“One of the photographers put me on the JumboTron.”
It was as simple as that. At one game, Ute supporter Terri Jackson was dancing to the Blues Brothers in the tailgating lot with the marching band, and at the next she was making her debut as “Crazy Lady” at Rice-Eccles Stadium in front of thousands of people.
“I love that (they call me “Crazy Lady’),” Jackson said. “It’s endearing.”
And so is she. Thirty years after graduating with a degree in audiology and deaf counseling from the U, Jackson is still cheering on her alma mater at every home game. Jackson has been doing her signature twist and shimmy with the marching band since the mid-’90s and says she’ll be a Ute forever. She has become a staple of U football, and fans inside the stadium look forward to her pre-fourth quarter performance at every game. As the band plays the Blues Brothers, Jackson proudly stands8212;and shakes8212;in front of them, wearing a personalized Utah jersey.
“She has no qualms about being up in front of people and having a good time,” said Jackson’s husband, Scott Jackson. “This is just her, that’s just Terri.”
At Utah’s season-opening game against Utah State on Sept. 3, Jackson danced for a crowd of more than 45,000 with a black brace that covered the bottom half of her leg. She acquired the brace after missing a step going into her garage not too long before the start of the season. The wrong step broke a bone in her foot, but it didn’t keep her from entertaining and pumping up the crowd at the end of the third quarter, or from getting around the tailgating lot before the game.
Jackson laughed about the injury and said a broken bone will not get in her way of making it to the games to support her Utes. For wins or for losses, Jackson said she’ll be there for every minute of game time.
As a religious supporter of the Utes for over three decades, Jackson has finally seen her Utes break all expectations of the sports world and its fans. They’ve gone undefeated. Twice.
In 2004, Jackson and her family traveled to Tempe, Ariz., to see the Utes and former head coach Urban Meyer take on Pittsburgh after a perfect regular season.
“After 2004, I thought, “I can die a happy Ute fan,’ ” Jackson said.
And last season, as Utah again made its way to another, bigger bowl game after claiming a second undefeated regular season, under head coach Kyle Whittingham. Jackson and her family were in New Orleans to cheer them on against Alabama.
“I came home and watched it (again) two or three times. I still watch it,” Jackson said. “Teams are never perfect and our team has been perfect twice. It’s incredible.”
Whether or not the Utes go undefeated again this season, Jackson intends to be at every home game to give them her support. She and her husband also travel to see a couple road games every year, and they plan on making it to all of them after they both retire.
“They’ll have to drag her out of there when it’s time to go,” said Scott Jackson. “She’ll be 97 years old and still try to get up there and dance. She’ll be a really “Crazy Lady’ at that point.”
“Until the day I die, I bleed red,” Jackson said. “I can get a walker and spray it red.”