Jumpin’ Jack McCracken never talked much about his basketball days. Even when he was in the middle of those basketball days.
When Jack married in the 1930s, his bride didn’t even know she’d married a ballplayer. Learned about it when an AAU contingent came to get her husband for some high-altitude training in Leadville, Colo.
“He was a very quiet man,” said Jim McCracken, Jack’s son. “Never bragged. Just what you’d want in a champion. Always gave credit to everybody else.”
Jumpin’ Jack died 57 years ago. But the man who rarely talked about himself still is being talked about.