Ten years have passed since the Auburn football team, headed by Gus Malzahn and Nick Marshall, finished 12-2 and advanced to the BCS National Championship before losing to the Florida State Seminoles. Malzahn was fired following a six-win season in 2020 due to his inability to repeat the same success from 2014 to that point. Despite their recent setbacks, Auburn is still a legendary SEC school with two crowns, three Heisman Trophy winners, 27 bowl game triumphs, and eight conference titles. They have failed to reach six wins during the Malzahn era.
Auburn football’s illustrious past was further enhanced on Saturday when Bo Jackson, a two-sport icon and Heisman Trophy winner, was inducted into the Kansas City Royals Hall of Fame.
Jackson, the Auburn football player who won the Heisman Trophy in 1985, played Major League Baseball with the Royals from 1986 to 1990. He was nominated for MVP in 1989. Over the course of the weekend, Jackson received steadfast backing from Tommy Tuberville, a former Auburn frontman who is now an Alabama senator and a longstanding football coach at his alma university. After Jackson left Auburn, Tuberville was the head coach for over a decade. But Tuberville’s open backing of an ex-Auburn athlete comes only four years after a number of former Tigers players criticized the veteran figurehead for supporting then-President Donald J. Trump and running for senator.
Bo Jackson, an Auburn football running back, was a standout member of the backfield from 1982 to 1985. As a true freshman, he ran for 829 yards and nine touchdowns, good for first-team All-SEC recognition. After finishing the next season with 1,213 yards and 12 touchdowns on 158 carries, including a 200-yard performance against rival Alabama, he was unanimously selected as an All-American. Following a 1984 season cut short by injuries, Jackson had one of the finest single seasons in SEC history. In 1985, he ran for 1,786 yards and won the Heisman Trophy for the second time in the program’s history.
Greetings on your induction into the @Royals Hall of Fame, @BoJackson!
1992 saw the retirement of his jersey number by Auburn football, seven years prior to the Tommy Tuberville era. Auburn recovered its footing in the SEC under Tuberville, winning nine games or more five times, including an amazing 13-0 campaign in 2004. Jackson and Tuberville did not study together at Auburn, but Jackson’s supporters deliberately distanced themselves from Tuberville when he ran for government in 2020. But when Tuberville won an Alabama Senate seat, numerous former Auburn Tigers players did not hold back while speaking about him.
Some of the greatest players in Auburn football history are coached by Tommy Tuberville, one of the most celebrated coaches of the early 2000s. That doesn’t mean, though, that his move into politics hasn’t made some, if not most, of his former teammates unhappy. Tommy Jackson, a former star player for Auburn, openly disagreed with Tuberville’s political views in a 2020 Sports Casting piece written by Kyle Dalton.
“He was the coach of a squad whose players were mostly African Americans. Furthermore, Black men are not of interest to President Trump. What does it say about someone who has consistently believed that way in order to profit millions of dollars from the same people that the president plans to ignore or mistreat if Coach Tuberville backs someone like that? It is deplorable. It truly is disgraceful.
Adlai Trone, a former cornerback for Auburn, added, “A lot of guys keep up with each other.” Numerous distinct circles exist. The people that are disappointed are the majority. Many of us, I believe, would like to hold onto our optimism and hope that, should he win office, he will pay attention to what we have to say. All I can hope is that he stands for something that honors the athletes who gave it their all for him. Mostly, Tuberville oversaw a contentious first term in office, which included delaying military nominations until 2022.
Bo Jackson, a two-sport great, was inducted into the Kansas City Royals Hall of Fame late last week, despite the fact that a horrific hip injury ended his professional career. The iconic and mythological Jackson, who was renowned for his breathtaking athleticism on the field and his massive home runs in the stands, played running back for the Los Angeles Raiders in addition to spending five seasons in Kansas City. In September of the 1986 season, Jackson made his Major League Baseball debut, appearing in 25 games and hitting.207.
Jackson demonstrated his flexibility from 1988 to 1990, averaging 30 home runs, 30 stolen bases, slugging.496 and racking up 7.9 WAR per 162 games. His career-high 105 RBI in 1989 got him MVP accolades. On the other hand, Jackson made a lasting impression on the sports world during that time by rushing for 2,228 yards and 12 touchdowns, showcasing his multifaceted abilities.
