Reggie Jackson

Did You Know?

• Jackson's father, Martinez Jackson, was a former second baseman with the Newark Eagles of Negro league baseball.
• Jackson was born in the Wyncote neighborhood of Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania, just north of Philadelphia.
• Jackson stepped down from his role as special advisor to the Houston Astros on November 10, 2024, to spend more time with his family in California.

Collegiate athletic career

Jackson was recruited for football by Alabama, Georgia, and Oklahoma, all willing to break the color barrier for him, but he declined Alabama and Georgia due to fear of the South and Oklahoma because they told him to stop dating white girls. For baseball, he was scouted by Hans Lobert of the San Francisco Giants, and the Los Angeles Dodgers and Minnesota Twins also made offers; the Philadelphia Phillies gave him a tryout but declined because of his hitting skills.

His father wanted him to attend college, and Jackson accepted a football scholarship from Arizona State University, where his high school football coach knew head football coach Frank Kush, who discussed the possibility of Jackson playing both sports. After football practice, he approached baseball coach Bobby Winkles and asked to join the team; still in football gear, he hit a home run on the second pitch and three home runs in five at-bats. He was allowed to practice but could not join the squad due to an NCAA rule forbidding freshman players.

Jackson switched permanently to baseball after his freshman year, as he did not want to become a defensive back. Winkles assigned him to a Baltimore Orioles-affiliated amateur team called Leone's, where he broke numerous team records; the Orioles offered a $50,000 signing bonus, but Jackson declined to keep his college scholarship.

MLB career

Jackson debuted with the A's in 1967 in a Friday doubleheader in Kansas City, a shutout sweep of the Cleveland Indians; his first career hit came in the nightcap, a lead-off triple off Orlando Peña. The Athletics moved to Oakland before the 1968 season, and in 1969 Jackson hit a career-high 47 home runs, briefly ahead of the pace Roger Maris set when breaking the single-season home run record and that of Babe Ruth. After a slump in May 1970, owner Charlie O. Finley threatened to send him to the minors; Jackson hit 23 home runs while batting .237 that season.

The Athletics sent him to play in Puerto Rico for the Santurce team, where he led the league with 20 homers and 47 runs batted in. In the 1971 All-Star Game at Tiger Stadium, Jackson hit a memorable home run off Dock Ellis that struck a transformer on the right-field roof. The Athletics won the American League West in 1971, their first title since 1931, but were swept in the AL Championship Series by the Baltimore Orioles. In 1972, the A's won the division again; Jackson scored the tying run in the clincher on a steal of home but tore a hamstring and missed the World Series, which the A's won over the Cincinnati Reds in seven games.

During spring training in 1972, Jackson grew a mustache; owner Finley liked it so much he offered each player $300 to grow one and hosted a "Mustache Day."

Personal life

During his freshman year at Arizona State, Jackson met Jennie Campos, a Mexican-American, and they discovered many similarities, including speaking Spanish and being raised in a single-parent home. An assistant football coach tried to break up the couple because Jackson was black and Campos was considered white; the coach contacted Campos's uncle, a wealthy school benefactor, who warned them that being together was a bad idea, but the relationship held and she later became his wife.

They divorced in 1973. Jackson's only child, Kimberly, was born in the early 1990s. During the off-season while still active, Jackson worked as a field reporter and color commentator for ABC Sports; just over a month before signing with the Yankees in fall 1976, he did analysis in the ABC booth the night his future team won the American League pennant on a homer by Chris Chambliss. In the 1980s, he presided over World Series Trophy presentations and did color commentary for the 1984 National League Championship Series.

After retiring as a player, he returned to color commentary for the 1988 American League Championship Series. Jackson appeared in films including The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, Richie Rich, BASEketball, Summer of Sam, and The Benchwarmers, and guest-starred on television shows such as Diff'rent Strokes, The Love Boat, Archie Bunker's Place, MacGyver, The Jeffersons, and Malcolm in the Middle. He was considered for the role of Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation. From 1981 to 1982, he hosted Reggie Jackson's World of Sports for Nickelodeon.

Post-retirement honors

Jackson and Yankees owner George Steinbrenner reconciled, and Steinbrenner hired Jackson as a special assistant to the principal owner, making him a consultant and liaison to players, particularly minority players. Jackson usually appeared in uniform at the Yankees' spring training complex in Tampa and was sought out for advice by Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1993, choosing to wear a Yankees cap on his plaque after the Athletics unceremoniously fired him from a coaching position in 1991.

The Yankees retired his uniform number 44 on August 14, 1993, and the Athletics retired his number 9 on May 22, 2004; he is one of only ten MLB players to have numbers retired by more than one team and one of only five to have different numbers retired by two teams. In 1999, Jackson placed 48th on the Sporting News 100 Greatest Baseball Players list and was named a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team but was not chosen by fans.

The Yankees dedicated a plaque in his honor on July 6, 2002, now in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium, calling him "One of the most colorful and exciting players of his era" and "a prolific hitter who thrived in pressure situations." Each living Yankee so honored attended the dedication, along with Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Ernie Banks, whom Jackson admired.