Jack Wilson brings size, strength to WSU football and basketball

PULLMAN, Wash. – Down in Pullman, there’s an athlete named Jack Wilson who’s as big as you can get. The only thing bigger than him is the idea of ​​what he has achieved in the past year.

“Yeah, I work really hard, but I also have these crazy genetics. So I understand I can use them as best as I can,” said Jack Wilson, Washington State senior football offensive lineman and basketball forward.

At 6’11”, Wilson became the tallest football player in program history. This year, he also becomes the first athlete to play both football and basketball since Brandon Gibson in 2007-08.

“I think football really complements it. I was already a physical player,” Wilson said. “Something about it is that it just felt really good on the basketball court. I’m more relaxed. There was a lot of fun. I feel like a different person on the pitch.”

When you hear Wilson’s story, you might think that the football player became the great basketball player, but actually the opposite is true.

Wilson’s collegiate career began in basketball and spent his freshman year on the Oregon State team before moving to Idaho. After two seasons, he decided it was time to retire and transferred to WSU to focus on his future career.

“I had plans to be a strength coach like that’s where I was. I was ready to go for it,” Wilson said. “Kind of a kind of jump-start for my career.”

That starting point was an internship with the Cougs strength and conditioning staff. They saw his strength and size, which later led to head football coach Jake Dickert bringing Jack on to the team for a sport he never played.

“It’s been something of a year-long thing, see how it goes. Last season I got a scholarship for this season and I think it was a blessing,” Wilson said.

After two seasons of football, Jack felt it was time to go back to his original plan. But then a series of injuries struck the WSU basketball team.

“Fortunately, I had known him since he was a sophomore in high school, his junior year,” said WSU basketball head coach Kyle Smith. “So I knew he could play basketball, and he was trying to stay in football, and then one of our guys had a season-ending injury, so I called Jake (Dickert) and said, ‘Hey, I don’t know how much Jack is playing this and that for you right now, but my goodness we could use him this year.’ Jake was really gracious, he said, ‘Let’s just wrap up the season’ and Jack was ready for that and it was great to have him around.”

So Jack, the now football player, returned to the field.

“I saw one of his workouts one day and I was like, ‘Wow, this guy is really good!’ I honestly didn’t know what to expect the whole time, but I was expecting to be like a football player that just goes down and bangs and stuff,” said WSU junior guard Justin Powell. “I was definitely surprised by the skills.”

“It has truly been a blessing to return to basketball. I don’t think I really left it. It was something I’ve been doing my whole life, it was really cool,” Wilson said. “It’s, I don’t know, fun isn’t even the word. It’s just like a wild experience and I just take it every day up and try to make the best of it.”

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