Juliet Jackson (1967–)

Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) native Juliet Jackson was one of the Southwestern Conference’s most outstanding basketball players by the end of the 1980s. As a 5’3″ point guard, she led the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County) in 1990 to a spot in the Elite Eight in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament, where the Razorbacks were defeated by the ultimate champion, Stanford University.

Juliet Jackson was born on November 13, 1967, to Henry Lee Jackson Sr., who worked for the Cotton Belt Railroad, and Doris Jean Jackson, who worked for Tyson Foods. After becoming an athlete, she credited her three brothers for pushing her every day in the various games they all played in their parents’ backyard.

Growing up in Pine Bluff, Jackson was an outstanding all-around athlete. The first girl to play little league baseball in Pine Bluff, she was also the first to pitch in an All-Star youth baseball game. She also played softball, participating in the Softball World Series in the early 1980s. Her basketball career started in seventh grade at Southeast Middle School, and she moved on to star at Pine Bluff High School.

Jackson had first showed her basketball talents on a broad stage in Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) youth basketball. Beginning in 1983, under the tutelage of Jim Tyler, Jackson starred for the Arkansas Angels. Her play with the Angels not only provided exposure that would play out in the recruiting process but also provided the chance to play abroad in Sweden, Finland, and Norway.

As a sophomore at Pine Bluff High School, she had to run track in order to play basketball the following year. She earned All-American honors as a member of the school’s 4×400-meter relay team, whose time of forty-seven seconds, run on May 12, 1984, was still the school record in 2025.

In her basketball career, she was named the Gatorade Player of the Year for Arkansas as well as being selected as a high school All-American by both Parade magazine and the National High School Athletics Coaches Association. She was also a two-time Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Player of the Year and an East and West All-Star. In 1985, playing for the Arkansas Angels, Jackson was named Most Valuable Player of the “18 and under” National AAU Tournament in Fairfax, Viginia, as she averaged twenty-four points per game. Recruited by major colleges around the country, Jackson chose UA. She majored in physical education.

Arriving in Fayetteville in the fall of 1986, she made an immediate impact on a team that won the Women’s National Invitational Tournament (WNIT) during her freshman year. In the 1989–90 season, when she was the only senior on the team, it defeated the University of Texas Longhorns in an upset that ended both that school’s NCAA record conference-winning streak as well as the nation’s longest home game victory streak. Jackson’s clutch free throws down the stretch sealed the historic triumph. Later that season, the team reached the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament, losing to eventual National Champion Stanford. Jackson finished her career with 1,213 points for an average of 10.1 per game, with a single game high of 30. As point guard, she also amassed an impressive 313 assists, which put her among the school’s all-time leaders. She was twice named second team All-Southwest Conference, and in her senior year she was named to the all-tournament team in both the Arkansas Thanksgiving Tournament—where she also shared the title of most valuable player (MVP)—and the Arizona State Dial Classic.

Jackson did not graduate, leaving school when she had her daughter, but she stayed involved with basketball, serving as a volunteer coach at the AAU level for six or seven years. She considered it a way to give back to the community that had given so much to her. She eventually began a career in law enforcement at the Arkansas Department of Correction, then taking a position at the Jefferson County Jail in 2011. She soon returned to the Arkansas Department of Correction, taking a position at the Arkansas Community Corrections facility in Pine Bluff. In 2022, having achieved the rank of lieutenant, she was transferred to the Central Arkansas Community Correction Center in Little Rock (Pulaski County). She continued to live in Pine Bluff.

In 2014, she was named a Southeastern Conference Legend, as well as being a member of the University of Arkansas’s Hall of Fame. In 2021, the Pine Bluff Youth Basketball League (YBL) named Jackson one if its “Most Distinguished Women in Sports,” an honor given in conjunction with the YBL’s annual “Making HERstory” charity basketball game. In January 2025, Jackson was named as one of the Jefferson County Sports Hall of Fame’s second group of Legends of the Hall.

For additional information:
Barnard, Ninfa O. “At UA, Pine Bluff Native Jackson Set Bar for Girls.” Pine Bluff Commercial, August 14, 2023. https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/aug/14/at-pb-jackson-set-bar-for-girls/ (accessed April 29, 2025).

———. “Juliet Jackson: Pine Bluff Basketball Phenom.” Explore Pine Bluff, August 9, 2023. https://www.explorepinebluff.com/post/juliet-jackson-pine-bluff-basketball-phenom (accessed April 29, 2025).

“SEC LEGEND: Pine Bluff’s Jackson to Be Honored for Stellar Career with Razorbacks.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, February 6, 2024. https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2014/feb/06/sec-legend-pine-bluff146s-jackson-to-be-honored/ (accessed April 29, 2025).

William H. Pruden III
Ravenscroft School