ASHLAND – Greg Jackson, who spearheaded and practically willed the rebuilding of Putnam Stadium from rubble to spectacular showcase, will be honored this summer on Elks Sports Day.
Jackson spent countless hours overseeing the Putnam Stadium restoration project for 17 years, serving as everything from fundraiser to cheerleader to give the Tomcats and their fans one of the most complete and impressive stadiums in the South. Nobody could question the resolve of Jackson whose expansive vision for what Putnam Stadium could be came to life this fall.
A born leader who graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1980, Jackson is also a community champion who has served on countless boards and is a leader at his church. He was a two-sport star in high school for Ashland. Jackson was a running back and outside linebacker on the famed JAWS 1975 champions and a third baseman for the 1975 and 1976 regional baseball champions.
Jackson also played on freshmen football and baseball teams at West Point. He served six years in the Army after graduating from West Point. He went there with classmate and teammate Chuck Anderson, a past Sports Day honoree, who went on to a career in the Army that saw him rise to become a Two-Star General. Anderson will introduce Jackson at the Sports Day banquet.
Beyond playing, Jackson served as an assistant coach for Ashland Kittens softball for eight seasons, including six regional champions, and was president of the Tomcat Band Booster Club for one year and active for eight years when his daughters were in band. He also was a youth softball, baseball, football, and basketball coach when his three children were young.
All that while working 34 years in Human Resources with Ashland Oil and Marathon Petroleum Corporation and serving on a dozen community boards.
The exhaustive list of accomplishments checked all the boxes for making him the perfect choice for Sports Day, said Dale Sexton, who is serving as co-chairman with Steve Towler. Sexton said Jackson was a unanimous selection of the committee.
“He’s definitely somebody that needed to be honored for all he’s done for the Ashland community,” Sexton said. “He is very deserving, and we are glad to have him as the honoree. I think it will be a great night to honor a great man who obviously loves Ashland.”
The banquet is on June 14 at Elks Lodge. Jackson’s portrait will be hung on the lodge’s back wall joining the honorees who have come before him. Mark Maynard, another former Sports Day honoree and former editor of The Daily Independent, will be the speaker.
“You look at those names and it is hard to feel like you’re in that group,” Jackson said. “I’m humbled to have even been considered but appreciative of being selected by the committee.”
Jackson, 67, was inducted in 2022 to the CP-1 Ashland Baseball Hall of Fame.
Jackson is the ultimate volunteer, using his time and skills to make Ashland a better place throughout his life. His board work was exemplary, even reaching the state level where he was on the state United Way board from 2015-2018.
As an athlete, few played harder than Jackson, who missed five weeks of his senior football season with a broken foot. Although he did not know it, he had broken the foot two days before the opener against Johnson Central.
The night before the opener he had a temperature of 102 but tried to hide the injury from the coaches because he wanted to play the first game of his senior season. Jackson played and on his first carry dashed 53 yards for a touchdown. Jackson carried three more times and had 100 yards rushing at halftime.
His foot was throbbing and after sitting through halftime, it swelled so much that he could not put weight on it. An x-ray the next morning revealed the break. Jackson said he asked the doctor if he could just give him a cortisone shot on game days and was met with a resounding no.
“I didn’t think so, but I thought it was worth asking,” he said.
Jackson eventually returned to the playing field and was a key player on defense for the famed JAWS team that finished 14-1, losing their last game to St. Xavier 20-0 in the Class AAAA overall state championship. The week before against Paducah Tilghman, Jackson had a fourth-down touchdown run that put the Tomcats in front 7-0 in a 13-7 victory in the Class AAAA State At-Large state championship.
Although his carries were limited because of the foot injury, Jackson still rushed for 350 yards and was second on the team in yards per carry at 8.1.
That Ashland team became the first in Kentucky to fly to a game. The Tomcat Boosters raised money to transport the team to Paducah to save them from a long bus ride across the state.
The Tomcats have always been high on Jackson’s priority as evidenced by taking on the job of rebuilding Putnam Stadium. He became chair in 2008 and finished the project last fall. His advice to others is to volunteer time and expertise.
“Get involved in all the things you can for your community to make it a better place,” Jackson said. “I would not trade my time coaching for anything. You do for others what people did for me. My first coach was my father passing ball with me in the backyard.”
He worked with strong board members throughout his time serving in the community.
“It takes so many people to take on big projects. You must have volunteers. It does not just happen. The stadium is a prime example.”
Jackson’s inner determination made the project happen. Not only was the old stadium razed because of safety concerns but the new one was built with the same footprint. It took years to accomplish everything on his to-do list including a turfed field, flags to display championship seasons and new flagpoles and flags behind the end zone, Tomcat Donor Corner to honor those who gave, a statue of coach Herb Conley representing Ashland’s past and present, a Tomcat statue at the top of the stairs going down to the field to motivate players, the (Jumbotron) video scoreboard, LED lights, a sound system with mics for the referees, a banked end zone, new press box, bucket seating, locker rooms, wall dedications, a catch net behind the open end zone and decorative screens along the walls to tie colors together.
There was no stone left unturned for Jackson who was determined to make it all happen. Anything less was a failure in his mind.
“Fortunately, I got support from the school board, superintendents and the stadium restoration committee all along,” Jackson said. “They supported everything. Also, Donna (Suttle) was instrumental in fundraising early on and Steve (Conley) was with me every step of the way.”
Jackson said fundraising was not one of his strengths, but he found himself in that role with the stadium project. He was able to bring in one-third of the total cost through fundraising efforts including Clark’s Pump-N-Shop donation and naming rights to bring turf to the stadium, which was one of the biggest pieces.
“There were times when I thought, ‘Are we really going to get there?’” he said. “I know what I wanted to do and kept adding things and told everybody we were going to get it done.”
He had everything but the video (Jumbotron) scoreboard by the end of April but had no more money in the stadium account and it was going to cost $260,000. Jackson told his wife, Cindy, that he had to raise a quarter million in the next month.
“I wasn’t going to stop until I have it,” he said.
Not only did he raise enough for the football scoreboard but also was able to add almost another $100,000 for a video board that was put in the gymnasium on the Ashland campus.
Jackson is an avid Ashland Tomcat, Kentucky Wildcat, and Army fan (Go Army! Beat Navy!). He remains active in church leadership at Unity Baptist serving as a deacon. He and his wife have three grown children – Josh Griffith (Marie), Becca Doss (Roger), and Kathryn Jackson – who came up through the Ashland school system and two grandchildren (Joshua Griffith and Talula Mae Griffith).
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