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This is the seventh profile of seven individuals being inducted into the RMAC Hall of Fame on Friday, July 8 at the Colorado Springs Marriott Hotel. The 1982 and 1983 CMU Football teams are also being inducted. Tickets for the Hall of Fame and Awards Banquet can be purchased by clicking here.
It’s been said that Kim Bugg Jackson never ran a race without a smile on her face. But behind her jovial nature was the heart of a competitor.
Jackson was a national champion, both as an individual, and as a member of four consecutive championship teams between 1995 and 1998.
“She was fierce. She had a great, great career here. Won a couple of national titles. Won a national cross country title as a big underdog. Just a great runner, a great person, student, she was really the backbone of the team during her time here,” said Adams State Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Damon Martin on the
RMAC Podcast.
Martin recruited Jackson from Highlands Ranch High School, south of Denver. She made an instant impact as a true freshman on the defending national champions.
“During her time here we went up to CU at the Rocky Mountain Shootout, won that meet. I believe CU was the champion that year. They beat the University of Oregon during that time so the competition was stiff. And Kim made the team as a true freshman. So during her four years here, just solid,” said Martin.
Jackson was a leader on the team and helped “lay the groundwork for the younger girls” said teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Sarah Parkey-Meyer. Jackson was a part of a group of experienced runners who instilled a sense of pride and legacy into their younger teammates. The older girls “let you know that this is how it was going to be and you were expected to stay in line. If you were slacking in practice they were not okay with that,” Parkey-Meyer said.
During her final year running cross country at Adams State in 1998, Jackson won the national championship with a 6k time of 21:43:0 in the meet at the University of Kansas. Teaming with fellow Hall of Famers Meyer and Kim Bosen, the Grizzlies won their eighth straight National Championship.
In 2000, Jackson won the national title at the NCAA DII Indoor Track & Field championship in the 5,000 meters.
Off the track, Jackson was a standout student earning multiple All-Academic team honors and was named Adams State’s 1996-97 RMAC Honor Student-Athlete. In 2000, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology with an impressive 3.75 GPA. Afterwards she served as a head coach in high school girls’ basketball, volleyball and tennis. She was also an assistant coach in wrestling and boys’ basketball. Jackson was recognized as a part of the RMAC’s All-Time team during the Centennial Celebration. In 2008, she was inducted into the Division II Cross Country Athlete Hall of Fame and the Adams State Hall of Fame in 2012.
Jackson married fellow Adams State alum Rodney Jackson. They live in American Fork, Utah where they are both still active in the community. Today, Kim is still running around, but instead of racing, she is chasing around her seven children, while staying busy as a youth leader for church girls camp and a gymnastics coach at a local recreation center.