This is surely the definitive biography of Bo Jackson. Right off the bat, it's absorbing, entertaining, and mesmerizing. I learn so much first about his growing up in Bessemer. Some overview highlights:
First of all, Bo Jackson came along before ESPN and the time when every super prerp athlete is known about and impossible to hide. The author calls Bo a folk hero because there are stories about Bo, some true and some not, about his feats and since he came along before cell phone cameras and 24/7 video and television, what he did wasn't always recorded. Legends therefore abound with Bo. There are stories about Bo. True or false? There is a story that he once jumped over a Volkswagen. This author says that it is true. No doubt there are other stories that apochphryal. This is typical of a traditional folk hero.
What this meant is not everyone knew what a great athlete Bo was because there was little video or film of him in athletic action. It was all personally seeing him in action. His first love was track, and he could pretty much do it all. But Pat Dye knew and the stupid Alabama coaches who were recruiting him apparently had no clue.
I'll get to it later, but it seems to me there is no certainty about how Vincent Edward Jackson because Bo Jackson although this author ventures a couple of guesses. His father was A.D. Adams, not a Jackson with whom his mother also had children. He grew up in a deeply segregated Bessemer, Alabama. The black world of Bessemer at this time was a world unto itself.
He was one of ten children. Just amazing.
Yesteryear he would have been called a juvenile delinquent. He was not a "nice' kid. He liked to throw rocks. He stole bikes and repainted them. He got into fights constantly. He stole things. The bottom line is that sports saved him; otherwise he might have ended up in prison.
The author tells a true story of a flight by the Chicaco White Sox baseball team of which Bo was on the plane. The plane caught fire in flight. The passengers expected to die. But Bo took charge and kept everyone calm as possible and the plane landed safely. But it is NOT true that he entered the cockpit and flew the plane himself safely, Hence, a legendary story befitting a folk hero.
The big man with the bald head would show up on occasion.
On rare occasions.
That would be A.D. Adams, Bo's father. He would show up randomly. A quarter of football. A few innings of baseball. Emerging from a shadowy corner then poof! he was gone. What was his motivation? Guilt? Or maybe the dawning realization that his offspring was something special. Who knows.
Whatever his motivation it brought Bo no joy, Bo resented and loathed his biological father. He saw his mother working herself to death and must have considered his father a deadbeat.
The scouts began coming to Bessemer in the summer of 1981. The scouts always had a notebook and pen. They saw in Bo a finely sculptured body inspiring awe; Where did this body come from I personally wonder? P. 48
Already this Bo Jackson was no boy,. He was a man. P. 49
He was raw but showed flashes of absolute brilliance. P. 49
Even at this young age, Bo could make dazzling plays on the baseball field. P.49
He was from the beginning the stuff of legends that people talked about. Did you see that???
Bo was reluctant to talk and to trust and it wasn't all due to his stutter. P. 49
In the summer games of 1981 the Dad was always in the shadows. P. 49
He didn't do small talk. P. 50
This book makes me think Bo Jackson is not an intellectual but he is one interesting dude.
Freelon Abbot. Freelon Abbot. Freelon Abbot. Finally the truth comes out. Abbot was a local in the Bessemer area. He had been a star baseball player at McAdoory. He was also an Auburn booster. He started slipping Bo money in high school. Ah, ha! Now I get it. :) P,. 51
Pat Dye never laid eyes on Bo Jackson until the spring of 1981 from some grainy film. He said he'd never seen anything like it meaning Bo's athletic prowess. P. 51
One of the biggest surprises in this book is to learn that Bo Jackson was a placekicker in high school. P. 62 I had no idea.
