Reggie Jackson says Bear Bryant called him N-word 'as a compliment'
Reggie Jackson stunned listeners this week recalling his experiences as a Black baseball player in the South during the 1960s, and now Mr. October has come forward with an unsettling memory of an encounter with then-Alabama football coach Bear Bryant, a man Jackson calls his friend.
Bryant paid a visit to Jackson in the locker room after a game when the coach made a remark that has stayed with Jackson, now 78, down the decades.
"I was getting changed, finishing a shower, and putting my shirt on, and Bear Bryant walked up to me and paid me a compliment. 1967." Jackson said, via AL.com.
"[Bryant] said to the group, 'This is just the kind of [n-word] boy we need in order to compete with Bo [Schembechler], Woody [Hayes], Ara [Parseghian], and Johnny..."
Those names referred to the then-head coaches of Michigan, Ohio State, Notre Dame, and USC, respectively, all racially integrated teams at a time when major Southern schools still weren't fielding Black players.
"He meant it as a compliment," Jackson said of Bryant's remarks. "He said, 'If we don't get one of these, we're not gonna be able to compete with them."
Jackson recalled Bryant was present for his first game, and his last game, both in Chicago.
"I got called up to the major leagues and Bear Bryant came up to Chicago... and watched me play my first time," he said. "Twenty-one years later when I retired, I played my last game in Chicago, and Bear Bryant came to see me play my last game.
"That friendship lasted until he passed, but that," referring to Bryant's remarks in 1967, "was the most impactful thing that happened to me at Rickwood Field," Jackson said.
You can see Jackson's remarks in full here.
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JAMES PARKS
James Parks is the founder and publisher of College Football HQ. He previously covered football for 247Sports and CBS Interactive. College Football HQ joined the Sports Illustrated Fannation Network in 2022.