Answers to Go with Susan Smith

Q. My son needs to do a biography report on a local African American resident. Can you help us find someone who was here when the public schools were integrated?

A . We searched our San Marcos/Hays County collection files and this student settled on basketball player Luke (Lucious) Jackson who was born in Marcos.

There were multiple articles in our folder on Jackson, but the following extended quote comes from an essay Carl Deal wrote about Jackson for “Celebrate San Marcos 150,” a San Marcos Daily Record feature dated March 1, 2001.

“At 6 foot 9 inches, San Marcos native Lucious Jackson stood taller than most at a time when for young black men the path to success was hard fought. President Kennedy was carrying the torch for desegregation. San Marcos, not unlike many other places in the South, was struggling with the culture of the times," Deal said.

“In the early 1960s, most high school athletic programs were still segregated and competitive teams were generally white. Lucious Jackson was born in San Marcos at a time when black kids couldn’t participate in sports, couldn’t attend the high school prom, be in the band or even use the high school cafeteria, having, instead, to walk home for lunch.

“Lucious, the son of Mrs. Mattie Jackson of San Marcos, ‘was a very talented basketball player, but was kept out of high school basketball,’ according to San Marcos Record reports from the time. His situation became the focal point of arguments to desegregate basketball players in high school sports.

“Jackson graduated from SMHS and went on to play college ball at Pan American College in the Rio Grande Valley, setting many individual and team records, some of which stand today.

“With two national championships under his belt, and before signing an NBA contract with the Philadelphia 76ers, Lucious Jackson represented Pan American College and the United States on the 1964 Tokyo Olympics Basketball team, leading the squad to victory over the Russian team in the finals, winning the gold medal.

“The number one draft choice in 1964 by the 76ers, Jackson played in the NBA All-Star game and was chosen by the league’s coaches to the NBA All-Rookie team for having averaged 14.8 points per game.

“Under the guidance of Wilt Chamberlain, the 76ers and Jackson won the World Championship in 1967. In 1972, at 30 years old and following surgery on an injured Achilles tendon, Jackson retired from the game. He returned to Pan Am College, earning his degree and was last known to be working with the Recreation Department of the City of Beaumont, Texas.”

In the fall of 2016, the Calaboose Museum honored Jackson with an exhibition curated by Linda Kelsey-Jones. Jackson returned to San Marcos for the opening reception. During that visit, he mentioned he had spent some of his high school years in Louisiana with his grandmother so he could play basketball.