The All Sports Association welcomes former Heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson as the Keynote Speaker for our 51st Awards Banquet. Jackson is the first athlete in the modern era to play professional baseball and football in the same year.

“It was pretty big shoes to fill the year after Tebow,” said All Sports President Drew Espy, who attended Auburn and watched Jackson play in his Tigers’ days. “We went out and got the greatest athlete of the 20th century.”

At Auburn, Jackson ran for 4,303 yards with 45 touchdowns. During his senior year he posted 1,786 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns en route to winning the Heisman Trophy.

Jackson was selected with the first overall pick in the 1986 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but he chose instead to sign a three-year contract with the defending World Series champion Kansas City Royals. The following year the dual-sport athlete was drafted by the Oakland Raiders, who afforded him the freedom to play the entire baseball season before reporting.

Jackson would become the only professional athlete in history to be named a professional baseball All-Star and a football Pro-Bowler, finishing his four-year NFL career with 2,782 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns and his eight-year MLB career with a .250 batting average, 141 homers, 415 RBI and 82 stolen bases.

In 1989 he was selected to both football’s Pro Bowl and baseball’s American League All-Star team. He was named the most valuable player in the All-Star game after going 2-for-4 with a 448-foot homer, two RBIs and a run scored.

Thank you, Bo, for bringing joy to so many sports fans, and for making this 51st All Sports Awards Banquet so special. War Eagle!