Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
Former Fighting Illini star Mannie Jackson was officially enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday night. Illinois coach Brad Underwood, assistant coach Orlando Antigua and Director of Athletic Josh Whitman were on hand for the ceremony in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Jackson was born in a railroad boxcar in Illmo, Missouri, before moving to Edwardsville, Illinois and finding statewide high school success on the basketball court. He, along with former high school teammate Govoner Vaughn, became the first African-Americans to start and letter in basketball at the University of Illinois during the 1957-58 season. Jackson was a trailblazer during an era of social change, opening doors to generations that followed. On the court, he averaged double figures in scoring all three years, twice earning All-Big Ten honors and serving as team captain as a senior in 1960. He finished his Illini career ranked fifth on the school's all-time scoring list with 922 points.
Jackson played professionally for three years with the Harlem Globetrotters. He then began a long and distinguished business career, becoming one of the top corporate executives at Honeywell, Inc. Jackson became the nation's first African-American owner of a global sports and entertainment brand when he purchased the Globetrotters in 1993, saving the world-famous team from near extinction and leading the Globetrotters to record attendance and revenue growth. He served as Chairman of the Board for the Basketball Hall of Fame from 2007-09 and is the namesake of the Mannie Jackson - Basketball's Human Spirit Award. Jackson received the Theodore Roosevelt Award from the NCAA in 2015, the association's top honor. He is an inaugural member of the Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame class.
Also part of the 2017 Hall of Fame Class was Kansas' Bill Self, who previously spent three seasons as head coach in Champaign, leading the Fighting Illini to a combined 78-24 record and back-to-back Big Ten Championships in 2001 and 2002. Several of Self's Illini players were on hand for the enshrinement.
