Former TU football player Marques Jackson, who died suddenly last year, spurred Tiffany Jackson's move to Tulsa. The Shock forward requested a trade from New York. Courtesy
The Shock forward is having a career year in Tulsa, where her late father also played. By JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer
Maybe the fifth-year WNBA veteran is coming of age.
Or maybe she's fulfilling her destiny by excelling in a town where her father played college football.
"The other day my mom and I were talking about how I made a full circle," Jackson said. "It's kind of weird."
Marques "Mudd" Jackson was a tight end at the University of Tulsa in the early 1980s. He finished his college football career at Central Oklahoma and settled in his home state of Texas.
When Tulsa was granted a WNBA franchise, Marques dropped hints to Tiffany that she should try to play for Shock coach Nolan Richardson, who guided the TU hoops program to national prominence while Marques was on campus.
Tiffany was employed by the New York Liberty when dad made the suggestion. Tragedy played a role in getting her to Tulsa.
Marques was only 46 when he suffered a fatal heart attack on April 11, 2010. His death came as a complete shock, according to Tiffany. The day before he died, he rebounded for her during a workout. Just like that, he was gone.
Heartbroken, Tiffany said she asked New York's management to trade her to a team closer to her Duncanville, Texas, home.
"I felt like my mom needed my support and it's a decision we made together," Tiffany said.
The Liberty honored the request, shipping Tiffany to the Shock in exchange for Plenette Pierson on June 14, 2010. Tiffany played her first Tulsa home game a day before Father's Day, and mom makes frequent visits to Tulsa.
Tiffany said the reason her father wanted her to play for the Shock is because he had watched Richardson's college teams play a get-after-it style and he felt the coach's system would fit Tiffany's strengths.
Father knows best? Prior to a Thursday home game against the Minnesota Lynx and No. 1 overall draft pick Maya Moore, Tiffany is averaging career highs - 9.2 points, a team-high 7.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists - in major statistical categories.
"Tiffany is a hard, hard worker," Richardson said. "It's hard to find people who will work as hard as you can all the time. She doesn't take any plays off."
Richardson didn't know Tiffany had a Tulsa connection until after she arrived. Ex-TU basketball player Herb Suggs reminded Richardson who Tiffany's father was.
"I knew her dad," Richardson said. "I think he spent more time around the basketball players than the football (players)."
While at TU, Marques filled out a questionnaire that was given to athletes by the sports information department. He wrote that he enjoyed working with children and hoped to be a coach. Tiffany gave him a reason to coach.
Tiffany said she was into activities like cheerleading and dance before dad suggested basketball. He became an assistant on her AAU team, and that led to him launching his own multi-team program, DFW Elite. Among DFW Elite alums are Tiffany (who played at Texas) and Baylor's Brittney Griner.
Some AAU coaches have shady reputations, but Tiffany said her dad was a "gentle giant" who never wanted to leave a kid behind.
"Every summer I would come home from college and there was a different kid in my bed," she said. "He would take kids in and make sure they were fed and they had somewhere to stay for the summer. The ones who couldn't pay, he said 'Hey, don't worry about it. We will figure it out.' "
Baylor assistant and former DFW Elite coach Damion McKinney said Marques had a passion for being generous.
"He was the type of person that you could try to talk him out of something. You would say 'Jackson, that doesn't make sense to spend all that money on one kid,' or whatever. But it didn't matter to him. If he felt like a kid needed something, they were going to get it regardless of if he had to go broke doing it."
DFW Elite is carrying on without Marques. So is Tiffany, who said she was daddy's little girl "in every way possible."
But she also knows dad would be proud of her progress.
Source:
No comments:
Post a Comment