Memorable Moments: Jackson Keeps Shutout Intact

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When he would leave the practice field and walk down the hall toward the locker room, he would see the poster.

Up on the wall were pasted the images of the Hall of Fame players who wore the green and gold at Colorado State, but one in particular stood out to him.

Lawrence McCutcheon. He was one of the all-time great running backs for the Rams, and like Jackson, he wore the number 31 on his jersey. A high school running back himself, Ray Jackson would look at the poster every day.

"We'd walk down the hallway, and right when you got to the basketball court, you could either make a right or a left," Jackson remembers. "We would make a left to go to our locker room, and at the end of that hallway you'd come to that dead end, there were always pictures of the Hall of Fame. One of the pictures was 31, Lawrence McCutcheon. I'd always walk by and go, man, because I wore 31 all the way through. I'd think, 'man, that's what I want one day.' I want to put my name, I want to put my stamp on whatever I do. That was always my thing. It was, what do I have to do to get that? One of the things is the record book. You have to make plays."

And did Jackson make plays. Tons of them.

Now the director of player development for the Denver Broncos, Jackson holds the career record with 20 interceptions. He returned three of them for scores, including two of the longest in program history.

But Jackson had his priorities in order -- put the team first, then add the cherry for himself.

"I remember it. What's interesting, it was just like any other day," Jackson said. "It was one of the cold games we played in, and more than the interception return, believe it or not, it was zipping them. It was what all of us were trying to do. That was our whole thing was trying to pitch the shutout. That's probably what I remember more than the 100-yard interception return."

Jackson produced the only 100-yard interception return in program history, part of a 52-0 shutout of UTEP in 1993, the first year of the Sonny Lubick era.

When he talks about his time at Colorado State, Jackson name drops constantly. With everything he did, there were guys around him who he said made it all possible. He shared the secondary with Greg Myers, but up front, they both felt the benefits of a pass rush keyed by Brady Smith and Sean Moran.

He has a point.

"That's four guys who made it to the hall of fame. Scott Lynch probably should have made it, too," Jackson said. "He was an amazing safety. Our recruiting class – I don't think they've probably ever had one, and I will go on the record and proudly say that, I don't think there's ever been a recruiting class that's ever better than that one."

As a collegian, he missed having the ball in his hands. So when it finally came his way, he wanted to make the most of the chance. Against UTEP, it was just green field ahead of him, and after snaring a wayward pass, he was looking for glory.
"I was greedy, I'm not going to lie. Anytime I got an interception, my whole thing was I'm trying to go all the way back," Jackson said. "Especially going from playing high school where I played running back. As a defensive back, you don't get to touch the ball very much. For me, any chance I get to touch the ball I want to take it back and get in the end zone. I was a high school running back, punt returner, kickoff returner, then you go to college and you have a great punt returner in Greg Myers, so you're not doing that. Kickoff return, you're not doing that. Any chance I got a chance to touch the ball, I wanted to take it the distance."

Which he did with his career, too. His ultimate goal was to win a championship at Colorado State, and he won two, back-to-back. After beating Wyoming in 1993, he told anybody who would listen the Rams were going to win the WAC the next season, which they did. Then again in 1995.

He was inducted into the CSU Athletic Hall of Fame in 2011, having also blocked six kicks to go along with his picks.

During his long career in NFL front offices, he had the chance to meet McCutcheon and share his story.

"I sure did. He just laughed and said, 'thank you, glad I could do something.'" Jackson said. "It's the honest truth, every time I walked by it, honest, I said I want that. My ultimate goal someday is to have it in the stadium."

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