Harold Jackson (American football)

Harold Leon Jackson (born January 6, 1946) is a former American football wide receiver who played in the National Football League from 1968 through 1983. Jackson was drafted in the 12th round (323 overall) of the 1968 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams. In 2014, Jackson was hired to serve as head coach at his alma mater Jackson State. He was fired five games into the 2015 season.

Harold Jackson
No. 29
Position:Wide receiver
Personal information
Born: (1946-01-06) January 6, 1946
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Career information
College:Jackson State
NFL Draft:1968 / Round: 12 / Pick: 323
Career history
As player:
As coach:
Career highlights and awards
Career NFL statistics
Receptions:579
Receiving yards:10,372
Touchdowns:76
Player stats at NFL.com
Head coaching record
Regular season:6-11
Player stats at PFR

Professional career

After appearing in only two games during his rookie season, he was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles and quickly emerged as one of the top receivers in the NFL, finishing the 1969 season with 65 receptions for a league-best 1,116 yards and 9 touchdowns. During his years with the Eagles, Jackson led the NFL in receptions in 1972 and in receiving yardage in both 1969 and 1972.

Prior to the 1973 NFL season, the Eagles traded Jackson back to the Rams for quarterback Roman Gabriel (who was expendable as the Rams had acquired John Hadl). Jackson led the NFL in receiving touchdowns in 1973 with 13 and helped the Rams rebound from a 6–7–1 record the previous season to a 12–2 finish that won them the first of 7 straight NFC West Division Championships. Statistically, his greatest NFL game came against Dallas on October 14, 1973 when he caught 7 passes for 238 yards and 4 touchdowns (this came in the midst of a string of four games in which he caught a total of 13 passes for 422 yards for a 32.5-yard average with 8 touchdowns).[1] During his career, Jackson was selected to play in the Pro Bowl five times. In 1972, he was named 2nd-team All-Pro by the Associated Press (AP), the Pro Football Writers Association (PFWA) and the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) and was voted 1st-team All-NFC by the Associated Press (AP), The Sporting News and UPI. He was a consensus first-team All-Pro and All-NFC choice in 1973.[2] He was voted 2nd team All-NFC by UPI in 1976, 1st team All-NFC by The Sporting News and UPI in 1977 and 2nd team All-Pro by the NEA in 1977.

In 1978, Jackson was traded to the New England Patriots. Alongside Stanley Morgan, Jackson helped form one of the NFL's best starting wide receiver duos of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Jackson became the NFL's active leader in receiving yards when Fred Biletnikoff retired after 1978, and remained the league leader for his remaining five seasons. At the time he was ranked 15th all-time, but would eventually reach second place.[3] In 1979, Jackson finished with 1,013 yards receiving, 7 touchdown receptions and was second in the NFL in yards-per-catch with an average of 22.5. His teammate Morgan, who was nine years younger than Jackson, was the only one to finish with a higher average that season. Jackson finished his career by playing one season each for the Minnesota Vikings (1982) and the Seattle Seahawks (1983).

During his career, Jackson had 29 career 100-yard games and three 1,000-yard seasons. At the time of his retirement, only Don Maynard had more career receiving yards than Jackson.[4] He currently ranks 26th in league history in career receiving yardage.[5][6] For the decade of the 1970s, Jackson ranked first in receptions (432),[7] yards (7,724) and receiving touchdowns (61). Despite this, Jackson was not one of the wide receivers selected to the NFL's All-Decade Team for the 1970s and he has yet to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

In 2011, the Professional Football Researchers Association named Jackson to the PRFA Hall of Very Good Class of 2011 [8]

NFL career statistics

GeneralReceivingRushing
YearTeamGPRecYdsAvgTDLngAttYdsTD
1968LAR 200000000
1969PHI 14651,11617.29652100
1970PHI 1441613155791-50
1971PHI 144771615.23695410
1972PHI 14621,04816.94779760
1973LAR 144087421.913692-80
1974LAR 143051417.1544140
1975LAR 144378618.3754000
1976LAR 143975119.35651150
1977LAR 144866613.9658160
1978NE 163774320.1657170
1979NE 1645101322.57593120
1980NE 163573721.15405370
1981NE 163966917.20452-140
1982MIN 100000000
1983SEA 15812615.8129000
Career2085791037217.97679331810

Source: PFR

Coaching career

After retiring from professional football, Jackson coached receivers for 10 years in the NFL with New England (1985–89), Tampa Bay (1992–93) and New Orleans (1997–99). In his first NFL season as a coach, the Patriots won the AFC Championship and played in Super Bowl XX. In 1987, he suited for two of the Patriots replacement games, but did not play. Jackson served as the receivers coach at Baylor University.[6] On January 13, 2014, Jackson was named the head coach at Jackson State University.[9] Coach Jackson was fired on October 6, 2015, after the Tigers got off to a 1-4 start.

Head coaching record

Year Team Overall ConferenceStanding Bowl/playoffs
Jackson State Tigers (Southwestern Athletic Conference) (2014–2015)
2014 Jackson State 5–73–6T–3rd (East)
2015 Jackson State 1–4*1–2*(East)
Jackson State: 6–114–8* Was fired on 10/06/15 [10]
Total:6–11

College statistics

  • 1965: 45 catches for 612 yards
  • 1966: 56 catches for 878 yards with 11 touchdowns

References

  1. "HAROLD JACKSON". aramfan.tripod.com. Retrieved 2019-05-16.
  2. "hickoksports.com". Archived from the original on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2008-03-08.
  3. "NFL Career Receiving Yards Leaders Through 1978". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved 2019-05-16.
  4. "NFL football news, rumors, analysis". www.profootballweekly.com. Retrieved 2019-05-16.
  5. "NFL Receiving Yards Career Leaders". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved 2019-05-16.
  6. baylorbears.cstv.com baylorbears.cstv.com
  7. nfluk.com
  8. "Hall of Very Good Class of 2011". Archived from the original on September 2, 2018. Retrieved November 23, 2016.
  9. "Jackson State hires Harold Jackson". ESPN.com. Associated Press. January 13, 2014. Retrieved January 18, 2014.
  10. http://www.gulflive.com/sports/index.ssf/2015/10/jackson_state_university_fires.html
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