ARKANSAS SPORTS HALL OF FAME LARRY JACKSON

1970s linebacker one hard-nosed Hog

Arkansas linebacker Larry Jackson (66) prepares to make a tackle during a game against Tulsa on Saturday, Sept. 30, 1978, in Fayetteville. Jackson will be enshrined in the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame this weekend.
Arkansas linebacker Larry Jackson (66) prepares to make a tackle during a game against Tulsa on Saturday, Sept. 30, 1978, in Fayetteville. Jackson will be enshrined in the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame this weekend.

Editor's Note: Eighth in a series profiling the nine newest members of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame. Induction ceremonies will be held Friday at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.

The company Larry Jackson is about to keep would have brought a smile to his face, his wife Tammy says.

Six and a half years after he was struck and killed by lightning on a beach in the Bahamas, Jackson will be inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.

Larry Jackson

at a glance

COLLEGE University of Arkansas 1976-1978

POSITION Linebacker

HOMETOWN Hot Springs

FAMILY Wife Tammy, daughter Shannan, son Skyler, granddaughter Aubrianna

NOTEWORTHY Named to Arkansas’ All-Decade team for the 1970s. … All-Southwest Conference linebacker in 1977 and 1978. … Co-captain on the 1978 team that went 9-2-1 and played in the Fiesta Bowl. … Junior starter on 1977 team that was 11-1, including a 31-6 upset of No. 2 Oklahoma in the 1978 Orange Bowl. … Named ABC’s national defensive player of the year after posting 123 tackles in 1977. … Ranks 12th on Arkansas’ all-time tackles list with 309. … Arkansas had a 25-8-2 record during Jackson’s playing career.

"He would be thrilled," Tammy Jackson said. "It's just such an honor to be thought of in this capacity, with the likes of the people that are there also."

Jackson, of Hot Springs, is well remembered by his former Arkansas teammates and coaches as one of the best hitters and savviest linebackers the Razorbacks have ever produced.

"He was a hard hitter, definitely a hard hitter," said Jimmy Walker, a co-captain with Jackson on the Arkansas defense in 1978. "Larry was relentless. Off the field, I had to really credit Larry as a person who really took his time to study an opponent's offense. He could tell us what plays were coming and that sort of thing."

Jackson became fast friends with defensive lineman Dan Hampton of Jacksonville their freshman year.

"He was kind of like the golden boy," Hampton said. "He was good looking, like he should have been in California.

"He was a hard worker. He kind of epitomized the Razorback legacy. Jimmy Johnson was a nose tackle on the 1964 team, but he was tiny. Larry was like 6-foot, 210 pounds and yet his junior year he was like the ABC defensive player of the year. There were so many things about Larry that were so great."

Jackson racked up 123 tackles as a junior inside linebacker in 1977, the year Arkansas took out No. 2 Oklahoma 31-6 in the Orange Bowl to cap an 11-1 season. The following year, he posted 102 tackles.

"I mean he was a great contributor to the success of our football program at the time he was there," said Harold Horton, a defensive assistant coach who encouraged Coach Frank Broyles, along with Jackson's recruiter, Ken Turner, to sign Jackson. "He had a lot of good players around him, and Larry was right in the middle of those players.

"He was a playmaker. He was tough. He was aggressive, and he was respected by his teammates and the coaches."

Hampton said he remembered coming in with Jackson in a signing class of about 30 and exiting with him after the class was whittled in half.

"He was one of the few guys who, when we finished, we were as good of friends or happy to be around each other as when we started," Hampton said.

The stunning triumph over Oklahoma in Miami was the signature victory for that era in Razorback football.

"When we went to play the Oklahoma Sooners ... maybe a lot of players were probably thinking, 'Oh no, oh no,' " Hampton said. "He couldn't wait. I mean he couldn't wait to play them."

Walker said Jackson's dedication was a calling card.

"Larry was the type of player who was at the film room before we got there and even there after we left," Walker said. "He was an architect of knowledge of football."

Larry and Tammy Jackson, high school sweethearts in Hot Springs, spent virtually all of their adult lives together.

"He asked me out on my 16th birthday," Tammy Jackson said. "We've been together ever since. We dated four years and had been married 32 years when he was killed."

She said Larry Jackson had eagerly awaited an invitation into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.

"It's something we always hoped would happen," she said. "But it was a big surprise for it to come at this time."

Teammates and coaches recall Jackson as being fearless, and many Razorbacks fans remember him for taking on former Texas great Earl Campbell one on one and winning some of those collisions.

Hampton remembered an incident that showed Jackson's toughness, and earned him a nickname.

It happened in the lead up to a pre-spring workout, when players were diving into a high jump pit to make catches from the quarterbacks.

"There was an errant pass and Larry, basically proof of his being just fearless, he just went to get the ball and wasn't even paying attention to these steel standards that they put the bar on," Hampton said. "I mean he hit it right above his right eye. It was hideous.

"We started calling him 'Lophead' because the right side of his face had about two inches of swelling outside of his eye socket. ... His face was lopsided."

Lophead would be smiling today.

Sports on 03/02/2017

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