Terrance Bernard Jackson (born January 10, 1976) is an American former college and professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who was a

fullback Fullback or Full back may refer to: Sports * A position in various kinds of football, including: ** Full-back (association football), in association football (soccer), a defender playing in a wide position ** Fullback (gridiron football), in Americ ...

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

and special teams player in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) for seven seasons during the 1990s and 2000s. Jackson played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

, and was a member of a national championship team. Thereafter, he played professionally for the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

of the NFL. Jackson is now a college football administrator at his alma mater.

Early years

Jackson was born in

Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gaine ...

in 1976.Pro-Football-Reference.com, Players
Terry Jackson
Retrieved July 1, 2010. His father was Willie Jackson, Sr., a former Gators wide receiver who was one of the first two

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

athletes to play for the University of Florida's Gators football team from 1970 to 1973. Jackson attended P.K. Yonge High School in Gainesville,databaseFootball.com, Players
Terry Jackson
Retrieved July 1, 2010. where he was standout athlete for the P.K. Yonge Blue Wave high school football and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

teams.Robbie Andreu, "Jackson legacy grows at UF," ''The Gainesville Sun'' (September 15, 1995). In football, he played a variety of positions including

strong safety Safety is a position in gridiron football on the defense. The safeties are defensive backs who line up ten to fifteen yards from the line of scrimmage. There are two variations of the position: the free safety and the strong safety. Their dut ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

and tailback. Jackson's older brother, Willie Jackson, Jr., was an All-American wide receiver for the Florida Gators and played in the NFL.

College career

Jackson accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the

in Gainesville, where he played for coach

Steve Spurrier Stephen Orr Spurrier (born April 20, 1945) is an American former American football, football quarterback and coach who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 10 seasons before coaching for 38 years, primarily in college. He is often ...

's Florida Gators football team from

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

.
2011 Florida Gators Football Media Guide
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 19, 93, 100, 125, 138–140, 148, 182 (2011). Retrieved August 30, 2011. Despite his versatility and demonstrated athleticism in high school, he was not highly rated by the recruiting services and he received one of the last scholarships offered by the Gators. Jackson, like his older brother, Willie Jackson, Jr., and his father, Willie Jackson, Sr., before him, wore football jersey number "22" for the Gators. The Gators coaching staff

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Entertainment * ''Red Shirts'' (film), a 1952 film about Anita Garibaldi by Franco Rossi * Redshirt (stock character), originally derived from ''Star Trek'', a stock character who dies soon after b ...

ed him when he was a true freshman in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, and he converted from strong safety to tailback to help meet the needs of the team in 1995, and memorably ran for 138 yards and three touchdowns against the

Kentucky Wildcats The Kentucky Wildcats are the men's and women's intercollegiate athletic squads of the University of Kentucky (UK), a founding member of the Southeastern Conference. The Kentucky Wildcats is the student body of the University of Kentucky. 30,473 ...

. During Jackson's four seasons as a

letterman Letterman may refer to: * Letterman (sports), a classification of high school or college athlete in the United States People * David Letterman (born 1947), American television talk show host ** ''Late Night with David Letterman'', talk show that ...

, the Gators won

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(SEC) championships in 1995 and 1996, and the

Bowl Alliance The Bowl Alliance was an agreement among college football bowl games (specifically the Sugar, Orange, and Fiesta Bowls) for the purpose of trying to match the top two teams in a national championship game and to provide quality bowl game matchups ...

national championship in 1996. As a senior in 1998, Jackson was a team captain and a second-team

Academic All-America The Academic All-America program is a student-athlete recognition program. The program selects an honorary sports team composed of the most outstanding student-athletes of a specific season for positions in various sports—who in turn are giv ...

n. Jackson was also as an SEC Academic Honor Roll honoree all four years, and was the recipient of an NCAA post-graduate scholarship. He graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1998.

Professional career

The San Francisco 49ers selected Jackson in the fifth round (157th pick overall) of the

1999 NFL Draft The 1999 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 17–18, 1999, at the Theater at M ...

, and he played for the 49ers his entire seven-year NFL career from to .National Football League, Historical Players
Terry Jackson
Retrieved July 1, 2010. Jackson was a solid interior runner, and had surprising quickness and power when he broke through the line. He was primarily used as a blocker and receiver out of the backfield on third down situations. Jackson was also a good

special teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...

player and was a team captain of the special teams squad for several years. He had a limited role on offense in his final two NFL seasons.

Life after the NFL

In March 2008, the Florida Gators' head football coach Urban Meyer announced that Jackson had been hired to serve as the Director of Player and Community Relations for the Gators football staff. Terry Jackson Added to Florida Football Staff
" GatorZone.com (March 31, 2008). Retrieved July 1, 2010.

References

Bibliography

* Carlson, Norm, ''University of Florida Football Vault: The History of the Florida Gators'', Whitman Publishing, LLC, Atlanta, Georgia (2007). . * Golenbock, Peter, ''Go Gators! An Oral History of Florida's Pursuit of Gridiron Glory'', Legends Publishing, LLC, St. Petersburg, Florida (2002). . * Hairston, Jack, ''Tales from the Gator Swamp: A Collection of the Greatest Gator Stories Ever Told'', Sports Publishing, LLC, Champaign, Illinois (2002). . * McCarthy, Kevin M.,
Fightin' Gators: A History of University of Florida Football
', Arcadia Publishing, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina (2000). . * Nash, Noel, ed., ''The Gainesville Sun Presents The Greatest Moments in Florida Gators Football'', Sports Publishing, Inc., Champaign, Illinois (1998). . {{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Terry 1976 births Living people American football running backs Florida Gators football players San Francisco 49ers players Players of American football from Gainesville, Florida