Bo was known more in HS for track than football. Good thing for that booster and Pat Dye who recognized his potential that Auburn acquired his services. P. 64
His senior baseball season he his .493 for McAdory. His heroics on the baseball field field were legendary. P. 67
In his senior season Auburn and its local booster had to be concerned that Bo would opt to sign with a major league baseball team. Amazing maybe that he didn't. P. 67 MG
Bo wanted to be the first in his family to go to college. Amazing that he turned down the money to play baseball instead. What did Auburn give him if anything? P. 68
Auburn tried to blockade Bo from baseball people. P. 69
He was a superman on the baseball field his junior year. P. 69
The Yankees spread lies about Bo to keep him from going to Auburn. I despise the NY Yankees. P. 75
Bo had no idea the Yankees & the Red Sox were a thing. P. 76
Reverse psychology if I understand it. Auburn put out the lies that Bo was getting paid to attend Auburn rather than sign with the Yankees to mislead the Bronx Bombers, or so this book would lead the reader to believe. And it worked. P. 77
Bo arrived to the Auburn campus a mere 10 days after graduating from HS to a campus that was 985 white. P. 78
It's hard to fathom that Bo Jackson moved to Auburn in the summer of 1982 40 YEARS AGO.
I have forgotten that Auburn ditched the wishbone for Bo's senior season in favor of the I-formation to feature Bo's running.
When Bo won the Heisman in 1985 there was real drama. He was the favorite, but it was not clear that he would win. There was uncertainty. There was the Iowa QB Chuck Long and the Michigan States running back Lorenzo White who had rushed for over 2,000 yards. When Bo was announced there was celebrating in Auburn. There wass celebrating at the home of Florence Bond in Bessemer. Great relief from all Auburn people. P. 196
After winning the Heisman, Bo returned to New York for the Heisman banquet bringing his Mother, fiancee, AND his father along. In the four years he had been his relationship with his father had improved A BIT. P. 200
Bo's twenty minute speech was Bo at his finest. He recognized his parents. Referred to his fiancee as his girlfriend. Spoke well showing off the improvement in his speaking. P. 201
I had forgotten that Bo lost his senior season of baseball when he was misled into taking a plane sent by Hugh Culverhouse to visit the Tampa Bay Bucs. The SEC rules were that that made him a pro so no more college sports. He was misled by a Bessemer man who was in effect acting as an agent who lied to Bo about the trip being okay.
Bo was the #1 pick in the 1986 NFL draft selected by Tampa Bay even though he did not desire to play for the Bucs. P. 219
Bo gets his first major league hit as a Kansas City Royal off of an aging Steve Carlton. P. 246
George Brett said Bo did not have good baseball instincts and knew little about the game. P. 247
Bo had something of an arrogant air about himself. P. 247
Bo would refer to himself in third person. "Bo thinks. . . . " Certainly self-indulgent and arrogant. P. 248
Early on Bo didn't know much baseball but his God-given athletic ability amazed everyone. P. 251
Was Bo the second coming of Jim Thorpe? P. 253
Once Bo's Auburn years pass, his story becomes much less interesting.
Bo was drafted by the Raiders even as he was acting like he was just a baseball player. He had married Linda after seeing his 3-month old son Garrett for the first time. He and Linda bought a house and seemed to be settling into Kansas City. He was still a work in progress on the baseball field. Moments of physical feats were great but a lack of experience was showing.
As Bo transitioned to try the NFL with the Raiders, he incurred the displeasure of his Kansas City Royal teammates. P. 270
Bo is endearing to the Raider players speaking of himself in the third season. Al Davis does not like Marcus Allen. The Raiders admire Bo's speed in the 40 and his physique. P. 276
A common comment from his teammates was that Bo wasn't likable. P. 346
One criticism of Jackson is that his statistics were misleading, that his average gain was padded by one long gain per game, and that he wasn't consistent. P. 347
In 1990 Bo was selected for his first Pro Bowl even as he decided that he would play only one more NFL season. P. 348
Having been raised with an absent father, Bo knew the pain of the ignored child. P. 348.
He became a husband and father when he left work. P. 348
Bo never loved football. It was a brutal and barbaric. He did not want his sons to play football. He was not close to any of his Raider teammates. They were merely coworkers. P. 348
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