Bo Jackson was one of the most unique and gifted athletes of all time. Not only did he star in both professional football and baseball at an elite level, but he was doing so during an era before specialization became the norm in sports. Jackson’s rare athletic talents allowed him to compete at a high level against the best in two different professional leagues. His brief yet impressive baseball career produced some of the most sought after rookie cards in the hobby.
Born in 1962 in Bessemer, Alabama, Bo Jackson first gained national attention as a star running back at Auburn University. He won the Heisman Trophy in 1985 as the best player in college football. That same year, Jackson was selected by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the first overall pick in the NFL Draft. He refused to sign with the struggling franchise and instead focused on pursuing a career in professional baseball first.
In 1986, Jackson was selected by the New York Yankees in the 7th round of the MLB Draft. He signed with the team and spent that summer playing for one of their minor league affiliates as he prepared to join the Yankees’ organization full time after finishing his college football eligibility at Auburn. It was during this brief minor league stint that Topps produced Jackson’s first baseball cards.
Topps had been producing baseball cards annually since 1952 and held the exclusive license to photograph and produce cards featuring MLB players. In 1986, they decided to issue cards of Jackson as a prospect, even though he had only played a handful of minor league games that season prior to returning to Auburn for his senior football year. This preemptively gave collectors their first glimpse of the promising young athlete in card form before his anticipated full-time debut in professional baseball the following season.
Two different 1986 Topps Traded Baseball cards featured Bo Jackson as a rookie prospect – card #T66 and card #T79. Both captured images of Jackson from his brief 1986 minor league stint in the Yankees’ system before he returned to football at Auburn for his senior year. They stand out because they predated his official MLB rookie card debut by a year.
The #T66 card shows Jackson from the waist up in a Yankees road gray uniform with a blue and red batting helmet on. The #T79 card features a closer headshot of Jackson in the same road gray jersey without a helmet. Both cards call out that he was a 1986 draft pick of the Yankees who had spent time that season in their minor league system prior to returning to Auburn.
Given that Jackson was already a national celebrity and star football player who was poised to join the Yankees’ major league roster full time in 1987, these 1986 Topps Traded cards immediately took on greater significance as his true “rookie” cards in the eyes of many collectors, even if they predated his official MLB debut by a year. They captured Jackson at the very start of his professional baseball career when expectations were sky high for his imminent arrival in the big leagues.
When Jackson did officially debut for the Yankees in 1987, Topps responded by issuing two more cards featuring him as a true rookie that year:
1987 Topps card #96: A full body action shot of Jackson in a Yankees road gray uniform from his 1987 season. This served as his official “rookie card” debut.
1987 Topps Traded card #81T: Another action shot of Jackson in a road gray uniform from 1987, but part of Topps’ smaller traded set release that year in addition to the main flagship set.
Both 1987 issue cards clearly stated it was Jackson’s rookie season, but the 1986 Topps Traded cards remained highly coveted by collectors as well since they were seen as his first baseball cards overall before his MLB debut.
In his first full MLB season of 1987, Jackson proved he belonged in the majors by hitting .276 with 11 home runs and 38 RBI in 89 games for the Yankees as a part-time designated hitter and outfielder. He showed off his incredible speed and power that scouts had predicted. It further increased demand for all of his early baseball cards from 1986 and 1987 as collectors rushed to obtain items chronicling the start of Jackson’s promising baseball career.
Tragically, Jackson’s time in the majors would be cut short after just a portion of his second season in 1989 due to a devastating hip injury suffered during an NFL playoff game while a member of the Los Angeles Raiders. The injury prematurely ended his football career and limited his ability to play baseball going forward. He attempted a comeback in 1991 with the Chicago White Sox, but was never the same player after the injury.
Because of Jackson’s brief yet electrifying baseball career and the unfortunate way it was ended due to injury, all of his early cards from his rookie seasons with the Yankees in 1986-1987 are now regarded as some of the most coveted and valuable in the hobby. Collectors for decades have sought out high grade examples of his 1986 Topps Traded rookie cards #T66 and #T79 to commemorate the start of Jackson’s time in professional baseball before stardom was cut short.
Graded gem mint 10 examples of Jackson’s 1986 Topps Traded #T66 rookie in modern slabs have sold at auction for over $15,000. Even raw, ungraded copies in near mint to mint condition have sold for thousands. His 1986 #T79 Traded rookie has reached similar heights. PSA 10 examples of Jackson’s true 1987 rookie card from the flagship Topps set, #96, have sold for well over $10,000 as one of the most iconic rookie cards from that year.
For collectors who enjoyed Jackson’s brief yet spectacular baseball career, high grade copies of his earliest cards capturing the start of his time in the majors take on a special significance. They preserve the memory of one of sports’ greatest “what if” stories and remind fans of Jackson’s immense talents that were shown far too briefly in MLB before tragedy intervened. Over three decades later, Bo Jackson’s rookie cards from 1986 and 1987 remain some of the most widely collected and valuable in the modern era. They are a constant reminder of the excitement and potential seen in one of sports’ true freak athletes before fate cut his baseball career tragically short.
