POWERGRAMS

S ix years aer Gov. George C. Wallace made his infamous stand in the schoolhouse door to keep blacks from aending the University of Alabama, Wilbur Jackson received a scholarship to play football with the all-white Crimson Tide. Nearly a half-century later, Jackson downplays his role in history, preferring to point out the good things that came from his breaking the color barrier. He made lifelong friends in Tuscaloosa and still admires Pat Dye, the former UA assistant coach who recruited him despite Jackson having played just 14 games in high school. And Jackson still reveres Alabama's legendary head coach. "He taught me life- altering lessons," Jackson says. "There will never be another one like him. Some may win more games, some may win more titles, but they'll never be beer than coach ("Bear") Bryant." Jackson admits he "almost quit a lot of times" aer arriving on the college campus. He had goen a taste of things to come when the all-black D.A. Smith High School in Ozark was closed and the students transferred to the majority-white Carroll High School. "It wasn't that bad because all the kids I'd been with from the first grade on went with me to Carroll. There was a comfort level," says the 67-year-old Jackson, relaxing in his home in Ozark. At D.A. Smith, Jackson played basketball from the eighth grade through the year the school closed. He played baseball two years but gave up the sport aer breaking a leg. He was enticed into football his junior year, playing mostly running back. During a game, quarterback George Williams suggested to the coach that his speedy friend get a shot at wide receiver. "Coach said just run long and, George, you throw it to him," Jackson says. "It turned out to be a touchdown. Ever since then, George says 'I made you,' every time I see him." Dye recruited the Wiregrass for the Tide. He had signed Ellis Beck and Dexter Wood from Carroll High in 1968, so he was familiar with coach Tom McLendon. The Eagles' coach, an Auburn alumnus, showed Dye film of Jackson from the 1969 preseason jamboree. The Tide eventually signed Jackson as a wide receiver. Despite switching to running back at Alabama, Jackson would continue wearing the jersey number 80 throughout his career. "Years later, I asked coach McLendon, 'Why did you suggest to coach Dye that I go to Alabama," says Jackson, who was a pallbearer for his high school mentor. "He said, 'I just thought it would be beer for you.'" During the 1960s, Auburn was averaging six wins per season, while Alabama was averaging nine wins each year and was named national champion three times. Jackson had thought lile about either program, since neither had ever had a black player. But Dye met Jackson aer Carroll played Montgomery's Lee High School to open the 1969 season. Dye began phoning Jackson frequently and received updates about each game performance from The Southern Star editor Joe Adams. Jackson would visit Tuscaloosa twice before signing. He talked to Bryant for the first time on Sept. 27 aer the Tide beat Southern Miss 63-14. Jackson says the reluctance of college football coaches in the South to recruit black players 50 years ago "was just the times. Old habits died hard." He says Bryant was among "a few good men and women who had the courage" to integrate. Freshmen athletes didn't play varsity football during Jackson's time at Alabama, so his college career didn't start until 1971, when he was one of two blacks on the team (along with tight end Randy Moore). The Tide went 11-1 his sophomore season, losing the Orange Bowl to Nebraska and missing out on a national championship. His junior year, Jackson was one of eight blacks on the team that went 10-2, losing the last two games: 17-16 to Auburn in the famous blocked punts affair, and 17-13 to Texas in the Coon Bowl. In 1973, Jackson was one of 14 blacks playing for 37 Jackson broke through line for 'the Bear,' Crimson Tide by chuck chandler photos by phil free

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