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Vincent Edward "Bo" Jackson (born November 30, 1962) is an American multi-sport professional athlete who, before he retired, played football in the National Football League and baseball in the American League, the first athlete named an All-Star in both sports.

Born in Bessemer, Alabama, Jackson was named after Vincent Edwards, a favorite actor of his mother's, and received his nickname when his brothers shortened the word "boar" - as in "wild boar."

He ran track in high school, and could run 100 meters in 10.39 seconds. The time is considered incredible for any high school sprinter adding to the fact he weighed around 200 pounds. He was told he should try the decathlon, but he had never pole vaulted or thrown the discus. He taught himself to do both events in one day. He won the Alabama state high school decathlon with a record point total. He also set a record in winning the 100 meters. He gave himself such a point differential, he did not have to run the grueling 1 mile race, which he did not like and did not participate in. Jackson went on to win the event a second time.

Jackson was originally drafted by the New York Yankees but chose to attend Auburn University on his mother's advice. From 1982 to 1985 Bo proved to be an astounding all-around athlete. In college, Jackson batted .401 with 17 home runs and 43 RBIs in 1985, qualified for the 60-yard dash in his freshman and sophomore years, and won the 1985 Heisman Trophy for his abilities as a running back. He was named MVP of both the Sugar Bowl in 1984 (the 1983 season), and the Liberty Bowl in 1984.

In both baseball and football, Jackson's feats became the stuff of folklore and legend. In the 1982 Tangerine Bowl against Boston College, Jackson made a one-handed grab of an option pitch that quarterback Randy Campbell lobbed over the head of a defender. Jackson proceeded to score on the play, despite being hit by several defenders along the sideline.

In a 1985 baseball game against the Georgia Bulldogs at Foley Field in Athens, Jackson led Auburn to victory with a 4-for-5 performance, with three home runs and a double. Jackson launched his last home run that day into a brand new light standard.

Aside from the sports Bo Jackson had already played, he considered joining the U.S.A Olympic team, but was informed sprinting would not gain him the financial security of the MLB or NFL, nor have the time to train. He was an excellent pitcher as well and recorded plenty of strikeouts, but found pitching to be boring.

Jackson was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the first pick of the 1986 NFL Draft, but he opted to play baseball for the Kansas City Royals instead. He spent most of the season with the Memphis Chicks in the minor leagues before being called up for regular duty in 1987, where he had 22 home runs, 53 RBIs and 10 stolen bases as an outfielder for the Royals. He began to show his true potential in 1989, when he was selected for the American League All-Star team, and was named the game's MVP for his play on both offense and defense. His great plays in the game included a monstrous home run off Rick Reuschel of the San Francisco Giants which landed an estimated 448 feet from home plate - in his first All-Star at-bat. Legendary baseball announcer Vin Scully (calling the game for NBC-TV) was moved to comment, "And look at that one! Bo Jackson says hello!" In 1990, he raised his batting average, but the uncertainty of his two sport loyalties may have swayed Royals management to utilize him as much as he could have been.

While playing for the Royals, he ran down a long line-drive deep to left-center field on a hit-and-run play against the Seattle Mariners. With speedy Harold Reynolds running from first base on the play, the hit would have been deep enough to score him against most outfielders. But Jackson, from the warning track, turned flat footed and fired a strike to catcher Bob Boone, who tagged the sliding Reynolds out. Jackson's throw reached Boone on the fly. Interviewed for the "Bo Jackson" episode of ESPN Classic's SportsCentury, Reynolds admitted that he thought there was no way anyone would throw him out on such a deep drive into the gap in left-center, and was shocked to see his teammate telling him to slide as he rounded third base.

There is as well the infamous wall run for the Kansas City Royals, when he caught a ball approximately 2-3 strides away from the wall. As he caught the ball at full tilt, Jackson looked up and noticed the wall and began to run up the wall, one leg reaching higher as he ascended. He ran along the wall almost parallel to the ground, and came down with the catch. All this to avoid impact and the risk of injury from the fence. One may recall that this sounds familiar to a move from the game NFL Street 2, in which he is a street legend.

In his eight baseball seasons, Jackson had a career batting average of .250, hit 141 home runs and had 415 RBIs, with a slugging average of .474. His best year was 1989, with his effort earning him all-star status. In '89 Bo ranked fourth in the league in both homers and RBI's with 32/105. Despite this he also managed to lead the league in strikeouts at 172.

Following the 1987 baseball season, Jackson decided to again play football (just as a "hobby", he said) and joined the NFL's Los Angeles Raiders, rushing for 554 yards on 81 carries in just seven games. Over the next three seasons, Bo Jackson would rush for 2,228 more yards with 12 touchdowns. What made his stats so impressive was the fact that he was a back-up to Raiders' legend Marcus Allen.

Football fans vividly remember his 221-yard rushing performance on Monday Night Football in 1987 against the Seattle Seahawks. During this memorable performance he literally ran over Seahawks star linebacker Brian Bosworth, who had insulted Jackson and promised to contain him in a media event before the game. He also made a 91 yard run to the outside, untouched down the sideline. He continued sprinting until finally slowing down as he passed through the entrance to the field tunnel to the dressing rooms with teamates soon following.

