ABuccsFan

TAMPA - It's been 20 years since the Bucs were spurned by a two-sport star and a first-class iconoclast.

After investigating Hugh Culverhouse's reputation, mercurial running back Bo Jackson turned his broad back on a record-setting offer from Tampa Bay's controversial owner, picking up a bat instead of a football.

The No. 1 overall pick in the 1986 draft embarked on a baseball career with the Royals, leaving a lousy team in tatters and at least one former Buc in ecstasy.

"Bo's a good guy, and I was glad he was strong enough to tell Culverhouse, 'I don't want to play for you,'" current Bucs pro personnel executive Doug Williams said. "A guy like Bo Jackson had the power to say no."

Despite a five-year, $7.6 million proposal from Culverhouse, which represented the most lucrative contract offered for an NFL rookie, Jackson stalled the Bucs and opened negotiations with the Royals through his agent, Richard Woods.

Yes, the same Richard Woods who called Williams after the draft to discuss the sorry state of the Bucs' administration.

"When you draft first overall and don't sign the player, it's a huge mistake for the franchise," said former coach Leeman Bennett, who went 4-28 in his two seasons on the Tampa Bay sideline. "Mr. Culverhouse told me, 'Don't worry, we'll get him in here.' So we draft Bo, don't sign him and the next year, I get fired."

Culverhouse's key administrator, Phil Krueger, said he had a queasy feeling the 1985 Heisman Trophy could run away from One Buc Place.

"Auburn coaches said he couldn't hit the curveball, but in my mind, I thought the baseball option would be a problem for us," Krueger said from his home in South Florida. "Mr C. was in love with that name - Bo Jackson. Culverhouse would never show his hand, but when Bo didn't sign with us, I think he was hurt and bitter by it."

That pain only intensified a year later, when Jackson went back into the NFL draft and was selected by the Los Angeles Raiders in the seventh round.

Raiders owner Al Davis, who shared Jackson's maverick outlook, worked out an accommodation that allowed the former Auburn All-America to pursue both sports within a calendar year.

"When I first met him, Bo struck me as a guy who was very deliberate about what he wanted to do," former Bucs tight end Jimmie Giles said. "He absolutely loved the city of Tampa. Why didn't he sign? It was all about Doug Williams. Bo grew up in the South, and all he could see here was a Southern plantation owner mentality [in Culverhouse]."
Dissention From Within

That nasty 1983 split between the Bucs and Williams resonated with Jackson. The subject was brought up repeatedly when Jackson met with several Tampa Bay players in the spring of 1986.

"Yeah, they took him to dinner and ran up a big bill that I paid," Krueger said. "That's where some of our guys told him he'd be crazy to come to Tampa."

Jackson may have struggled against the breaking ball, but he knew how to turn on a mistake.

"I chose another route, and that's just the way it is," Jackson told The Tampa Tribune in 2000. "I wasn't comfortable coming here to play. Not only that, but at the time there were even players who said, 'Man, you don't want to come here.' So when you've got people already on the team telling you that ..."

Instead of selecting six-time Pro Bowl defensive end Leslie O'Neal or quarterback Jim Everett, who finished with 203 touchdown passes and almost 35,000 yards, the Bucs received no opening-round value as they kicked off the draft on April 29, 1986.

When Jackson was chosen by the Royals in the fourth round of the '86 amateur draft, Tampa Bay officials figured they had the leverage. Instead, Vincent Edward Jackson agreed to Kansas City's three-year deal worth $1.066 million.

After only 53 games in the minors, Jackson made his major-league debut on Sept. 2, 1986. He hit 22 home runs the next season and by 1989, he was named the MVP of the All-Star Game.

"I wasn't shocked Bo didn't sign here," former Bucs linebacker Scot Brantley said. "I never held it against him, because this guy might have been one of the top five athletes that ever lived. It's just a shame he couldn't display his football skills in Tampa Bay."
He Showed Them

Before hip problems cut his dual careers short, Jackson showed Raider Nation what he could do with a football.

He was the first NFL player to register two rushing touchdowns of 90 yards or more, and Jackson averaged a startling 5.4 yards per carry in his 515 career attempts as a part-time pro.

"I played against Bo in a preseason game [1988], and I've never seen anything like it in my life," Williams said. "I've still never seen 80 yards go by that fast."

Jackson is a family man now, living in suburban Chicago as co-owner of N'Genuity Enterprises, a company specializing in food products.

The 43-year-old entrepreneur declined to talk about his decision to reject the Bucs, but his stance spoke volumes about Tampa Bay's executive suite.

Culverhouse, the man in orange, apparently couldn't offer Jackson enough green to forget about Doug Williams.

"I fell in love with Bo, the person who loved to hunt and fish," said Brantley, who served as tour guide for Jackson's fishing trip to Pasco County in 1986. "I remember him sitting in that boat, telling me that our owner is a little different. He was handled poorly by the front office - I don't think the loyalty and sincerity was there.

"Bo was a very prideful guy who said to the organization, 'I'll show you.' That's exactly what he did."

Professor

bo knows the bucs were racist.

ABuccsFan

Thank GOD the Culverhouse days are over.

Professor

i don't remember too much from the culverhouse days as I was just learning about football as a young kid. I do remember they were awful though.

ABuccsFan

The team was awful because the Ownership was awful. Look back through the history of the league your losers year in and year out can all be attributed to bad ownership. Bengals of old. The Cardinals, allthough with the son taking the reigns it seems things are turning. The Saints, the new 9ers.