Do you know Bo? I’m sure many of you are thinking, “Bo who?”
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, everyone knew Bo – Bo Jackson that is. Jackson is one of only a few athletes to be named an all-star in two major sports, and the only one to do so in the National Football League and in Major League Baseball. An athletic shoe company focused a whole campaign around Jackson, capitalizing on the multi-sport athlete’s fame with the phrase, “Bo knows.”
What many people might not know about Bo is that the Heisman Trophy winner is a former member of the McAdory, Ala., FFA Chapter. Jackson is among other former FFA members who have excelled in their professional careers.
“FFA was one of the most enjoyable things I had going through school,” Herbert Perry, a former professional baseball player, has said. “I played sports, but I always looked forward to having the forestry contests, land judging and livestock judging. I was on all those teams, plus all the other stuff – parliamentary procedure and public speaking.”
Green Bay Packer’s wide receiver Jordy Nelson grew up on a Kansas dairy farm and was a member of the Riley County FFA Chapter.
“Farming gives you a lot of responsibilities and teaches you hard work. As a farm kid, you did what you were told to do on the farm and you did things the right way. I can honestly say the long days prepared me for training camp,” he has said.
Athletes are not the only ones who have donned the Blue and Gold.
Former U.S. President and Nobel Prize winner Jimmy Carter; Garfield comic strip creator Jim Davis; singers Willie Nelson, Tim McGraw, Trace Adkins and Don Henley; former Kansas governor Sam Brownback; Walmart Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs and former counselor to President George W. Bush Don Bartlett; former president of Kroger Manufacturing William T. Boehm; Miss Oklahoma 2004 Elizabeth Kinney; and National Geographic Editor-in-Chief Chris Johns were also members. That’s a pretty impressive list.
For many former members, the impact the organization has carried has been much more than learning to judge a dairy cow or understanding Robert’s Rules of Order; FFA was their lifeline.
“There are two things that make goose bumps go up and down my back: one is Old Glory flying over the nation’s capitol when I walk by it at night, and the other is when I see FFA members in their blue jackets. I get an emotional feeling because FFA lifted me out of the depths of poverty and personal problems to the halls of Congress,” Wes Watkins, former U.S. congressman from Oklahoma and former president of the Oklahoma FFA Association, has said.
FFA Chapters around the country have just wrapped up National FFA Week festivities. I don’t recall doing too many things, if any, for FFA Week while I was in high school, but chapters today embrace the opportunity to have a little fun, present agriculture information, do a community service project and/or show their appreciation to chapter supporters.
I’m proud FFA was an organization I had the privilege to be a part of. Like Watkins, I get a few goose bumps when I see a river of blue and gold jackets.
I don’t know if Bo Jackson credits any of his success to the time he spent in FFA, but there are countless other folks around the world who are quick to point out that the time they spent in the youth organization made them who they are today.
Today’s FFA is growing new leaders each and everyday, leaders who will have an important impact on the world, and you don’t have to be Bo Jackson to know the future will be bright for those members.
Julie
