If you have spent time in Sanford Stadium lately, you have heard public address announcer Brooke Whitmire singing out Dirty Dan Jackson’s name quite often.
Jackson is in his sixth season as a Bulldog defender in what is a classic example of “love of alma mater” getting priority the old-fashioned way. His longevity in Red and Black is due to COVID-19, which is about the only good thing to realize from that debilitating disease.
While his story is one of lingering serendipity, no one – apart from Dan himself – is forecasting a career in the National Football League for this Gainesville native. His love of football is pure and unrelenting, which means some NFL teams may find a special opportunity for him.
One thing that will be predictable with him is that when the football competition ends, we will see him between the hedges as a proud alumnus supporting his favorite team.
His journey has exceeded his wildest dreams, an improbable odyssey that has warmed many hearts along the way, most particularly those of his doting family.
How could it not? His grandfather, Warren Jackson, started it all as a UGA graduate from the Terry College of Business. His father, Joe, has always been a passionate Dawg fan and found opportunities to get his family into UGA games, although he was not a season ticket buyer early on.
This narrative from the book about Georgia’s back-to-back national championship victories of 2021 and 2022 defines Dan's and his family's enduring love and commitment.
“Dan and his older brother, Sam, and his younger brother, Will, were always tussling and playing their own football games in the backyard. When they made the hour’s drive to Athens, they tailgated and played touch football games with friends on campus.
“When Georgia was on the road, they watched the games together in the family den. At halftime, the brothers would charge outside and play with a football until their dad summoned them back inside for the second-half kickoff.
“The Jackson boys would often play in jerseys they had collected. They had Herschel Walker and D. J. Shockley jerseys, among many passed down from Sam to Dan to Will as they grew older. They literally wore them out.”
They listened to the Tailgate show while driving to Athens for the games and to the locker room show when returning home afterward. This family affair has been a highlight, and sadness will seep in when this season is over and Dan has graduated.
He has enjoyed many highlights, some of them very personal such as just doing his job which brings about high marks from his position coach when the game tape is graded. He takes great pride in his work.
Of course, signature plays have resonated with the television network announcers: the blocked punt against Arkansas in Sanford Stadium in 2021 and the national championship game with Alabama in Indianapolis.
If you ask, he has both plays on his iPhone for review — not out of ego but out of enduring pride in contributing to the school he has always loved and admired.
With the Arkansas highlight, Dan noticed that the center locked his arms out just before he snapped the ball. Dan disguised that he was not going to speed rush, but at the last second, he crossed the line of scrimmage like a lightning bolt and was in the punter’s lap before he knew it.
On Kelee Ringo’s electrifying 79-yard interception return at Indy, Ringo had six teammates escorting him to the end zone. The final block was from Dan Jackson, whose collision with Bama’s Agiye Hall sent each player flying. If Dan’s folk hero status wasn’t larger than life before then, it certainly came about at that time.
He remembers Kelee’s run this way: “I saw Kelee had a clear path to the end zone and headed his way, looking for somebody to block. In my peripheral vision, 84 (Hall) came from out of nowhere. I decided to stick my face in there, which is something you never practice. I just wanted to get in his way. He sorta blew me up, but I didn’t care. You never know what can happen in a play like that. He might have punched the ball out.”
Dan has forever been imbued with team principles. He is selfless and giving; few who have come Sanford’s way loved wearing the “G” like this Hall County Dawg.