Keith Jackson was born on October 18, 1928 and grew up on a farm outside Carrollton, Georgia, near the Georgia-Alabama state line. The only surviving child in a poor family, he grew up listening to sports on the radio. After enlisting and serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, he attended Washington State University under the G.I. Bill. Jackson began as a political science major, but he became interested in broadcasting. He graduated in 1954 with a degree in speech communications.