Royals History: Remembering Bo Jackson 30 Years Later

The KC Royals signed the legendary Bo Jackson 30 years ago, shocking the sports world. Everyone expected the former Heisman Trophy winner at Auburn University to play football after the Tamba Bay Bucceneers made him the no. 1 overall pick of the 1986 NFL Draft.

Instead, Bo Jackson signed for less money with the then defending World Champion Kansas City Royals, who had picked Jackson in the fourth round of baseball’s June draft.

For those of you too young to remember, this was earth-shattering news. Bo Jackson was a college football legend. Few people believed that Bo would playing anything but football when Tampa Bay made him the no. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft. Heck, most people were barely aware he even played baseball.

Rather than accept his coronation as one of the NFL’s elite running backs, Bo Jackson joined the AA Memphis Chicks in Kansas City’s farm system. Even after Bo Jackson signed with the Royals and joined the Chicks, many thought it was just a negotiating ploy to get every last dollar from the notoriously skinflint Tampa Bay owner Hugh Culverhouse..

Not so. Hugh Culverhouse had offended Bo Jackson to the point where he absolutely refused to don the Tampa Bay Buccaneers uniform under any circumstances. In fact, Bo Jackson’s agent called the Kansas City Royals front office to specifically inform them that Bo wanted to play baseball, which caused them to draft him.

Bo Jackson was one of the greatest athlete’s of the 20th century, who could pretty much do anything that he set his mind to on the athletic field. Had he wanted, he probably could have won an Olympic gold medal in the decathlon as well as qualifying for the sprint team. Instead, he chose to star in football land baseball at Auburn University, and ran track on the side.

However, Bo Jackson began making waves before taking the field against collegiate competition, which is where our story begins:

Next: Bo Jackson Refuses To Talk To Yankees

Bo Jackson Refuses To Sign With Yankees

Bo Jackson’s athletic talent jumped out at McDory High in Alabama played football, baseball, and tranck and field. He hit 20 home runs in 25 games in baseball. He rushed for 1,173 yards in 108 carries (10,9 ypc) with 17 touchdowns. In track and field, he won two state decathlon championships.

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The Yankees had taken Jackson in the second round of the 1982 draft. The New York Yankee’s scout couldn’t even get inside Bo Jackson’s house, largely because he had promised his mother that he would go to college (the only one of his family of eight children). George Steinbrenner fired him.

Kansas City Royals scout Kenny Gonzalez had developed a relationship with Bo Jackson’s mother, who was a maid at Ramada Inn at the time. He regularly stopped in to have coffee with her during breaks when he was in the area, and she had informed him that Bo was going to college. Even so, Gonzalez maintained the relationship over the years, even after Jackson was starring at Auburn University in the same three sports that he had in high school:

Next: Bo Jackson At Auburn

The Collegiate Multi-Sport Star

Most Bo Jackson retrospectives just look at his professional career and simply mention that he won a Heisman trophy in football as well as playing baseball at Auburn. That leaves a whole lot out of his story, because Bo Jackson was already a sports legend before ever stepping onto a professional sports field.

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The video clip above gives a hint just how much of a natural athlete he was. Then Auburn baseball coach Hal Baird remarked that Bo Jackson could get his baseball eye back at the plate in two to three days after finishing his football season. For everyone else, it was two to three week process to tune up for the season.

Auburn track athlete Harvey Glance won an Olympic Gold medal in 1976 as a member of the men’s 4 x 100 relay team. He had equaled the then world record in the 100m by running 9.9 twice in 1976. Glance said in the above interview that he had defeated Bo Jackson three times in a footrace during his prime at Auburn University (Glance was a world class track star through the late 80’s), but that Bo had pushed him to the wire every time.

Looking at Glance, he was a typical sprinter: slender, but strong at 5’8″ 160 lbs. Bo Jackson looked like a tank by comparision at 6’1″ 220 lbs. The only other player at the time that had combined that kind of size with similar speed was Georgia running back Hershel Walker, who had won the 1982 Heisman trophy for Gerorgia’s national championship football team.

Running backs who combined the speed of a tailback with the power of a fullback were a new breed in the ’80’s. But there’s never been one with the pure speed of Bo Jackson. According to videotape estimates, he ran a 4.12 at the 1986 NFL combine: which would be a record if not for the lack of electronic timing.

