Linda Jackson
Linda Jackson is the beautiful wife of former baseball and football player, Bo Jackson. Her husband became a two-sport star and a worldwide icon and who is widely considered one of the greatest athletes of all time.
Keep reading to know more about his better half, Linda Jackson.
Linda’s husband was born Vincent Edward “Bo” Jackson on November 30, 1962. He attended McAdory High School in McCalla, Ala., Jackson was hardly a model student, Bo revealed in his book, Bo Knows Bo, he had a tough childhood.
However it was in sports that he shine. While in high school he won two state decathlon championships. As a senior, he ran for 1,173 yards on 108 carries (10.9 average) and scored 17 touchdowns. In baseball, his 20 homer — in just 25 games — tied the national high school record.
At the time, the New York Yankees, who selected him in the second round of the June 1982 draft. But Jackson turned down their $250,000 offer to accept a football scholarship from Auburn.
In college, Jackson ran for 4,303 yards and scored 45 touchdowns. Twenty-one times he rushed for three figures. He culminated his Auburn career in 1985 with four 200-yard rushing games in a 1,786-yard season and won the Heisman Trophy.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers made Jackson the first selection of the 1986 NFL draft. But Jackson rejected their five-year offer. In the 1986 baseball draft, the Royals made him a fourth-round pick. After spending only 53 games in the minors, Jackson made his major league debut on Sept. 2, 1986, and got an infield single off Steve Carlton in his first at-bat.
In baseball, he was a career .250 hitter with 141 homers and 415 RBI in 2,393 at-bats in eight seasons as an outfielder and designated hitter with the Kansas City Royals, Chicago White Sox and California Angels. He hit 107 homers for the Royals from 1987-90, when he played pro football.
Bo was named MVP of the 1989 MLB All-Star game and retired from the majors after playing 9 seasons and hitting 141 home runs.
As a part-time running back making full-time money with the Los Angeles Raiders, he ran for 2,782 yards on 515 carries, an impressive 5.4 average, and scored 18 touchdowns running and receiving. He was the first player in NFL history to have two rushing touchdowns of 90 yards or more, with a 91-yarder coming when he ran for a Raiders’ record 221 yards against Seattle in his fifth pro game.
His last play as a Raider began the end of both his football and baseball careers. Even though the 1991 injury would lead to hip-replacement surgery in April 1992, Jackson would make a triumphant return to baseball before retiring for good.
The 6-foot-1, 225-pound Jackson was the first athlete named to play in the all-star game of two major sports, spawning Nike’s famous Bo Knows ad campaign.
Jackson holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Family and Child Development from Auburn. He’s also done some acting roles in the past. Accoridng to ETicket, Bo is part owner of a food company called N’Genuity, which provides food.
He’s been married to Linda for three decades.
Linda is a former counseling psychologist who worked at a local hospital. She became Mrs. Jackson on Sept. 5, 1987 after meeting at Auburn.
The marriage of 30-years produced three children. Linda Jackson and her hubby are the proud parents of two sons Garrett and Nicholas, and a daughter, Morgan.
Though her husband might het all the headlines Linda Jackson has been a key part of his success.
Nowadays, you don’t see many wags putting their career on hold for their husbands but at some point they have to make certain sacrifices. Linda, a well-educated woman, who was a doctoral student in counseling psychology at Auburn University, had to stay home and care for the couple’s children while Bo became a star. She was quoted saying during an interview
I spend a lot of time helping with his career. Bo’s career will be much shorter than mine. I know I’ll have plenty of time.
Linda worked as a supervisor of the residential children’s program at the Mobile County Community Mental Health Center in Alabama. She earned her master’s degree in counseling psychology at Auburn. She has a bachelor’s degree in biology and health sciences from Tuskegee University.
Her childhood was very different from Bo Jackson’s. Born Linda Garrett, she read books and studied the violin and clarinet.
She is a very private woman and likes to keep things that way.
Her famous hubby recently said if he’d known about the head injuries, he would’ve never played football.
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