The sixth name on Coach K's legendary 1982 Godfather Class - the 6'8" Nebraska Mr. Basketball from Grant NE (population 1,115) who was Coach K's first major recruit, touted in 1982 as 'the next Larry Bird,' subject of the ACC Network documentary The Class That Saved Coach K. Played one freshman season at Duke (1982-83) - 27 G, 2 starts, 87 pts, 100% from the FT line, the only freshman in Duke history to shoot a perfect 10-of-10 from the line - then transferred home to Nebraska after his father's death to be near his widowed mother. Started all 33 games as a senior on Nebraska's 1986-87 NIT Final Four team, leading the team in rebounds. Academic All-Big Eight. University of Chicago Booth MBA. Goldman Sachs 10+ years. Now 106 countries traveled, Cotton Bowl Board director, Nebraska Foundation Board Chairman-Elect, Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Famer, owner of the Perkins County HS championship banners. The Brotherhood includes the player who chose his widowed mother over a Final Four. Coach K invited him to the 20-year 1986 team reunion anyway.
Forward6'8"1982–83
Born and raised in GRANT, NEBRASKA (population 1,115 in the 1980 census; small farming town in southwest Nebraska along the wheat-and-corn belt) • Grew up on Sherman Avenue, a few blocks from Perkins County High School, in a family that had been original homesteaders in the area • One of five sons born to Peggy and the late Herb Jackman (father Herb died just prior to Bill's senior year of high school) • PERKINS COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL Class of 1982 (Grant, NE) • 6'8" by senior year (some sources list 6'9” - the height is disputed in the historical record) • Three Class C-2 football state championship teams • Two Class C state basketball championships (junior and senior years) • 52-game basketball winning streak across his junior and senior years • 1,768 career high-school basketball points, 749 in a single season • 214 points in the Nebraska state high school basketball tournament - STILL THE NEBRASKA STATE TOURNAMENT RECORD as of 2026, forty-four years later • 1982 Nebraska Mr. Basketball • Twice all-state • Inducted into the Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame • Sixth member of Coach Mike Krzyzewski's legendary 1982 Duke recruiting class alongside Johnny Dawkins (Washington DC), Mark Alarie (Arizona), David Henderson (Warren County NC), Jay Bilas (California), and Weldon Williams (Park Forest IL) - the class Coach K himself credits as the one that put Duke on the map • Per multiple Duke Basketball Report retrospectives: Coach K's "first big score" of the 1982 class, touted in the recruiting press as "the next Larry Bird" • Subject of the 2019 ACC Network 90-minute documentary "The Class That Saved Coach K," directed by Jonathan Hock • Duke freshman year 1982-83 only: 27 G, 2 starts, 10.6 MPG, 87 total pts, 3.2 ppg, 1.6 rpg, 39.6% FG, 55.6% from three (5-of-9 in the ACC's experimental 3-point line year), PERFECT 10-OF-10 FROM THE FREE-THROW LINE (100%), 9 ast, 8 stl, 1 blk, 286 total minutes • Transferred to NEBRASKA after his freshman year to be near his widowed mother Peggy in Grant; she relocated to Lincoln to be near him • Sat out the 1983-84 season as a transfer • Nebraska career 1984-1987: 500 total points, 318 rebounds, 101 assists across three seasons • 1984-85 (So): 6+ ppg, played all games, started 9 • 1985-86 (Jr): Sparingly played as Nebraska made its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance under Moe Iba • 1986-87 (Sr): Under new head coach Danny Nee, STARTED ALL 33 GAMES on the 21-12 Nebraska team that reached the NIT Final Four; averaged just under 9 ppg and LED THE TEAM IN REBOUNDS at close to 7 rpg; ACADEMIC ALL-BIG EIGHT TEAM honors • Brief professional basketball career: Kentucky, Albany Georgia, Colombia, finished in Spain • Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business (attended alongside two of his younger brothers) • Goldman Sachs in New York City for just over 10 years • Eventually moved to Houston, Texas • Three children: Maisie, William, and Thomas (each has visited 50+ countries) • Has visited 106 countries himself • Goodyear Cotton Bowl Board of Directors • UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA FOUNDATION Board of Directors, CHAIRMAN-ELECT • Owns the Perkins County HS gym championship banners that hung from the rafters for over 30 years, having bought them to preserve his hometown legacy • Attended the 20-year reunion of the 1986 Duke national title-game team in 2006 at the personal invitation of Mike and Mickie Krzyzewski • Still stays in touch with both Coach K and Coach Danny Nee
Now: Lives in Texas (most recently Houston/Dallas area); has visited 106 countries. Serves on the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Board of Directors and on the University of Nebraska Foundation Board of Directors as Chairman-Elect. After a brief pro basketball career across Kentucky, Albany Georgia, Colombia, and Spain, earned his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business (attending alongside two of his younger brothers) and spent just over 10 years at Goldman Sachs in New York City. Three children (Maisie, William, Thomas) who have each visited over 50 countries. Owns the championship banners that hung in his high school's gym for 30+ years. Member of the Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame; his 214-point Nebraska state high school basketball tournament scoring record from 1982 still stands forty-four years later. Sixth member of Coach K's legendary 1982 Duke recruiting class - the Godfather Class - who played one freshman season at Duke before transferring home to Nebraska after his father's death to be near his widowed mother and two younger brothers. Played at Nebraska 1984-1987 under Moe Iba and then Danny Nee, starting all 33 games as a senior on the 1986-87 NIT Final Four team and leading the team in rebounds while earning Academic All-Big Eight honors.
