Hunter Jackson’s officiating career spanned five decades and every level of football from high school to the pros. He joins his father, S. D. Jackson, in the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. Hunter credits his father with getting him started in officiating. And what a career he had. He worked in four college conferences and all four professional football leagues (AFL, NFL, WFL, and USFL). He was assigned a playoff game each year he worked the AFL, officiated four NFL playoffs, and worked the WFL’s World Bowl Championship in 1975.
Jackson’s illustrious officiating career began as a TSSAA official in 1947 before moving to the OVC in 1954 and to the Southern Conference in 1960. Not surprisingly, he was ranked the top head linesman in each league. He then spent a year with the ACC before getting the call from the AFL in 1966 and continued his career at the pro level with the NFL during 1969-1973 and the WFL during 1974-1975.
As a founding member of the Southern Independent Collegiate Officials Association, Jackson worked ten to twelve games annually plus post-season bowls. He officiated the Florida State-Miami game seven times in eleven years. A 1948 graduate of East Tennessee State University, Jackson served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and he retired in the early 1990s from the wholesale hardware distribution business. Truly a success in all endeavors he took on, like his father before him, Hunter Jackson brought excellence to Tennessee sports.