Jackson, 1972 football team inducted into Bowie State Hall of Fame
Sep. 30—BOWIE, Md. — Lumberton resident Staley Jackson coached Bowie State University's first football team in 1972.
As the team marks its 50th anniversary, the group was collectively recently inducted into the school's athletic Hall of Fame.
"It was a great honor, because we put that together from scratch," Jackson said. "I had to even order all the equipment, uniforms, design everything, I did the whole thing. There wasn't anybody at that campus that knew anything at all about football."
Jackson, who had previously coached baseball and football at Federal City College, now the University of the District of Columbia, came to Bowie State and recruited a team almost entirely made up of freshman to begin the Bulldogs' program. Many of the players came to Bowie State, a historically-Black school, from the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore areas.
"They had prior experience from high school but none of them had been in a college program," Jackson said. We were starting everything from scratch; fortunately we were in an area where high school football was pretty good."
Bowie State didn't have a "masculine image" before beginning its football program, Jackson said, and the team began to change that.
"When we practiced I would take my guys out in the middle of campus; we'd do our calisthenics and things and I'd tell them to yell as loud as you can so everybody on this campus will know you're here," Jackson said. "Instructors would come running to the windows; they wanted to see this football program. People were really excited about football, and I was determined we were going to have a winner."
The Bulldogs went 2-4 that first season, with wins over Galludet and American; one year later, Jackson led them to a 5-3 record, winning five of their last six games.
Bowie State has gone on to have a successful program in the half-century since, including CIAA conference championships in each of the last three seasons.
"They recognized me as being the first football coach that started the program, with the Hall of Fame induction after 50 years. I went up there to the college, and it was a great honor to me," Jackson said. "When I lost track of Bowie, I didn't know what was going on and I didn't know about the tremendous success they've had as a program."
Jackson, who turns 80 in November, is originally from Silver Spring, Maryland; he played college football and baseball at Howard University.
He left the coaching profession after the 1973 season to pursue a medical career, attending medical school at Ohio State University. He has enjoyed a long career as an orthopedic doctor, and has practiced in Lumberton since 1995.
Chris Stiles can be reached at 910-816-1977 or by email at cstiles@robesonian.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @StilesOnSports.
