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Blog

RIP: Jack Cristil, the voice of the Bulldogs

Posted on: September 08,2014

  Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer Jacob Sanford “Jack” Cristil, the beloved former sports broadcaster of six decades of Mississippi State University athletics, died Sunday [Sept. 7] at the age of 88 at Sanctuary Hospice House in Tupelo of complications of kidney disease and cancer. What follows is a column I wrote on the 50th […]

Juniors will play for Mike Taylor Trophy

Posted on: September 05,2014

The Randy Watkins/Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame Junior Golf Championship will be held at Lake Caroline Golf Club in Madison Saturday and Sunday. The overall winner will be awarded the first Mike Taylor Trophy, named for Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer Mike Taylor, widely considered Mississippi’s most accomplished amateur golfer and a 10-time winner of […]

You want winners; I've got you some (maybe)

Posted on: September 03,2014

Welcome to your weekly football forecast. We got the season off to an 8-2 start last weekend. But, boy, when I missed, I really missed. I had South Carolina over Texas A & M and Vanderbilt over Temple. Neither was close. Let’s try again… Ole Miss 31, Vanderbilt 14: I am torn on this one. […]

Butch John, former CL wordsmith, dead at 61

Posted on: September 02,2014

Butch John, as is the case with most superb writers, cared deeply about words. He chose his words carefully. So, once upon a time Butch wrote a story for The Clarion-Ledger about then-Major League Baseball star Lenny Dykstra. In it, he referred to Dykstra’s “tony, northeast Jackson home.” A copy editor, who was having a […]

Week One: What we learned (I think)

Posted on: August 31,2014

What we learned — I think — from the first week of college football… • The gap between Southern Miss and the SEC teams with which it once competed has widened considerably. Mississippi State, which walloped USM 49-0 Saturday night, could have won with its 2s and 3s. Dan Mullen says he believes Todd Monken […]

Forecast: Ole Miss, State to open with W's

Posted on: August 27,2014

Who you got? Last season, I picked 75 per cent of games correctly, which means three out of every four of the following predictions might be right. Don’t blame me if bet your groceries on the one of the four that isn’t. It’s a new season. Everybody is undefeated, even me. Here we go… Mississippi […]

Brees' health? He looks nearly perfect

Posted on: August 24,2014

Any Saints fan who was worried about Drew Brees’ health heading into the 2014 NFL season, a word to the wise: Don’t. Brees appeared perfectly healthy and nearly perfect in New Orleans’ 23-17 victory over Indianapolis at Indianapolis Saturday night. Playing for the first time in the preseason due to a strained oblique muscle, Brees […]

54 years ago, Boston leaped into history

Posted on: August 22,2014

It was 54 years ago this week, about a month before the 1960 Rome Olympics. Ralph Boston, a Laurel farmer’s son and the youngest of 10 children, was a nobody, a largely unknown 21-year-old student at Tennessee State. Boston, at 75, well remembers the night a nobody became a big somebody. The U.S. Olympic track […]