Credit to Brad Marquardt | Assistant Athletics Director for Athletics Communications – 12thman.com
WACO, Texas – Former Texas A&M Athletics Director and Head Football Coach Jackie Sherrill was named to the Texas Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2024 by the TSHOF Board of Trustees.
The newly-elected inductees for the Class of 2024 are (in alphabetical order): Jamaal Charles,
Andy Cooper (deceased), Judge Roy Hofheinz (deceased), Barbara Jacket (deceased), Mike Leach
(deceased), Colt McCoy, Sherrill, Bubba Thornton and Christa Williams.
Sherrill led the Aggies to their first Cotton Bowl appearance in nearly 20 years by winning the Southwest Conference Championship in 1985. In the New Year’s Day classic, the Aggies shut down Auburn’s Heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson on their way to a 36-16 win over the Tigers. Sherrill added another pair of SWC titles and Cotton Bowl berths the next two years, falling to Ohio State in 1987 and beating Notre Dame and its Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown, 35-10, in 1988. He led the Aggies to final Associated Press Top 25 rankings of No. 6, No. 12 and No. 9 over that three-year span.
Sherrill’s most lasting impact on Texas A&M may have been the formation of the famed 12th Man Kickoff Team, which built off the legend of the original 12th Man, E. King Gill, who famously came out of the stands at the 1922 Dixie Classic and “stood ready” to enter the game. Sherrill ran an advertisement in the school newspaper reading: “Persons interested in trying out for the Twelfth Man Kickoff Team need to report to the Kyle Field Dressing Room on Monday, Feb. 21, at 5 p.m. No prior experience is required.”
Sherrill’s 12th Man Kickoff Team used non-scholarship students to create a towel-waving kickoff coverage unit that many pundits expected to fail, but the group was an unqualified success after allowing just 12.5 yards per return during its first five seasons. “I knew that I could find, out of 40-some-odd thousand students, 11 guys that would cover kickoffs, but have no regard for their body and be tough as nails,” Sherrill said. “I just knew it would work.”
In seven seasons at the helm of the Aggies, Sherrill compiled a 52-28-1 overall record, including a 36-17-1 SWC mark. Beginning in 1984, Sherrill led the Aggies to an unprecedented streak of five straight wins over the archrival Texas Longhorns. Sherrill’s teams generated four All-Americans in Ray Childress (1983 and 1984), Johnny Holland (1985-86), John Roper (1987) and Darren Lewis (1988).
Sherrill was inducted into the Texas A&M Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 2016 and the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2023.
Sherrill played football at the University of Alabama and was a member of two consecutive National Championship teams. After his playing career, Sherrill was a graduate assistant at Alabama and Arkansas. He was an assistant coach at Iowa State and Pittsburgh before receiving his first head coach position at Washington State in 1976. After one season at WSU, he returned to Pittsburgh, serving as head coach from 1977-1981. He was named the Walter Camp Coach of Year in 1981 before taking the head coach and athletics director job at Texas A&M. After his time in Aggieland, he was the head coach at Mississippi State for 13 years and won the SEC Western Division in 1998. He is one of only two Division I-A head football coaches to ever lead three different schools to 10 wins or more in a season and his overall record was 180-120-4.
The 63rd Annual Texas Sports Hall of Fame Induction Banquet presented by Texas Farm Bureau Insurance, will be held in the BASE at Extraco Events Center in Waco, Texas, on Saturday, April 13, 2024. Tickets and sponsorship packages for the 2024 TSHOF Induction Banquet and reception are on sale now and available at tshof.org/induction. For more information or questions, please contact Krista Martin at krista.martin@tshof.org | 254-756-1633.
TSHOF Class of 2024
Jamaal Charles-Football
Andy Cooper (Deceased)-Baseball
Roy Hofheinz (Deceased)- Administration
Barbara Jacket (Deceased)- Track & Field
Mike Leach (Deceased)- Football
Colt McCoy- Football
Jackie Sherrill-Football
Bubba Thornton- Track & Field
Christa Williams- Softball
About the Texas Sports Hall of Fame
With the mission to preserve the legacy of inductees and the history of sports throughout the state, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame celebrates the accomplishments of athletes, coaches and administrators who have brought fame and honor to the State of Texas. Established as the nation’s first and largest state sports hall of fame in 1951, the TSHOF is home to over 400 sports legends and 13,000 pieces of memorabilia. The museum which is located in Waco, Texas, also offers several educational tours and houses three other halls of fame: the Texas Tennis Hall of Fame, the Southwest Conference Hall of Fame and the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame. For more information & updates about the museum and upcoming events, visit www.tshof.org or call 254-756-1633