Bo Jackson

Bo Jackson grew up in Bessemer, Alabama, and played at McAdory High School in nearby McCalla, roughly twenty miles from the Legion Field turf where his college career would be decided four times. As a senior he rushed for about 1,175 yards and hit twenty home runs in twenty-five baseball games, tying a national high school record. In June 1982 the New York Yankees took him in the second round of the MLB draft and offered a reported $250,000 contract. He turned it down and signed with Auburn, telling interviewers afterward that he had promised his mother he would be the first in the family to attend a major college.

Pat Dye was entering his second season at Auburn and had inherited a program that had not beaten Alabama since 1972. Jackson arrived as a true freshman into a rivalry that had been one-sided for nine straight years.

The 1982 Iron Bowl was played on November 27 at Legion Field, with neither team ranked. Auburn trailed 22-17 in the fourth quarter and drove the length of the field on a mix of runs and passes. On fourth down from inside the one-yard line with 2:26 on the clock, Dye gave the ball to his freshman.

Jackson did not run into the pile. He jumped over it, and Auburn won 23-22. The play has been known ever since as "Bo Over the Top," and by Jackson's own account he had lobbied Dye to call it, arguing that his high jump background made it a live option rather than a stunt. The number that mattered was the streak: nine consecutive losses to Alabama, ended by a freshman going airborne.

Randy Campbell made the handoff.

On December 3, 1983, in a Legion Field thunderstorm severe enough to bring a tornado warning, third-ranked Auburn beat nineteenth-ranked Alabama 23-20 to take the SEC championship outright. Jackson carried twenty times for 256 yards, an average of 12.8 yards per attempt, and scored twice on long touchdown runs that bookended the day's scoring. It remains the benchmark individual rushing performance in this rivalry.

The SEC title ended an Auburn conference drought dating to 1957. Auburn went on to the Sugar Bowl, where Jackson was named most valuable player, and finished the season No. 3 nationally. For the year he rushed for 1,213 yards at 7.7 yards per carry, which at the time was the second-best single-season average in SEC history among backs with at least 100 attempts.

Jackson's junior season was broken up by injury; he finished with 475 yards on 87 carries, less than half his sophomore workload. The Iron Bowl that year is remembered for a play he was not carrying the ball on. Auburn, ranked eleventh, trailed an unranked 4-6 Alabama team 17-15 and reached the Alabama one-yard line on fourth down. The call was a toss sweep right to Brent Fullwood, with Jackson leading the block.

Jackson went left. Alabama linebacker Rory Turner came through the vacated gap untouched and dropped Fullwood short. Alabama held on to win 17-15 in what remains one of the rivalry's larger upsets. The play is filed in Auburn memory under "Wrong Way Bo," and it is the counterweight to 1982: the same player, the same yard line, the opposite outcome.

As a senior Jackson rushed for 1,786 yards and 17 touchdowns in eleven games, playing part of the season with broken ribs. He won the Heisman Trophy over Iowa quarterback Chuck Long by 45 points, at the time the narrowest margin in the award's history.

His final college game was the 1985 Iron Bowl on November 30, a game many in both fan bases still rank as the best the rivalry has produced. There were four lead changes in the fourth quarter. Jackson carried 31 times for 142 yards and a touchdown. Auburn led 23-22 in the final minute. Then Alabama quarterback Mike Shula moved the Tide into range and Van Tiffin made a 52-yard field goal as time expired for a 25-23 Alabama win.

Jackson finished his Auburn career 2-2 against Alabama. He was on the field for the two most replayed plays in the rivalry's modern history and ended up on the losing side of the more famous one.

Jackson left Auburn with 4,303 rushing yards on 650 carries, 6.6 yards per attempt, and 43 rushing touchdowns across 45 games. The yards-per-carry figure set an SEC record for backs with at least 400 attempts. Bowl statistics were not counted toward career totals under the rules of the era; under the counting rules adopted in 2002 he would have added roughly 411 more yards.

He was not only a football player at Auburn. He qualified for the NCAA championships in the 100 meters as a freshman and sophomore, and in 1985 he batted .401 with 17 home runs for the baseball team. Auburn retired his number 34 on October 31, 1992.