FOR LACK OF A DOLLAR

After making the NCAA record book at Alabama, Wilbur Jackson played nine years for the SanFrancisco 49ers

How ceiling breaker Wilbur Jackson almost quit football

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

Wreunion 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.

This year’s weekend, the reunion was much like any other – good food and better stories, including Wilbur Jackson recounting the thoughtabout-quitting tale.

After a tough day in 1970, Wilbur went back to Bryant Hall and packed his suitcase. He then walked to downtown Tuscaloosa to the bus station and inquired about a ticket to his hometown in Ozark. “It was $7, and I only had $6,” Wilbur said.

So he turned back and returned to Bryant Hall, where he unpacked.

Someone suggested that his teammates, who also were from Ozark, Dexter Wood and Ellis Beck, would have given Wilbur the dollar he needed to go home. “Yeah,” Jackson said, “but then I would have had to have told them what I needed it for.”

Wilbur was recruited to Alabama as a wide receiver, but prior to his sophomore season in 1971 (freshmen weren’t eligible for varsity play in 1970), he was switched to halfback for the triple option offense. He was All-Southeastern Conference as a senior on Bama’s national championship team in 1973 and captain with Strickland. For his career he carried the ball 212 times for 1,529 yards, averaging a Crimson Tide record 7.2 yards per carry. He was one of four Alabama backs who rushed for over 100 yards in a 77-6 win over Virginia Tech in 1973, making the NCAA record book.

He went on to the NFL, drafted ninth in the first round by the San Francisco 49ers and played nine years. His last game was with the Washington Redskins in the 1983 Super Bowl.

Most think of Wilbur Jackson primarily as a pioneer, the first African-American to sign a football scholarship at Alabama.

As for that, he said, “I felt as though I was treated just like everyone else, and I also felt that is how it should have been.”

Today, I’m thinking it’s a good thing Wilbur Jackson didn’t have $7 in 1970.

Wilbur Jackson, Joe Cochran and John Rogers trade stories at the annual reunion at the lake

The 1970s Crimson Tide meets for a reunion at the Sprayberrys' Lake Martin home every summer