If you were alive in the mid-1980s, Bo Jackson was more than a sports star; he was a cultural phenomenon. The iconic “Bo Knows” Nike advertising campaign made him a national legend, transcending baseball and football to become a household name. There was nothing he could not do; he played professional baseball and football at an All-Star level. He was a college track star, with a blazing 4.13 forty-yard dash time, who also won the Heisman as the nation’s best collegiate football player, and he somehow found time to hunt and surf.
Sportswriter Jeff Pearlman captures his mythic accomplishments in his bestselling book, The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson. Pearlman draws on an astounding 720 interviews to tell Jackson’s amazing tale. The stories told in the book are great fun to read and hard to believe. Pearlman brings the myth to life through these stories, like the time Jackson jumped over a parked Volkswagen or when he threw a football so high that he hit the New Orleans Superdome scoreboard, 140 feet above his head.
Even in the digital world, Bo was unmatched. In the classic Tecmo Bowl video game, his character was famously unstoppable, earning him the title of “the greatest video game athlete of all time,” according to ESPN and USA Today.
You can find The Last Folk Hero in the Leisure Collection on the second floor of Walsh Library. Stop by and check it out. You don’t have to be a sports fan to enjoy this unforgettable ride through Bo Jackson’s extraordinary life.