Bill Jackman grew up in Grant, Nebraska - the small farming community in the southwest corner of the state, population about 1,115 in the 1980 census, the kind of town where the high school gymnasium was where the community gathered on Friday nights and where the championship banners hanging from the rafters meant more to local memory than the headlines hanging in the New York papers. His family had been there since the original homestead era. He was one of five sons born to Peggy and the late Herb Jackman, and he grew up on Sherman Avenue just a few blocks from the high school, as did each of his cousins. He was 6'8" by his senior year. He was strong enough to play three Class C-2 football state championship teams. He was, by the time he was a senior at Perkins County High School, the most highly recruited basketball player to ever come out of the state of Nebraska in his class.
He had led the Plainsmen of Perkins County to two Class C state basketball championships in his junior and senior years. The team had won 52 games in a row across that stretch. He had scored 1,768 career high-school points, including 749 in a single season. His record of 214 total points scored in the Nebraska state high school basketball tournament has stood unbroken from 1982 through to the present, 44 years and counting. The Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame inducted him. He had earned the title of 1982 Nebraska Mr. Basketball. He had been a national-camp all-star and a Nebraska all-star team member who had traveled to a summer tournament in Las Vegas, where the top recruiters had taken notice. And in the late winter of 1981-82, the top recruiter who had taken the most notice was a thirty-five-year-old second-year Duke head coach named Mike Krzyzewski.
Krzyzewski had never been to Nebraska before. He flew into Denver, rented a car, and made the four-hour drive west into the wheat-and-corn flats of southwest Nebraska to find Grant. He came in the fall of 1981. He came again in March 1982 for the state tournament in Lincoln. He came again in April 1982 on national signing day. He signed Bill Jackman to Duke. And by signing Jackman, he had landed what the recruiting press of the day was calling his first big recruit - the 6'8" Nebraska Mr. Basketball who, in the local Nebraska press, was being touted as the next Larry Bird. The 1982 Duke recruiting class would, within a few months, swell to include five other names - Johnny Dawkins from Washington DC, Mark Alarie from Arizona, David Henderson from Warren County NC, Jay Bilas from California, and Weldon Williams from Park Forest IL. The six-man class would be ranked the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation. ESPN's Jonathan Hock would, thirty-seven years later, direct a 90-minute ACC Network documentary about it titled The Class That Saved Coach K. Bill Jackman from Grant, Nebraska, the kid whose father had died just before his senior year of high school, was member number one.
Bill Jackman serves as Chairman-Elect of the University of Nebraska Foundation Board of Directors, the alumni-led foundation that supports scholarships, faculty, and capital projects across the University of Nebraska system. For a Brotherhood member whose transfer back to his home state in 1983 was driven by family obligation - his widowed mother and two younger brothers in Grant, Nebraska needed him near home - the Nebraska Foundation Board service is the natural anchor of his post-business-career philanthropy. Gifts to the Nebraska Foundation support the institution that welcomed Jackman home in 1983 and the broader system that has educated multiple generations of Nebraskans through tuition assistance, athletic support, and academic programming. The Brotherhood, as Bill Jackman has lived it, runs through Duke for one year and then through Lincoln for four decades. His Foundation chair seat is the Brotherhood gesture his own life has prepared him for.