The eighth in a series on the 2024 inductees into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.
It may take a lot to catch a guy like Eric Jackson off guard, especially when considering the astute nature he's always operated with during his nearly 50-year involvement with Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort (formerly Oaklawn Park) in Hot Springs.
But there was a bit of news Jackson received last year that he admittedly wasn't expecting to hear.
"When I found out I was going into the [Arkansas] Sports Hall of Fame, it was a total surprise," he said. "I'm not entirely positive, but I think maybe I heard about it from [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Sports Editor] Wally Hall. It was just a big surprise because I always thought that the sports hall of fame was mainly for people with outstanding athletic careers, which was definitely not me."
The way he attacked the adversity that was centered around one of the country's premier horse-racing facilities and the methods he used to defend its future say otherwise.
Jackson didn't have an eye-popping athletic career at his alma mater Hendrix College, but he possessed an uncanny ability to assess certain situations, adjust to them and be proactive when he needed to be.
With everything he's done for thoroughbred racing, Jackson's inclusion into the state's most distinguished institution shouldn't be shocking at all.
Jackson, 73, who is now the senior vice president at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort, will join several sports figures Friday for the official induction banquet at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.
"It's affirmation that everything we've worked on and everything we've tried to do has been successful," Jackson said of his enshrinement. "There was a possibility that Oaklawn was going out of business, and it took a concerted effort by a whole bunch of us, not just me, to try to save the company, save horse racing in Arkansas. And to have been there back then, and to later be going into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame, it's night and day."
Oaklawn certainly experienced moments of darkness in the late 1980s and late 1990s.
Jackson grew up in Hot Springs and relayed that he was an admirer of Oaklawn, but he also mentioned that he never envisioned himself ever becoming an employee of the company. But all of that changed in 1978 when Oaklawn's then-general manager, the late W.T. Bishop, extended him a job offer after the two had a chance meeting on a tennis court.
"[Bishop] and I struck up a friendship," Jackson recalled. "He invited me and my wife to come over to his house and meet his wife. We grilled steaks and had a nice evening. The next thing I knew, he asked me to come out and visit with him, and I did.
"He said, 'Why don't you come to work for me?' I told him that I didn't know anything about horse racing, and he said, 'Well, everybody starts out at that point.' He told me that I was capable of learning, and that I might learn that I'd like it."
Jackson did like it, and his shrewdness showed under Bishop. He actually would take over as general manager in 1987 after Bishop passed away.
"I don't know if anybody starts out wanting to work at a race track," Jackson said. "It's the rare person, I think. I've worked with hundreds and thousands of Arkansans who have been a part of Oaklawn over the years, and it's almost always an accidental career. But the funny thing is, when people do get involved, they frequently make it their entire career.
"That's not unusual at Oaklawn at all. In fact, somebody on our staff referred to it as the lure of the manure."
Jackson drove home that point by referencing the late Arkansas Sports Hall of Famer Terry Wallace, whom he said called 21,000 consecutive Oaklawn races without missing a day. But while Jackson saw several high points reached after he initially began working at the track, including the 71,203 fans who attended the Arkansas Derby in 1986 -- then a record for an in-state sporting event -- he also witnessed trying moments.
Horse racing nationally went through hardships and difficulties in several aspects in the latter part of the 1980s. But Oaklawn, which had flourished earlier in the decade, also found itself in competition with other tracks, particularly within the region. As a way to combat that situation, Jackson helped usher in Sunday racing, which first occurred at the facility on April 9, 1989.
Jackson also introduced simulcasting, a program that allows fans to view races and place bets while not being present at the track, a year after Oaklawn began holding Sunday races. Both ideas injected life into what was then a gloomy outlook for Oaklawn, but other hurdles started to surface years later.
"We got hit by a double whammy," Jackson said. "The first whammy was almost overnight when Texas and Oklahoma authorized racing. They had brand new tracks that were much closer to the population bases and had tax rates that were one-sixth of what the Arkansas tax rate was. So it was impossible for us to compete at a tax rate that was six times higher.
"The second whammy, while we were trying to figure out what to do about the first one, was that we got hit by the casinos that were sprouting up, first in Mississippi and then in Louisiana, Missouri and ultimately Oklahoma. It seemed like almost overnight that we were surrounded by more casinos than any state, at any racetrack in America."
It was then that Jackson subsequently came up with the Instant Racing initiative, an electronic format that allowed people to place wagers on races that had already been held by using terminals that resembled casino-style slot machines. That method was launched on Jan. 14, 2000, and it's helped spark a resurrection.
The money stemming from Instant Racing has helped substantially increase purses at Oaklawn, which in turn has led to more high-profile horses taking part in events. Now Jackson's concept is being used throughout the country.
In addition, an amendment was passed in 2018 in Arkansas that allowed casino gambling to take place at Oaklawn. Upgrades at the facility that was bred from a $100 million expansion project have occurred as well, like a new luxury hotel that opened in 2021.
"The interesting thing to me about Oaklawn is that it's more than just a single entity," Jackson said. "It's an entire industry in Arkansas. You've got over a hundred horse farms, and hundreds of Arkansans own race horses, and they have over the years. A number of them are in the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame, like John Ed Anthony.
"So it's more than Oaklawn, more than Hot Springs, and I think that's particularly satisfying because everything we did helped an entire industry and not just one entity."
Jackson, who also serves on Oaklawn's board of directors and is a member of the Arkansas State Parks, Recreation and Travel Commission, indicated that he'd love to see Oaklawn, as well as other racing tracks, continue to grow.
"To be at a low point back then and to be at a high point right now has been just a marvelous journey," he said. "Now I don't think there's going to be as many race tracks across the country as there are right now 10 to 20 years from now. But those that are still around are going to be what I call super tracks. We intend for Oaklawn to be one of those.
"If that prediction holds true, and we wind up being one of those super tracks, we'll be very pleased because we've been in racing since 1904 here in Arkansas. That's 120 years in our state, and we'll be very pleased if we can get another 120."
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NoneEric Jackson at a glance
AGE 73
HOMETOWN Hot Springs
HIGH SCHOOL Hot Springs
COLLEGE Hendrix College
POSITION Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort senior vice president
FAMILY Wife: Lynda
NOTEWORTHY Served as general manager of Oaklawn from 1987-2017. … Was also a part of the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame Class of 2024. … Awarded numerous honors, including the Desoto Award for lifetime contributions to economic development and tourism in Hot Springs and Arkansas. … Is one of eight individuals with Oaklawn connections to be inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame. The others are Pat Day, Larry Snyder, John Ed Anthony, Charles Cella, Cal Partee Sr., Calvin Borel and Terry Wallace.
Eric Jackson