This past weekend was graduation day for tens of thousands of college students across the country.
It’s a moment all graduates will remember and a time for them to reflect on the years of hard work, sacrifice, studying, partying and being part of a community that they will never be part of in that manner again. It’s a joyous moment and one that should always be celebrated.
For some athletes, it’s a moment they sacrificed to pursue their professional sports careers, so they didn’t have a chance to don the cap and gown, walk across the stage and receive the paper that no one could ever take from them.
This past weekend, three former star athletes, Justin Fields, Ray Allen and Rickey Jackson, finally got to experience that moment and feeling years, and decades, after leaving their university.
Justin Fields
The youngest of the three, Justin Fields, returned to The Ohio State University to graduate with a degree in consumer and family financial services.
After transferring from Georgia, Fields starred as the quarterback of the Buckeyes in 2019 and 2020. The 2x Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year led the team to two CFP appearances and the national championship in 2020, where they lost to Alabama.
But it was his performance in the 2021 semifinal against Clemson that solidified his star status. In that game, he outdueled Trevor Lawrence (400 yards passing, 2 TDs and 1 INT) and outscored the Tigers by himself, throwing for 385 yards with 6 TDs and 1 INT in a 49-21 demolition of the Tigers.
The Chicago Bears selected Fields with the 11th overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft and after a rookie season marred by the offense of Matt Nagy, Fields looks to build upon a good 2022 season.
Ray Allen
The second former star athlete to graduate was Ray Allen, who returned to UConn 27 years after leaving for the NBA after his junior year in 1996, to graduate with a BA in general studies.
Allen was a star for the Huskies. He was the 1995-96 Big East Player of the Year, 2x All-Big East and an All-American.
After averaging 23.4 ppg in his third year with the team, Allen decided to enter the 1996 NBA Draft, where he was selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the 5th overall pick. He was then traded to the Milwaukee Bucks for Stephon Marbury.
Allen was a 3x All-Star during his seven seasons with the Bucks, averaging 19.6 ppg. He then moved to Seattle and Boston, where he won his first NBA Championship with Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce in 2008. After five years with the Celtics, he signed with the Heat and won his second NBA title in 2013 alongside LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
Allen, a 10x All-Star and member of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018.
Rickey Jackson
The third athlete to join the ranks of graduates this past weekend was legendary New Orleans Saints linebacker and Pro Football Hall of Famer, Rickey Jackson.
Jackson fulfilled a promise to his mother and returned to the University of Pittsburgh to graduate with a degree in social sciences at the age of 65.
“I’ve been real close,” Jackson told Tom D’Angelo of the Palm Beach Post. “I could have got it. I played football for 15 years, so I really didn’t think about getting it. Then, it came to a point where I had to have it, and my mother always wanted me to get my degree.”
Jackson was only a few classes shy of graduating when he was drafted by the Saints with the 51st overall pick in the second round of the 1981 NFL Draft by the New Orleans Saints. He then spent the next 13 years of his career with the Saints and dominated as a member of the Dome Patrol, which began in 1986 when the team drafter Pat Swilling and acquired Sam Mills and Vaughan Johnson from the USFL.
Rickey Jackson amassed 136 career sacks in 15 years. One of the greatest players in Saints history, Jackson was a 6x Pro Bowler, Super Bowl Champion (XXIX with the 49ers) and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010.
Now, after completing those few classes online, Jackson is a college graduate.
“Third,” said Jackson about where it ranks in his life. “Behind my religion and my kids. Then that. Football comes after all of that.”
It’s important to acknowledge college graduates, but that’s especially true for athletes who returned to school to complete what they once started.
Being a college athlete is hard enough, but finishing your studies while playing professionally, and returning to school after being gone for decades, is no easy task.
And after the way Vince Carter was vilified in 2001 for attending graduation ceremonies at the University of North Carolina in the morning and then flying to Philadelphia for the Raptors’ Game 7 against the 76ers in the Eastern Conference semifinals later that afternoon, it’s even more crucial that athletes get the props they deserve for completing their education.
So congrats to Justin Fields, Ray Allen and Rickey Jackson on getting another award that no one can ever take away from you.
