By Tim Parry
2007 should have been “The Year of The Bus” at Harding.
Coming off a 1,000-yard rushing season, and with the Presidents faring very well in a local 7-on-7 passing league, Byron Jackson was going to be one of the top players to watch in the FCIAC.
But The Bus, as he’s been called since his Bridgeport Raiders Pop Warner days, never got out of the garage. He was hampered by injuries, the team was in turmoil, and Harding ended its season winless - including a loss to Bassick that ended that school’s six-season long winless streak.
So the Hall of Fame Classic, which will be played Friday at 7:30 at West Haven High School, will be his chance to show the state what could have been.
It’ll also be Jackson’s going away party. Jackson was accepted at Arkansas-Pine Bluff, and was invited to walk on to the Golden Lions football team.
“They wrote and told me I qualified to be a walk-on prospect, so I’m going to walk on and see what happens,” Jackson said. “Hopefully I’ll get a spot down there, hopefully they’ll like me.”
And even if they don’t, Jackson says he likes where he’s heading, and thinks the school is the perfect fit for him.
“It’s a good school for what I want to study, accounting,” Jackson said. “It’s a good move for me, and hopefully it will be big.”
At 5-foot-8, 185-pounds, Jackson certainly won;t be the biggest back on the field. But what he lacks in height he makes up for with breakaway speed.
Recent Wilton graduate Joe Smith, who will also play for the Fairfield County team in the game Friday, can attest to that. Though the Warriors defeated Harding on homecoming in 2006, Jackson put on quite a show. He ran for 195 yards on 21 carries, including a 65-yard touchdown.
“When you see speed like that, and you aren’t really used to it, it sneaks up on you,” said Smith, who will play at Bowdoin. “He broke away real quickly.”
Did the time fly by for Jackson as fast as one of his long-distance scoring romps? Jackson laughs and agrees that his four years as a starter at Harding went by real quick.
“It went by real fast, I still remember my first day being up there as a freshman,” Jackson said. “As a matter of fact I remember being up there as an eighth grader and wanting to play.”
And the nickname?
“One of my Pop Warner coaches told me when I was 9 or 10 that I looked like Jerome Bettis and that I kind of ran like him,” Jackson said. “And I used to wear those leather sleeves on my arm, so he just gave me the nickname ‘Bus’ and it stuck.”
