what happened to the Bryan Clay/Bo Jackson post?

[dbirds]

Would be nice to know why it was removed

[gh]

uh-oh! It got transferred from here to Historical, where it belonged (although with those purported decathlon scores it may have been better in Things Not Track), but apparently the software ate it en route. My humble apologies to all who had participated. It had some good stuff. (yes, once it's gone, it's gone I'm afraid)

[Marlow]

I guess the gist was that Bo did indeed twice win the Alabama state HS Decathlon title with 8000+ scores (who knows what the scoring tables looked like - apparently someone had scored 9000+ on them and Bo had incorrectly remembered also scoring 9000+).

[Grasshopper]

I guess the gist was that Bo did indeed twice win the Alabama state HS Decathlon title with 8000+ scores (who knows what the scoring tables looked like - apparently someone had scored 9000+ on them and Bo had incorrectly remembered also scoring 9000+).

Part of the "legend" that I've heard (I'm not joking) is that in at least one of those wins he did it without running the 1500m, so maybe he's referring to what he "could've" scored.

[4:24-miler]

So Bo could really pole vault and high jump at a junior decathlete elite level? I didn't know high schools have decathlon events? I ran track in high school in California and I never heard of any high school decathlon events in my neck of the woods.

[Daisy]

Part of the "legend" that I've heard (I'm not joking) is that in at least one of those wins he did it without running the 1500m, so maybe he's referring to what he "could've" scored.

I suspect it means he had the competition won without the points from the 1500, rather than he didn't actually run the 1500. If not, then he would have been near 9000 pts on the HS scoring tables. It's a shame they don't have the individual events tabulated as part of the official results.

[westcoasttiger]

I can shed a little more direct witness info to Bo's decathlon scores as I was there for each and actually have his actual marks in old copies of newsletters I published at the time but I am in Italy and the marks are in the US and my return is not for some time. I converted his marks to the IAAF tables so I will include those as well.

The state association in Alabama has for decades conducted an official state decathlon & heptathlon a week or two after the state meet. When Bo competed they used an old system of scoring tables someone had devised that scored things essentially along the lines of a likely average state winning time in each individual event being the 1000 point mark and working their way down. There was no corelation to the IAAf tables. At that time the triple jump was substituted for the javelin and they ran a mile rather than a 1500. The first time he picked up a pole was in his first decathlon when it got to the vault. He threw the shot like he was taking a jump shot in basketball with no contact with the ground at release. There was no rule he had to run the mile the first year and he had it won so he skipped it because he also played baseball and they were in a playoff game that evening and if memory serves me right he went and pitched a no-hitter and hit 3 home runs. Honest! He did throw the javelin once, a legit 247' on his only real effort I think he ever tried in the event while at Auburn during practice. I was able to witness that as well as he was taught how to grip and throw and after a couple easy tosses let one rip and the rest is legandary. I can also add his high school had no hurdles or track and so to practice hurdles he had to hurdle over chairs in the parking lot.

Bo was responsible for a push I and some others made to move the state decathlon to use the IAAF tables when I pointed out there were marks for events like triple jump also available.

[Marlow]

He did throw the javelin once, a legit 247' on his only real effort.

If that were ANYone else besides Bo Freakin Jackson, I would call BS big-time, but it is . . . so I can't. Bo throws.

[dbirds]

Can u give us specifics on the javelin throw?

[AS]

Purged thread contained someone quoting an old post of mine:

Daisy, the merits of this Bo guy gets discussed here every 6 mths or so.

Here's what I found with a bit of searching:
ran 10.39
and 6.18m for 55m
http://mb.trackandfieldnews.com/discuss ... php?t=9131

A 9.5 in HS (?)
http://mb.trackandfieldnews.com/discuss ... p?p=515480

Supposedly did a Decath at some point:
http://mb.trackandfieldnews.com/discuss ... hp?t=19163

Jackson claimed two state decathlon championships.


http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00016045.html

Actually found genuine evidence of this:
1982-Vincent Jackson, McAdory, 8,304
1981-Vincent Jackson, McAdory, 8,340

(not sure what's going on with those scoring tables - in 1978 winner did 9026. By 1984 marks a back down in 6400 range)

http://www.ahsaa.com/Sports/TrackField/ ... fault.aspx

Including a 149’ discus at HS
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read. ... ad=2326704

That thread was viewtopic.php?f=5&t=35325