The poster was simply titled, “The Ball Player”.

It hung on my bedroom wall as a kid next to the Will Clark and Kevin Mitchell poster; over by the Nintendo where "Double Dribble" and "Baseball Stars" were a daily staple. As we came to know about Vincent Edward “Bo” Jackson, he was a sports culture phenomenon and two-sport athlete - the original cross-trainer if you will. From then on, “Bo Knows” would forever be part of the American lexicon.

One day he was breaking tackles for the Los Angeles Raiders, and breaking bats over his knee with the Kansas City Royals the next.

Get this: Bo won the Heisman in 1985, then turned around four years later and took home MVP honors at the MLB All-Star Game in 1989. It’s hard to forget him leading off the bottom of the first with a monster homer against San Francisco Giant’s hefty pitcher, Rick Reuschel.

And of course there were the commercials. Way back before Nike drank the well dry with Kobe and LeBron puppets, they put together perhaps the most memorable ad campaign in Swoosh history featuring none other than Bo and Bo Diddley.

Today, Bo knows “History Black”.

The History Black Series:

February 1: Muhammed Ali

February 2: Gary Payton

photo: posters.com

Comments (3)

Bo Knows Big Daddy
written by Tiparillo, February 03, 2010

I will always remember Bo as a Raider running over people....and oh man, I haven't thought of Big Daddy is a long time. To this day, I dread seeing Giants pitchers in the All-Star game after Atlee Hammaker got shelled in '83. He was never really the same again.....

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tim
written by wmaxeyjr, February 03, 2010

oh, no doubt....

but i'm thinking the giants have a pretty fine cy young winner to take the all-star mound these days.

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Humm Baby
written by Tiparillo, February 03, 2010

Now if they could only add some hitters

Since moving to Portland, I have been broken of my baseball addiction. A serious Giants run at the World Series would push me into relapse. But I'll never be as connected as I was to those Humm Baby teams.

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