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Princeton University Athletics
Change Of Seasons
November 21, 2001 | Football
Nov. 21, 2001
Othello had some serious issues to work through, what with his best friend's betrayal and his wife's being in on it. In the end, it was just too much, and he had to end it all for himself.
Phil Jackman, who took himself back five centuries to play the title character in Shakespeare's play, had his own issues to get through. Nothing that would make you reach for a sharp knife, mind you. Still, Jackman's Princeton career wasn't quite working out the way he had hoped. So he changed it. Radically.
Jackman was one of Princeton's heralded basketball recruits four years ago, a class that included Chris Young, Chris Krug, Ray Robins, Ahmed El-Nokali and Mike Bechtold. He's developed into a reliable starter, though not quite the way he imagined.
"I never thought it would turn out like this," he says.
Jackman's basketball career stalled his sophomore year, and he made the tough decision to leave that program. Still, with a thirst for competition, he decided to try to play football, a sport he had never played before. "I tried to discourage him," says Princeton coach Roger Hughes. "I tried to make it tough for him. I figured there was no way this was going to work out."
It has. Jackman, a defensive end, leads the team and is among Ivy leaders in sacks, and he is also one of the Tigers' leading tacklers. By season's end, he could find himself as an All-Ivy selection.
He has combined the athletic ability that made him a top basketball player with a strong work ethic and a simple love of playing sports to make himself a quality football player in a short time.
"My father and my high school basketball coach always taught me to play hard and to compete as hard as I can," Jackman says. "It carries over in all aspects of life."
Jackman was an all-league basketball and baseball player growing up in Danville, Calif. Princeton discovered him at a summer basketball tournament in Las Vegas, and now-head coach John Thompson recruited him under former coach Bill Carmody.
Slowed by injuries in his two basketball seasons, the 6-5, 240-pound Jackman nonetheless showed himself to be a skilled player. Jackman played in eight games for the 1998-99 Princeton team that won the Rainbow Classic in Hawaii, had the miraculous comeback win at Penn after trailing by 27 with 15 minutes left and advanced to the NIT quarterfinals.
"He's a great kid," Thompson said. "There were no hard feelings when he left. I'm really happy for him. I'm glad he's found success in football. He's certainly a very good good athlete, and I'm glad it's worked out for him."
Jackman came close to transfering, first to Penn and then to Navy, before deciding to stay at Princeton. He landed the part as Othello in a campus production and then became the Tin Man in another show, The Wiz.
Still, after leaving basketball midway through the 1999-2000 season, he did want to do something with sports, so he approached the football staff about possibly walking on. Jackman was completely new to the sport, a stranger in a strange locker room. He started out with the tight ends, and he was moved shortly to the defensive line.
"It felt pretty weird the first day," Jackman says. "But the guys were really receptive. Nobody really said 'What are you doing out here?' They welcomed me. They treated me like any other freshman."
Which, of course, he was not. Still, despite no football background at all and the late start he got after training camp, he stunningly made progress.
"I wasn't expecting to play," he says. "I was just looking to go on the practice field and learn the game and have fun. They tried to make it easy for me. They told me to just rush the passer. I remember standing on the sidelines at the Lehigh game. It was my first time in pads with the team. It was weird for me."
That was Week 2. By Week 4 he had drifted onto some special teams. By Week 6, he was traveling and actually playing. He finished the season with four tackles and two sacks.
The following spring was his first extended football instruction, and it included the team's trip to Japan. He then went through training camp this past fall, and emerged as one of the team's top three defensive linemen. Princeton has 14 defensive linemen, of whom 13 are either freshmen or sophomores. A senior, Jackman has less experience than any of the others.
"I'm not where a lot of the other guy sare in terms of instinct and recognizing things before the snap," he says. "Once the play gets going, I'm getting better at recognizing what's going on. I'm starting to feel the flow of the offense."
Originally thought of as a pass rushing specialist only, he has become an every-down end since Joe Weiss broke his leg against Colgate.
"He's tremendous," Hughes says. "I wish I had him for two more years."
Jackman is not upset that his entire college football career figures to be 14 games.
"If I had been a football player instead of a basketball player in high school, I probably wouldn't have ended up at an Ivy League school," says Jackman, who would like to pursue a career in either acting or producing, something recent Tiger football alums Dean Cain '88 and Michael Carr '95 have done with great success. "I'm glad it's worked out this way."
Still, the natural tendancy is to wonder how good he could have been.
"He has the athletic ability that they're looking for on the next level," Hughes says. "If he had played and worked out for football his whole life and had himself up to 270, 280 pounds, who knows?"
- By Jerry Price