Major League Baseball but I thought he play tight end or defensive tackle or something at

Auburn and anyway so Hershel leaves the SEC and goes to make money from uh

Donald Trump and the New York New Jersey General and um that leaves Bo to kind of take

over the SEC as the man what was that was that glossed over that that's not

the NFL so that was the what uh yeah I get well that's a future topic but yeah

also during the Gen X days when we were younger uh the usfl rose up and and

Hershel instead of going to the NFL Hershel got drafted instead by the spring football league the

usfl and that was owned by Donald Trump New Jersey generals and I believe Doug

fluty was their quarterback and Hershel was their running back if I'm noten I don't I don't

remember yeah Casey and the big deal was that Trump trump was offering money man

it was like a million dooll signing bonus or something to go there and the NFL wasn't paying that kind of scratch

yet in fact it was almost scandalous wasn't it Mark because he chose the usfl

he was the Marquee name we're diverging here on a future topic

but yes so he's not in the NFL Bo comes along he kind of takes over the secc as

a back um Pat Dy of course was the legendary Auburn

coach um I don't I don't know if he played as a freshman I didn't see any stats but he

was uh he rushed did he he did okay I know I know he had 1,200 yards as a

sophomore um I think he I'd have to look up his stats but the reason he went to Auburn was because

have you ever heard that story no that's why that's why you're

that's why you're on here to add things to the discussion so uh of course he was from

Alabama um his family huge Alabama fans love Paul

beon uh Bryant came in recruited him Sat at his kitchen table looked him in the

face and told him that he he did not play freshman never had never will oh and you

will not you will not start but you will start as sophomore so he left Pat D came in and

said you will start as a freshman you will play and that's why he went to

alurn wow I I've never heard that that's great yeah he he said his family almost

dis owned him over it but of course you know his history now but uh but yeah you

know he said he he after that he didn't have anything to do for Paul Bear BR was

that a just a standard Bear Bryant uh tradition rule standard whatever you want to call

it really yeah yeah you just back then he didn't play freshman you sat on the

bench and you learned and you you earned your

St b b knew he was good enough to not have to do that I mean I would think you make

exceptions when you can look at Bow and street clothes back then and probably tell there was something special about

the dude right you would you would think he would well oh you know that totally makes

sense um he rushed for I didn't have numbers as a junior but as a senior he

rushed for 17 00 yards that's a lot in 11 game season he rushed for 8 829 yards

and nine touchdown in 1982 as a true

freshman okay so so he went 800 then he went 1,200 and

then I have another Gap and then he went 1,700 so right by the time he got to his

senior year I knew who I knew who he was because he was he was on some of those Saturday afternoon LSU alurn whoever

games and was in Sports Illustrated and you know who he was I'm going to say and

I didn't look it up but I'm going to say six feet tall 225 pounds

probably 62 23 okay so 62 230 wow he's

taller than I thought he was okay we'll get to how that affected

thing his size uh in a minute um so 1985

rolls around and he won the Heisman Trophy I guess that was I didn't look up who all was in the running but that was

probably a no-brainer if he had 1700 yards

rushing oh so uh Chuck long from Iowa

Chuck long Chuck long long from Iowa was

uh the runner up but it was close vat and

I can't tell you who Chuck long is Chuck long had blonde curly hair

quarterback for Iowa Haw uh hawkey what Hawkeye is that right yeah Iowa yeah

Hawkeye and yeah not Iowa State he was Iowa and he played very sparingly in the

NFL I can't remember who drafted him but he did not do much in the NFL so I think

they called that one correctly okay so B is it all

he's playing football that's the easy stuff to know but Bo did other stuff too his first two years he ran track to no

one's surprise and he qualified for the 100 meters both of those years I didn't

see that he ran the 100 meters in NCAA trials I just said that he qualified for

them so I don't know if he ran them or not I I didn't get that information and if he didn't my guess is it's because of

the other third sport that he was playing in college which was

baseball here's a here's a couple of other notables from that that hman

trophy 85 Chuck long Bo Jackson who else

test Jim Jim Everett uh Chris Chris Everett and

Thurman Thomas any test of verie that that scrub

that only lasted about 20 years in the pros Thurman Thomas said 1500 153

yards that year wow Thurman Thomas had a big year didn't he that's that's Thurman

