Darrell Preston Jackson pitched for the Minnesota Twins for five seasons in the late 1970s and early 1980s, then spent more than three decades running a Downey, California nonprofit that walked thousands of at-risk teenagers through crisis, one at a time. Jackson, founder of the 10-20 Club, died July 5, 2026, at 70. "I'm more successful now than when I was a pitcher in Minnesota," he told The Downey Patriot in 2022.

He was born April 3, 1956, in Los Angeles and grew up playing ball in the Watts neighborhood. At Locke High School he earned All-City honors in baseball, basketball and football alongside future Baseball Hall of Famers Eddie Murray and Ozzie Smith. The Twins drafted him straight out of high school in 1973, but Jackson chose a scholarship to Arizona State University instead, where he reached the College World Series in three consecutive seasons under coach Jim Brock. In 1977, his three-hit shutout in the CWS semifinal sent Arizona State into the championship game, which the Sun Devils won for the program's fourth national title.

Minnesota drafted him again that year, in the ninth round, 223rd overall, and Jackson opened his professional career by throwing nine no-hit innings against the Jacksonville Suns in his first start for the Double-A Orlando Twins. He reached the majors about two months later, winning his June 16, 1978, debut against the Detroit Tigers at age 22 with seven strikeouts over seven and a third innings. Over five seasons in Minnesota he went 20-27 with a 4.38 ERA and 229 strikeouts across 102 games, throwing three complete games and a shutout. His best season came in 1980, when he went 9-9 with a career-low 3.87 ERA and a career-high 90 strikeouts in 32 appearances, according to Baseball Almanac. His major league career ended in 1982, and Jackson returned to Southern California.

A decade later, in 1992, he founded the 10-20 Club in Downey, an intervention and mentoring program built around the age range in its name: 10 to 20. The organization grew out of his conviction that young people and their families needed somewhere to turn before problems escalated beyond repair, and it worked from the start alongside the city's Gangs Out of Downey initiative, according to the 10-20 Club. "It's not what I get out of life. It's what my life can do for others," Jackson said of the work, a line he repeated for more than thirty years. Beginning in 1995, he served as an independent contractor with the Downey Unified School District, carrying the club's mentoring and life-skills work directly into local classrooms.

The Metropolitan YMCA recognized that work in 2001 with its Martin Luther King Human Dignity Award. City officials in Downey, where Jackson had become a familiar presence for more than three decades, mourned him as one of their own. "Our city is stronger because of Darrell's vision, his generosity, and his unwavering commitment to helping others succeed," Mayor Claudia M. Frometa said. Councilman Hector Sosa called him "selfless, caring, and deeply committed to serving others, especially our youth and young adults," according to The Downey Patriot. Jackson married Veronica in 1999. She survives him, along with their two daughters, Yuko and Aiko.

What persists is the program itself, now led by executive director Ronnie Fernandez, still organized around the three things Jackson built it on: mentoring, skill-building and connecting families to resources, still answering to the Downey youth it was designed for. It persists in the partnership he forged with the school district, still carrying his work into local classrooms every school year. And it persists in a scoreline the Arizona State record books still credit to a 21-year-old left-hander from Watts: a three-hit shutout on the way to a championship, thrown years before he built the one he'd call more meaningful.