Jackie Jensen

From BR Bullpen

Jack Eugene Jensen

Bats Right, Throws Right
Height 5' 11", Weight 190 lb.
High School Oakland High School
School University of California
Debut April 18, 1950
Final Game October 1, 1961
Born March 9, 1927 in San Francisco, CA USA
Died July 14, 1982 in Charlottesville, VA USA

[edit] Biographical Information

Jackie Jensen was a star football and baseball player in college, played for eleven years in the American League and won an MVP award, before retiring due to a fear of flying.

After graduating from high school, Jensen went into the Navy in 1945. He was sent to radio school and then to the disciplinary barracks in Farragut, ID to teach swimming to prisoners. He went to the University of California in 1946 and though not recruited for football was an All-American halfback. He played in the Rose Bowl in 1949 on a California team which lost to Northwestern.

Jensen also pitched for the 1947 Golden Bears baseball team which won the College World Series. He was ineligible to play baseball in 1948 because of academic difficulties and at the end of his junior year left school and signed to play baseball for the Oakland Oaks of the Class AAA Pacific Coast League in 1949. At the end of the season he was sold to the New York Yankees.

Jensen played in 1438 major league games as an outfielder for the Yankees, Washington Senators and Boston Red Sox. He appeared as a pinch runner in Game 3 of the 1950 World Series, as well as in three All Star games. He was 1958 American League MVP. He established MLB records for times grounded into double play with 32 in 1954, sacrifice flies in a season with 12 in 1955. Both records have since been broken.

Jensen retired in 1960 due to his fear of flying. He tried a comeback a year later but could not overcome his fear and hung up his spikes for good.

In 1949 he married his high school girlfriend Zoe Ann Olsen, the silver medalist in diving at the 1948 Summer Olympics who had won 13 national diving titles and one other Olympic medal. Jensen and his wife divorced in 1968. Jackie and Zoe Ann had three children: sons Jon and Jay, and daughter Jan. Jay's son Tucker Jensen (19) is playing baseball for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL and hopes to continue the Red Sox tradition some day soon. During the summer of 2009 he played with the Watertown Wizards in the New York Collegiate Baseball League. He is a pitcher and right-fielder.

Jensen coached baseball at the University of Nevada (1970-1971) and the University of California (1974-1977). He then moved to Virginia in 1977 to operate a Christmas tree farm and run a baseball camp.

Jensen died at age 55 in 1982 from a heart attack and is buried at Amherst Cemetery in Amherst, VA. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1984 posthumously. He remains the only man to play in the Rose Bowl, East-West Shrine Game, the World Series, and baseball's All-Star game.

[edit] Notable Achievements

3-time AL All-Star (1952, 1955 & 1958)
AL MVP (1958)
AL Gold Glove Winner (1959/RF)
AL Triples Leader (1956)
3-time AL RBI Leader (1955, 1958 & 1959)
AL Stolen Bases Leader (1954)
20-Home Run Seasons: 6 (1954-1959)
30-Home Run Seasons: 1 (1958)
100 RBI Seasons: 5 (1954, 1955 & 1957-1959)
100 Runs Scored Seasons: 1 (1959)
Won two World Series with the New York Yankees (1950 & 1951) (he did not play in the 1951 World Series)