Bo Jackson, Football Stats At Auburn University

Bo Jackson, Baseball Stats At Auburn University

Next: Royals Draft Bo Jackson

Royals Draft Bo Jackson

Bo Jackson turned down a $1 million bonus offer after the California Angels drafted him in the 1st round of the 1985 June draft. To put that offer in proper perspective, it wasn’t until five years later that Scott Boras secured the first $1 million bonus for an amateur player when he landed a $1.1 million deal for pitcher Brien Taylor from the Yankees in 1991.

Many baseball executives assumed that Bo turned down the Angels because he intended to play football. Instead, Bo Jackson had promised his mother that he would finish his degree at Auburn.

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Most people believed there was little chance that Bo Jackson would choose baseball over football after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers made him the no. 1 over pick in the 1986 NFL Draft. What few knew was that Tampa Bay owner Hugh Culverhouse enraged the 23-year-old Bo Jackson by destroying his NCAA eligibility, thus denying him the opportunity to finish his senior year on Auburn’s baseball team.

Culverhouse did this by flying Bo Jackson to Tampa Bay before the NFL draft in March of 1986. Bo Jackson asked if accepting a free plane ride from the Buccaneers would impact his NCAA eligibility, and Tampa Bay assured him that they had checked and it would be fine. So, Bo Jackson took the visit.

However, the Buccaneers were wrong, or didn’t check, and Bo lost his eligibility over the issue. Jackson even came to believe that the Buccaneers had lied to him on purpose, to prevent him from playing baseball that spring.

On the traditional 20-80 grading scale, Bo Jackson might have rated 80’s across the board

As narrated in the video above by long-time KC Royals scout Art Stewart, Kenny Gonzalez had developed a long-term relationship with Bo Jackson’s mother. Due to this association, Bo Jackson’s agent contacted the Kansas City Royals front office and told them that Bo wanted to visit what was then called Royals Stadium. During that visit, Jackson told KC Royals officials that he wanted to play baseball for the Kansas City Royals.

Then general manager John Schuerholz wondered if Bo Jackson was using the Royals as leverage against the Buccaneers and waited to take Jackson until the fourth round. With Jackson still on the board, apparently having only informed the Kansas City Royals of his intention to choose baseball, they grabbed the most physically gifted baseball player the game has ever seen.

As Art Stewart indicated above, on the traditional 20-80 grading scale, Bo might have rated 80’s across the board. Honestly, I think Jackson’s hit tool was more like a 60, but his speed, power, arm, and glove probably were legit 80 grades.

Next: Bo Jackson Signs And Debuts In Kansas City

Bo Jackson Signs With Raiders

Tampa Bay’s rights to Bo Jackson lapsed after one year, and the Los Angeles Raiders picked him in the fifth round of the 1987 NFL draft. No one thought much of the move at the time, since Jackson had chosen baseball and was currently playing for the Kansas City Royals.

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People should have known better. Bo Jackson shocked the world once again on July 14, 1987 when he announced that he would play football for the Raiders after his baseball season ended as an “off-season hobby”.

In 1987, the still raw Bo Jackson struggled through his first full season in major-league baseball with a .235/.296/.455 triple slash with 22 home runs in 434 plate appearances. Once his season was complete, he joined the Raiders in October. He displaced Future-Hall-Of-Fame running back Marcus Allen from the tailback spot, and played a total of seven games in 1987. Jackson merely rushed for 554 yards on 81 carries: an absurd 6.8 yards per carry average.

Bo Jackson was skilled enough at his off-season hobby to move the great Marcus Allen to fullback in the middle of Allen’s prime at 27-years-old. Highlights from that season include a 91 yard touchdown run on Monday Night Football, and running over hyped Oklahoma All-American linebacker Brian Bosworth who had been drafted by the Seattle Seahawks.

Bo Jackson might have still been developing his baseball skills, but he clearly possessed All-Star talent as a football player.

Next: Bo Jackson Makes NFL And MLB All-Star Games

Bo Jackson Makes NFL And MLB All-Star Games

By 1989, Bo Jackson’s baseball skills had developed to the point that he was named to the All-Star team. He was in the middle of a season in which he hit .256/.310/.495 with 32 home runs, 105 RBIs, and 26 stolen bases.

