Like It is

Quietly, Jackson transformed Oaklawn

This is not Eric Jackson's obituary.

While it is true the four previous general managers of Oaklawn Park all died while still on the job, Jackson voluntarily gave up the role of overseeing a fully integrated racing and gaming facility, but he's staying on as a vice president.

He helped pick his replacement, Wayne Smith, quietly packed his office belongings and moved to some place in the Oaklawn facility that apparently only a few are aware of. But that's typical of Jackson.

Jackson did more to save horse racing at Oaklawn Park in an era when great tracks like Hollywood Park were being razed than anyone expected.

He created Instant Racing, which led to electronic games of skill, and as they say, the rest is history.

It is OK with Jackson if no one knows all the miles traveled and sleepless nights endured to turn the venture into reality.

Along the way, there were numerous meetings with AmTote (supplier of pari-mutuel systems) and a reclusive computer programmer in a Montana cafe.

Jackson, like the programmer, doesn't like attention either.

When it was officially announced Smith was taking over as GM about two-thirds of the way through this past season, the bulk of the news release was about Smith, not Jackson.

While Jackson knew Instant Racing was the key to making Oaklawn prosperous again, he also knew another upside would be to the economy of his hometown, Hot Springs.

Every time the gaming facility grows, so do the tax rolls in Garland County.

Quietly, of course, Jackson has long been involved in making Hot Springs even more of a vacation destination.

Jackson was on his way to Vanderbilt in 1978 to get his master's degree in economics but never got there.

He was offered the assistant general manager's job by then-Oaklawn GM W.T. Bishop, a legend in the horse racing industry, and in 1987 he took over as GM when Bishop passed away.

In those nine years, Jackson absorbed all of Bishop's knowledge and began to develop new ideas. Bishop once told a reporter Jackson would be the nation's best racetrack general manager because he had great intelligence, patience and vision.

That's the Eric Jackson the racing world knows. Sometimes hard-nosed but always fair, he leaves the Oaklawn GM office better than he found it.

Then there's the Jackson who adores his wife Lynda, who he met as a freshman at Hendrix. She was the belle of the ball, a Hall High Cherokee and he was the smart guy from Hot Springs.

Their marriage is like a fairy tale and is going as strong today as when they married more than 40 years ago.

One of the things they plan to do now that Jackson will have a semblance of a normal life is visit every state park in Arkansas.

Lynda looks like a lady who would think roughing it is staying in a hotel that doesn't have 24-hour room service, but don't judge the book by its cover.

They have traveled all over Wyoming on a snowmobile. She's hiked the Grand Canyon. Once they had a planned trek of more than 200 miles on a snowmobile and Lynda wanted to drive. They had been gone for two hours when Jackson looked over his wife's shoulder and saw they were going 20 mph. She wanted to enjoy every mile, but agreed to let her husband drive for a while.

One morning they awoke in their tent to discover that a camper less than 20 yards away had been attacked by a bear. Wyoming park rangers closed the park and put all campers up in a small, cheap motel, to which Lynda later said: "I preferred the tent."

Jackson recently was offered a position on the Parks and Tourism Board. He accepted immediately, something he wouldn't have had time to do before.

What the state gets is more than a good man, it gets a great team.

Sports on 04/23/2017

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