In the closest Heisman voting in history until 2009, Jackson edged Iowa quarterback Chuck Long by 45 points to join 1971 winner Pat Sullivan in Auburn’s Heisman fraternity.
Bo finished his career with 4,303 rushing yards, a program record that still stands. Had the NCAA included bowl statistics – a change that did not go into effect until 2002 – Jackson’s total would increase by the 411 yards he gained in the Tangerine, Sugar, Liberty and Cotton bowls.
Six months after Bo won the Heisman, the Kansas City Royals drafted Jackson in the fourth round of the 1986 Major League Baseball draft.
To the astonishment of many, Jackson spurned the NFL’s Tampa Bay Bucs, which had drafted him No. 1 overall six weeks earlier, and signed instead with the Royals, debuting in the majors on Sept. 2, 1986, after only 53 minor league games.
Kansas City drafted Jackson, he says, in part because of Bo’s baseball coach at Auburn, Hal Baird, who had pitched six seasons in the Royals’ organization in the 1970s.
“Coach Baird and (former Royals scouting director) Art Stewart are the reason I became a Royal,” Jackson recalled when he was inducted into the Royals Hall of Fame in 2024. “Every other ballclub within the league was afraid to come after me because of that football thing. Art Stewart called Coach Baird and asked if I was serious about baseball.
“Coach Baird said yes, and whoever gets him is going to be lucky to have him, so he is serious. Art Stewart convinced the ownership and everybody to take a chance on me, and I’m glad they did.”
