https://twitter.com/IlliniAD/status/848215290131484673Congrats to my friend and #ILLINI legend Mannie Jackson on his inclusion in 2017 Naismith Basketball HOF class! @illiniad
Last edited by a moderator:
https://twitter.com/IlliniAD/status/848215290131484673Congrats to my friend and #ILLINI legend Mannie Jackson on his inclusion in 2017 Naismith Basketball HOF class! @illiniad
He was born in a railroad boxcar near Illmo, Missouri. Real poverty but close friends of mine who went to school with him in that time tell of people in Eville who saw something in him, steered him in the right, mentored him and then got out of his way.
And when he saw opportunity he jumped on it with both feet. A real Horatio Alger story. He also went to school in Champaign when that was not a welcoming town for black Americans. And to his everlasting credit, he grew past that