A little more than six years after his death, Reggie White’s phone number still remains in Keith Jackson’s cell phone list.
“I just can’t erase it,” Jackson said. “It’s under ‘Big Dog.’ It just makes me feel good each time I see it.”
White and Jackson — no relation to the iconic college football broadcaster of the same name — helped make Green Bay Packers fans everywhere feel good on Jan. 26, 1997. They helped deliver the storied franchise its third and final Super Bowl title heading into this evening’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
White made a lot of people feel good during his 43 years and seven days of life that began in Chattanooga. By the time he died of a heart attack on Dec. 26, 2004, he had lifted the spirits and lives of folks from the Scenic City to Knoxville to Memphis to Philadelphia to Green Bay to Charlotte.
But perhaps nowhere did he have a more profound impact both on and off the football field than Green Bay, Wis., a predominantly white community not previously viewed as always a good fit for black athletes before White arrived in 1993.