No. 40 | |||||||||
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Position: | Running back | ||||||||
Personal information | |||||||||
Born: | Ozark, Alabama, U.S. | November 19, 1951||||||||
Height: | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | ||||||||
Weight: | 215 lb (98 kg) | ||||||||
Career information | |||||||||
High school: | Carroll (Ozark) | ||||||||
College: | Alabama | ||||||||
NFL draft: | 1974 / round: 1 / pick: 9 | ||||||||
Career history | |||||||||
Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
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Wilbur Jackson (born November 19, 1951) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL), He played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide and was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the first round of the 1974 NFL draft. He played five seasons for San Francisco, and then three years with the Washington Redskins.
Jackson was the first black player to be offered a football scholarship at the University of Alabama and was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2007.[1][2] He owns the Alabama school record for yards per carry (7.2) for his career (1,529 yards on 212 attempts) from 1971 to 1973. Against Virginia Tech in 1973 he rushed for 138 yards on 5 carries, an average of 27.6 yards per carry.[3]
During the Super Bowl XVII highlight film, Jackson can be seen pulling up lame with a hamstring injury after attempting to stop Fulton Walker of the Miami Dolphins from returning a kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown, the first such score in Super Bowl history.