After making the NCAA record book at Alabama, Wilbur Jackson played nine years for the SanFrancisco 49ers
For Lack of a Dollar How ceiling breaker Wilbur Jackson almost quit football
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STORY BY KIRK MCNAIR & COURTESY OF BAMAONLINE.COM PHOTOS BY CAROL SPRAYBERRY & PAUL W. BRYANT MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA
When Wilbur Jackson and I spoke for his chapter in the book, What It Means To Be Crimson Tide, he told me about speaking with his former teammate and fellow captain, Chuck Strickland, long after their Alabama careers. “I told him that it had been tough on me, so tough that I thought about quitting,” Jackson said. “He laughed and said, ‘We all thought about quitting because it was so tough.’” Each summer former Alabama offensive tackle Steve Sprayberry and his wife, Carol, host a
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reunion of the 1970 Alabama freshman football class at their house on Lake Martin. A few others who played with those ’70 freshmen – Joe LaBue, Ricky Davis, John Hannah among them – are also included. Not many are left from that coaching staff, but Jimmy Sharpe is, and he made the reunion this year. I, too, am included, perhaps because their freshman season was also my first in Alabama’s sports information office; or maybe it’s because I chauffeur legendary practice official and entertainer deluxe Eddie Conyers.
AUGUST 2021
