Former Tuskegee star named to College Baseball Hall of Fame
By TIM GAYLE
Former Tuskegee pitcher Roy Lee Jackson was among the dozen players and coaches honored with their 2020 selection into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame.
Jackson finished his career at Tuskegee Institute with a 22-9 record and a remarkable 384 strikeouts in 251 innings. The three-time All-Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference performer posted a 0.98 ERA and fanned 160 batters to lead all Division II pitchers in 1975.
This year’s class will be inducted as a part of a virtual ceremony later this month and is headlined by three-time All-American Jason Varitek and former coach Jim Morris, who led 13 teams to the College World Series and won two national championships.
“We are happy to recognize another outstanding group,” said Hall of Fame CEO Mike Gustafson. “This class touches so many levels of college baseball.”
Varitek, a catcher at Georgia Tech, is the highlight among the players as the only unanimous three-time All-American in NCAA Division I history. He was the 1994 national player of the year, posting a .384 career batting average with 57 home runs and 251 RBI.
Morris retired as one of only 12 coaches from all levels of college baseball with more than 1,500 wins. In addition to leading the Miami Hurricanes to the 1999 and 2001 national championships, he made a remarkable 32 consecutive trips to the NCAA tournament from 1985 to 2016, including his time at Georgia Tech.
Also comprising the 2020 class are Doug Ault, a two-time, first-team NJCAA All-American at Panola Junior College and first-team All-American at Texas Tech; Southern University’s Pete Barnes, who was a two-time NAIA All-American outfielder; Rick Cerone of Seton Hall, who led the Pirates to two College World Series; Montclair State’s John Deutsch, a three-time All-American and 1989 Division III National Player of the Year; Gary Gentry of Phoenix College and Arizona State, a first-team All-American pitcher at both schools while leading both to national championships; Jim Gideon, a two-time All-American pitcher at Texas who went 36-2 in his final two years; Roy Lee Jackson of Tuskegee Institute, a three-time all-conference performer who won 26 games; two-time All-American shortstop Paul Molitor from Minnesota; and legendary coach John Scolinos, who was the third coach in history to reach 1,000 wins.
Everett “Eppy” Barnes rounds out the class as the second inductee to be selected from the contributors’ section of the ballot, which was established in 2019 to honor important figures in college baseball from off the field. Barnes was an important figure in the creation of the College World Series.
Jackson, a native of Opelika, was drafted out of Opelika High by the Houston Astros, but elected to play collegiately at Tuskegee. He earned all-SIAC honors in 1973, 1974 and 1975 at both pitcher and designated hitter, hitting .404 as a sophomore in 1974 and a team-leading .431 with a .718 slugging percentage as a junior in 1975.
On the mound, he posted a 22-9 career record with 384 strikeouts, only 64 walks and a 1.51 ERA in 251 innings. In 1875, he struck out 160 batters to lead all Division II pitchers.
He signed a free-agent contract with the New York Mets following the 1975 season and played minor-league ball until he was called up late in the 1977 season, pitching in four games and compiling an 0-2 record. In 1978, the led the Triple-A Tidewater Tides with 11 wins and was brought up late in the season again, pitching in four games.
In 1979, a late call-up from the Tides allowed him to pitch in eight games as a reliever for the Mets, where he picked up his first win. In 1980, he was called up in July and went 1-7 as a reliever.
He was traded to Toronto and spent the next four years (1981-84) as a reliever for the Blue Jays, compiling a 24-21 record. He was released and picked up by the Baltimore Orioles and pitcher Triple-A ball before he was traded to San Diego, where he was called up later in the year by the Padres.
He spent 1986 with the Minnesota Twins, finishing a 10-year career with a 28-34 record and 3.77 ERA with 351 strikeouts in 559 innings pitched.
Jackson now runs the New Creation Service Center, a ministry in Auburn.
Interestingly enough, while he is now a member of the College Baseball Hall of Fame, he is not a member of the Tuskegee Hall of Fame.