He was the only man to hit the New Orleans Saints' Superdome scoreboard, suspended from its roof since its construction in 1975. In his rookie season Bo casually picked up a ball from the ball bag, threw it, and hit it on his first try.

Prior to his hip injury, Bo at 6'1", 222 lbs., ran a 4.12 40 yard dash at the 1986 NFL combine, as reported in the February 27, 1986, USA Today. This was one of the fastest NFL 40 times ever, regardless of position, and demonstrated strength comparable to the likes of Jim Brown. 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 2 touchdowns. Jackson's 221 yards on November 30, 1987 is still a Monday Night Football record.

During a Raiders playoff game against the Cincinnati Bengals in 1991, Jackson suffered a serious hip injury which ended his football career and seriously threatened his baseball career. Following surgery and rehabilitation on his injured hip, it was discovered that Jackson had avascular necrosis, which resulted in decreased blood supply to the femoral head of his left hip. Ultimately this led to a deterioration of the femoral head, which required his hip to be replaced. Jackson missed the entire 1992 baseball season. When he announced soon after his surgery that he would play baseball again, many thought that goal to be unrealistic, especially at the Major League level.

After Bo Jackson was tackled and lying in pain on the ground, he popped his hip back into place. In an interview on Untold, George Brett who attended the game said he asked the trainer what had happened to Bo. The trainer replied "well Bo says he felt his hip come out of socket, so he popped it back in, but that's just impossible, no one's that strong."

Jackson was able to return to the Chicago White Sox in 1993, and incredibly at his first at-bat, he homered on his first swing. The next day Nike ran a full-page ad in USA Today; it simply read "Bo Knew."

He would hit 16 home runs and 45 RBIs that season; but while his power remained, he no longer possessed his blazing speed. During his time with the White Sox, Jackson hit only 13 extra-base hits and had no stolen bases. For the 1994 season, he was sent to the California Angels for one final season before retiring.

After Bo Jackson's hip surgery, while warming up for the Angels, a man who was doing construction on the Angel's new stadium began taunting him. Angered, Jackson picked up a ball and threw it right at him, many outfield decks above Bo.

Jackson became a popular figure for his athleticism in multiple sports through the late 1980s and early 1990s. He endorsed Nike and launched a popular ad campaign called "Bo Knows" which envisioned Jackson attempting to take up a litany of other sports, including tennis, golf, luge, auto racing, and even playing blues music with Bo Diddley who scolds Jackson by telling him "You don't know diddley!"

Another clip envisioning Jackson playing ice hockey, was followed with a clip of Wayne Gretzky shaking his head in disbelief and dismissing the effort with a quick "No." T shirts sold by Nike capitalizing on their successful ad campaign had a list of Jackson's sports - both real and imagined - with hockey crossed out.

Jackson also poked fun at the ad campaign on "Lois and Clark" in which he played basketball with Clark. Bo clearly is the better athlete, until Clark uses his flying abilites to catch the ball. Bo replies "Bo don't know that!"

Following on the heels of this widespread fame, Jackson appeared in ProStars, an NBC Saturday morning cartoon. The show featured Bo, Wayne Gretzky, and Michael Jordan fighting crime and helping children.

In 1993, Jackson was honored with the Tony Conigliaro Award. He is now living and working as a businessman outside of Chicago.

Jackson was given the honor of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before Game Two of the 2005 World Series.

Jackson's legend was further cemented in a most unlikely manner - a video game. His digital counterpart in Tecmo Super Bowl for the Nintendo Entertainment System, affectionally known as "Tecmo Bo" in the hardcore TB playing circuit, is the most lethal running back -- and arguably the most lethal football player -- in video game history[1]. Easily capable of putting up 300-400 yards per game via his incredible speed and tackle-breaking ability, "Tecmo Bo" was a man to be feared. Jackson has commented that fans will often come up to him and regale him with stories not of his actual football feats, but rather memorable Tecmo Bowl plays [2].

• Randy Campbell, the quarterback at Auburn from 1982-1983, wrote a song about Jackson that was published and sold as a single in Auburn University bookstores.

• Jackson gave his MVP trophy from the 1984 Sugar Bowl to fellow running back Lionel James, who mentored Jackson during his freshman and sophomore seasons.

• Jackson's football number 34 was officially retired at Auburn University in a halftime ceremony on October 31, 1992. His is one of only three numbers retired at Auburn, the others being 1971 Heisman Trophy winner Pat Sullivan's number 7, and Sullivan's teammate and favorite receiver, Terry Beasley (88).

• Jackson was recruited by then Auburn assistant coach Bobby Wallace.

• Jackson holds many of Auburn University's rushing records, including most yards in a season (1786 in 1985), and most career yards (4303).

• Jackson was declared ineligible to play his final baseball season at Auburn (1986) after taking a flight to Florida to take a physical for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

• Jackson is part of the NFL Legends team in NFL Street 2. Also in the game is a young player named Vincent Jackson, a spoof of Bo Jackson, but the two are unrelated.

• Jackson's former teammate and good friend George Brett named one of his children Jackson in honor of Bo.

• Baseball-Reference.com - career baseball statistics and analysis
• Pro-Football-Reference.com - career pro football statistics
• Monday Night Football recap for November 30, 1987
• YouTube.com - Tecmo Bo
• Bill Simmons on Tecmo Bo