Thomas played in four Super Bowls and in the Hall of Fame if I'm not mistake is he in the Hall of Fame I don't remember but he he was

obviously a quality back okay so he won wins the Heisman

that's his senior year but meanwhile he's running track one of the fastest dudes in the in the

country and he played three seasons of baseball and there was a complete controversy there that I forgot about

but I looked it up I don't know if y'all looked any more into it than my notes but between being injured and

things like that he basically played three seasons of baseball at Auburn and that's because he was shut

down ineligible most of his senior season meaning at some point he they shut him

down after he started that season because he visited the Tampa Bay Bucks

on a pre-nfl draft visit to Tampa Bay

and and they sh they shut him down now so let's stop a minute so the

controversy was I heard him say this in an interview I did watch this he said that his the

guy that he assumed was going to be his agent and the Tampa Bay Bucks all

assured him that it was okay for him to visit their facility now now think about it the

draft is in April they're playing college baseball somewhere in all that

post New Year time frame he goes and visits the Bucks

NCAA somehow found out and declared that was an illegal thing to

do while he was still playing NCAA Sports and so even though it was a

completely different sport it had nothing to do with what he did on Auburn's baseball team they shut him

down as soon as that M was made public right so do you remember that kind of

Mark at all from back then I I don't remember it but it but later on there's some things that came out that I do

remember and and it kind of made sense yeah it's I've seen interviews and just

uh documentaries on it so yeah I mean that's how I found out about it so it was obviously after football season he

as a Jun yeah as a junior at Auburn he batted 400 in a 42 game in 42 games

that's pretty good I mean the SEC has pretty good baseball you know uh he

batted 338 I think for a career at Auburn nothing to sneeze at uh and he

had 17 home runs in one season at Auburn so um the average was good the power's

there obviously and um he's probably swinging those old gray eastn with the

green print on them if I'm uh remembering correctly what I would call a dead bat

so here's what happened I don't know if y'all read any more into it but here's what happened over the Tampa Bay deal

so they kick him off of the NCAA comes down hard on him and says you're done

with baseball he gets so mad at Tampa Bay that now it's April he's the Heisman

Trophy winning running back the NC or the NFL draft is coming up and Tampa Bay

is still communicating with him and say we're going to draft you because they had the number one overall pick in the

85 draft and they said we're going to draft you and Bo told them if you draft

me I will never play a down for you because you got me kicked off of Auburn's you know you shut down my

baseball season I will never play for you ever so don't bother drafting me anybody know what

happen um they drafted him anyway yeah yeah that's right they drafted him anyway

and so he just goes to play baseball right so it's really I mean it

I'm not making it very sound very dramatic and that's my fault but I'm not good at storytelling this because I'm

not always sure the dates but yeah so they get him shut down they tell him they're going to draft him he tells them

not to April rolls around and what they do they draft Him Anyway by the way on the way to doing that they had a senior

day at Auburn where he ran a 4.13 40 yard dash is that Ste

I read somewhere where that was the fastest ever is it does that still hold

well there's there's NFL combine times and then there's Pro Day times his was technically a pro day and not at the

combine I don't think so uh there's fast there's a he didn't make the combine

record but as far as their as far as Pro days I don't know anybody's ever beat that but I mean you know these things

get exaggerated over time but if this is an exaggeration I saw in an

interview I don't know where I saw it I don't remember uh and it but it was B saying this he said yeah he was clocked

at 4.12 but he was also clocked on another and under four like

3.9 well that's that's probably stretched over that stretched a lot but

I mean that's just you know yeah I mean it doesn't it doesn't

matter even if1 even if that's exaggerated by a little

bit it's still sub four let's even say it's still sub

4.3 that's Olympic level running for a 230 pound

dude okay so that's phenomenal so yeah so he runs that before the draft it's

it's insane that kind of surely they'd never seen that they couldn't have ever seen a guy that big run that fast yeah I

mean I've seen Casey stretch it out to I I know I seen him run probably 43 at one

time think yeah our I think so yeah I could probably run four minutes and 30

seconds in a 4 Coach Wayman said they he yeah his internet failed again oh okay

he's not on here okay so Mark uh he'll get on when he can so yeah so they

drafted him anyway so you were right you've already said it me used to say they clocked me with the Sund

dolls yeah a calendar hourglass

yeah so okay so he Tampa Bay made him mad they drafted him he said I'm not

playing for you you got me suspended all right guys so I think we're going to stop right there and we

will pick this discussion up uh on the next episode with Bo Jackson part two I

appreciate you guys joining me today and uh yeah that was a good one thank you for joining us on Gen X classic Sports

where Nostalgia meets The Thrill of the game tune in next time for more insightful discussions and memorable

moments brought to you by Pine Street Productions until then stay passionate about sports and keep the memories alive

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