Bo Jackson To Be Honored With A Scouts Dream Award At Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation's 14th Annual Fundraiser

Bo Jackson To Be Honored With A Scouts Dream Award At Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation’s 14th Annual Fundraiser

One of the greatest professional athletes, Bo Jackson, will be honored with “A Scouts Dream Award, at the 14th annual Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation’s “In the Spirit of the Game” Spectacular on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2017, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Vincent Edward Jackson, also known as “Bo”, was certainly a scouts dream as the Auburn University superstar out of McCalla, Alabama impressed scouts and fans alike with his uncanny athletic ability in both baseball and football.

Before heading to Auburn, Jackson, who was named after his mother’s favorite actor, Vince Edwards, attended high school at McAdory in McCalla, where he rushed for 1175 yards as a senior and also hit 20 home runs in 25 games. He was a two-time state champion in the decathlon, where he set state school records for indoor high-jump (6’9”) and triple-jump (48’8”).

Jackson, who was the eighth of 10 children, went on to Auburn, where he finished his career with 4,675 all-purpose yards and 45 total touchdowns, 43 rushing and two receiving, with a 6.6 yards per carry average. His senior year, Jackson rushed for 1,786 yards which was the second best single-season performance in SEC history, and thus was named the Heisman Trophy winner, the Walter Camp Outstanding Player, the Sporting News Player of the Year, the SEC Coaches All SEC team and the Cotton Bowl Most Valuable Player.

Jackson’s football number 34 was retired at Auburn on Oct. 31, 1992, one of only three numbers to be retired by the Tigers.

Following his graduation from Auburn, Jackson ended up playing pro football and pro baseball at the same time.

Jackson was the first player taken in the 1986 NFL draft by the Tampa Bay Bucs. He held out the entire year due to a dispute with the Bucs and the following year the Oakland Raiders took him in the seventh round. He signed with the Raiders and played four seasons before suffering a NFL career-ending hip injury at the end of a 34-yard run in a playoff game against Cincinnati on Jan. 13, 1991.

In his four seasons in the NFL, Jackson rushed for 2,782 yards and 16 touchdowns with an average yards per carry of 5.4. He also caught 40 passes for 352 yards and two touchdowns. Jackson's 221 yards on November 30, 1987, just 29 days after his first NFL carry, is still a Monday Night Football record.

The same year (1986) he was the number one draft choice in the NFL, Jackson was taken in the fourth round by the Kansas City Royals. He played for the Royals from 1986-1990, the Chicago White Sox in 1991-1993 and finished his baseball and pro sports career in 1994 with the California Angels. Jackson had hip replacement surgery in 1992 after suffering the injury in his last NFL game. Jackson hit 141 home runs in 694 games with 415 RBIs and a .250 batting average. He was the All-Star Game MVP in 1989.

After his professional sports career concluded, Jackson took up acting and he appeared in one motion picture and five television series episodes. He is President of Bo Jackson Enterprises, Inc., President & CEO of VEJ Holdings, LLC and President of Bo Jackson Elite Sports.

He also serves as director of Burr Ridge Bank and Trust. Jackson is very involved in several charities—Bo Jackson’s Give Me A Chance Foundation; Bo Bikes Bama, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospitals, the Make A Wish Foundation, the Children’s Miracle Network, the U.S. Department of Education and others.

Jackson is married to Dr. Linda G. Jackson and they have three children—Garrett, Nicholas and Morgan. They reside in Burr Ridge, IL.

In the past 13 years, many of Major League Baseball’s current and former stars have been among the 1,500 guests attending the affair to assist those scouts who have given so much back to the game. The foundation was started and continues to be led by Dennis Gilbert, who has helped raise over $1.7 million for the scouts.

In addition to Jackson being saluted, Rachel Robinson, the wife of the late, great Jackie Robinson, will be honored with The Pioneer Award in celebration of the 70th anniversary of her husband breaking the color line in Major League Baseball when he started for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947;