Eric Harris in-depth interview with Bobby Jackson - Must read!

[GopherLady]

Lots of great nuggets in this interview. Great interview from Eric and interesting to learn more about Gopher legend, Bobby Jackson.

TWEH: What was your first interaction with Clem 'The Gem' Haskins like? What was his message to you?

BJ: Two things stood out for me with coach. The first thing was the fact that I didn't have a father figure in my life growing up. Secondly, I never had the opportunity to play for a black coach. Coach Haskins was a straight shooter. He told me, "You have the potential, you have the talent, but this program is about getting your education and teaching you how to become a man. I'm going to be hard on you." For me, that was a challenge. I valued and respected that! A lot of other coaches weren't doing that.

http://trainwithericharris.blogspot.com/

 

[WindyCityGopher]

Great stuff, Nadine, thanks for pointing it out. That BJack/E backcourt was something to behold. Opponents knew they were going to get the crap pounded out of them for 40 minutes by those guys.

 

[Holy Man]

Nice read. Thanks, Nadine. Bobby is one of my all-time favorites. A really humble, hard-working guy. We could see that 20 years ago. It does seem like a lot of things have changed in the game since then. His comments about the guys wanting things handed to them has to drive coaches crazy, though. Really sad he got caught up in the academic scandal. He'll never get the historical recognition he deserves for what he did on the court.

 

[fan of Ray Williams]

That was a good interview. Eric does a good job!

 

[LongLiveMilesTarver]

I wonder if the exclusion of mentioning one certain teammate in Bobby's answer was intentional or not.

 

[BleedGopher]

Great interview, thanks a ton for posting. Bobby is my favorite Gopher of all-time, and Eric is Top 10. Love reading these type of interviews, and so rare and unique having one interview the other.

Go Gophers!!

 

[citywok]

I wonder if the exclusion of mentioning one certain teammate in Bobby's answer was intentional or not.

Who? Russ A? He was a freshman and wouldn't have been on campus yet for the summer practices.

 

[Bad Gopher]

Probably the most intriguing for me was the improper financial benefits (i.e. bags of cash) he turned down from other programs to come here. Those programs remain unpunished while the Gophers got the book thrown at them.