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Bo Jackson had clearly established himself as someone capable of the most spectacular plays anyone had ever seen on a baseball diamond. What’s crazy is that Bo Jackson’s baseball skills still lacked refinement. He often made poor reads in the outfield and failed to cut down on his swing with two strikes at the plate, leading to a lot of strikeouts.

Even so, his tremendous natural ability was obvious and he continued to improve with experience.

In that season’s MLB All-Star game in Anaheim, Bo Jackson stopped a National League rally in the top of the first inning with a nice running catch in left field, then lead off the top of the first by slamming a home run off NL starter Rick Sutcliffe. He later stole a base, becoming the first player to both hit a home run and steal a base in the same All-Star game.

Oh yeah, Jackson was also named the All-Star Game MVP. I guess he belonged with the best players in baseball.

Bo Jackson also made the Pro Bowl in football after the 1990 season. Bo Jackson rushed for a career high 950 yards in 173 attempts in 1989 (5.5 ypc), and followed up that season with 698 yards in 125 attempts in 1990 (5.6 ypc). Bo had clearly shown he possessed superstar ability in both football and baseball.

Next: Media Sensation

Media Sensation

Bo Jackson wowed fans of both the NFL and MLB. He regularly performed feats that seemed impossible for others in both sports, but it was his baseball highlights that seemed truly legendary (in my humble opinion).

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In fact you can compare for yourself by looking at Bo Jackson’s football highlights, and comparing them to his top 10 plays with the Kansas City Royals.

But in many ways, Bo Jackson transcended both sports to become a media phenomenon. In fact, Nike built a major advertising campaign around Bo Jackson’s multi-sport skills. The famous “Bo Knows” campaign played upon Bo Jackson’s ability to pick up almost any sport.

Bo Jackson had become one of the most famous athletes in the world. Even people with little to no interest in athletics knew Bo Jackson’s name, because his commercials, billboards, and print ads appeared almost everywhere you looked.

In an era where game-day highlights had become an institution, Bo Jackson was a one-man ESPN marathon.

Next: Injury

Injury

By January of 1991, Bo Jackson seemed like a Paul Bunyonesque figure that could do anything he wanted. However, the two-sport lifestyle was already wearing on him. Despite the 1990 Raiders qualifying for the playoffs, Jackson made the decision to focus on one sport (baseball) after Los Angeles completed their playoff run. 

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Jackson said that his oldest child was about to begin school, and he didn’t want to pull him around the country. So, four days before playing the Cincinnati Bengals in the 1991 playoffs, he had decided to announce his retirement from pro football.

It was not to be. While trying to break away from Bengals defenders, Bo Jackson got dragged down from behind injuring his hip. He ended up with vascular necrosis, which destroyed the ball joint where his leg met the pelvis. Jackson required a hip replacement to walk.

He was never the same again. Bo Jackson couldn’t play football, and could only run with a limp. The Kansas City Royals declined to re-sign him after his recovery time took him past the point where he became eligible for free-agency. Jackson signed with the California Angels and then later played for the Chicago White Sox, but he was mere shadow of his former self. The monster that could run like a sprinter now limped around the baseball field.

Bp Jackson managed to play three partial seasons in MLB before retiring after the 1994 season at age 31.

Next: Legacy

Legacy

Bo Jackson had the talent to make the Hall-Of-Fame in either football or baseball, but trying to do both proved to be too much stress for even his gifted body. Instead, his legend outstrips his accomplishments on the field. His highlight reel is as impressive as any superstar in either sport, but he didn’t last long enough to dominate either game.

Oh, what might have been.

Today, he’s known as the greatest all around athlete that many people have ever seen in their lives. Generations who came after still hear rumblings about his legendary feats on the field, but the grainy video before HDTV don’t quite do him justice. You can get hints at what watching him in his prime was like, but you don’t get the full impact.

Bo Jackson also showed how sports stars could become media sensations that transcended sports in an era when the 24 hour news cycle was just beginning with the proliferation of cable television. That trend has exploded since the internet came along, and gave immediate access to an ocean of data on demand.

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Now, fans can instantly find out everything they want to know about their favorite athlete with a simple Google search. Yet, due to the incomplete video record, Bo Jackson still exists as a mythic figure today. The legend looms larger than both his statistics and the scattered videos we can find about his achievements on the field.

Bo Jackson remains a sports superstar for the ages.