Two-sport legend Bo Jackson recently revealed that he dealt with a yearlong battle of ongoing hiccups, including some odd attempts to stop the situation.
Jackson, known for playing professional baseball and football during his career, shared the account during a “McElroy and Cubelic” appearance earlier this month.
“I’m getting a medical procedure done the end of this week, I think, to try to remedy it,” Jackson said. “I’m busy at the hospital sitting up with the doctors poking me, shining lights down my throat, probing me every way they can to find out why I’ve got these hiccups.”
The health situation even caused the former Heisman Trophy winner to miss the dedication of a statue to baseball Hall of Famer Frank Thomas, according to Jackson.
“I have done everything — scare me, drink water upside down, smell the ass of a porcupine, it doesn’t work,” he said.
Hiccups rarely last more than a short time, with medical experts recommending medical attention for cases lasting more than two days.
The longest case ever recorded of hiccups belongs to an Iowa man named Charles Osborne. His 68 years of ongoing hiccups were verified as a Guinness world record, with Osborne passing away in 1991 at 97 years old.
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Jackson excelled as a dual athlete at the University of Auburn in football and baseball. He won the Heisman Trophy in 1986 and was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but chose to play baseball instead with the Kansas City Royals. His baseball career also included seasons with the Chicago White Sox and California Angels.
He later returned to the NFL with the then-Los Angeles Raiders. Jackson became the face of Nike’s well-known “Bo Knows” series of commercials and is considered one of the most successful two-sport professional athletes of all time. He retired following a hip injury during a game with the Raiders in 1991.
Athletes excelling in two professional sports is extremely rare. In addition to Jackson, Deion Sanders is one of the only other athletes in the modern era to successfully accomplish the feat. He played nine seasons of Major League Baseball with four teams, including the New York Yankees. Sanders also played 14 seasons in the National Football League, mostly with the Dallas Cowboys. He is the only athlete to play in both a World Series and a Super Bowl and now serves as head coach for the University of Colorado’s football team.
