More than 40 years after first attending Pitt, a Super Bowl champion was back on campus to collect his degree. Rickey Jackson left Pitt early to declare for the 1981 NFL Draft. After over a decade with the New Orleans Saints, the linebacker went on to win a Super Bowl with the San Francisco 49ers. Despite the professional accolades, he always wanted to return to finish his degree. “I was so close to it that it made no sense to not get it,” Jackson told Pitt’s Pittwire. When Jackson left school for the NFL, he needed to complete just two history courses to get his degree.At age 65, the NFL Hall of Famer walked across the stage with his fellow graduates on April 30 after securing his degree in social sciences. “My mother would’ve loved it; my father wanted me to get it,” Jackson said. “I know they’d be proud of me.”So where does the degree rank among his other accomplishments? Jackson puts it right at the top. “I’d put it up with the Super Bowl and all,” he said. “This is something I achieved personally on my own, so I’d put it right up with that.”