Wright Waters, executive director of the Football Bowl Association, has more than 40 years experience in college athletics, including 14 years as commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference. He says he owes his start in college athletics to Bear Bryant, who would have turned 100 years old today. In 1970, I left the University of […]
Bear Bryant would be 100 years old today. With that in mind, what follows is my first face-to-face, one-on-one encounter with the great man. This was September of 1971. Alabama had just unveiled the Wishbone and stunned No. 3 Southern Cal at the Coliseum in Los Angeles, reversing a three-touchdown defeat the year before in […]
Got a chance to visit with Hugh Freeze Monday when he was at our museum to talk to the Jackson Touchdown Club. Naturally, my first question was: “Can you believe Mack Brown fired Manny Diaz yesterday?” Freeze shook his head and said, basically, “Ruined my day.” No, Diaz and Freeze aren’t close although Freeze did […]
This was 2009, just four years ago. Craig Kimbrel was a 21-year-old fire-baller, pitching for the Mississippi Braves. Ben Ingram was the M-Braves’ 29-year-old play-by-play announcer, his game calls heard on an AM station with little range beyond Pearl and Jackson. So much as happened since. Kimbrel has become the premier closer in baseball. Ingram […]
Let’s go back 38 years to the fall of 1975. I was learning on the job as a sports reporter at The Hattiesburg American. It was my first full-time newspaper job. I still wasn’t shaving more than once a week. Mack Brown, who will coach Texas against Ole Miss this Saturday night, was learning on the […]
After New Orleans’ 23-17 opening week victory, here are several things I think I know: • Bobby Hebert was dead-on on his post-game show: “When the Saints play the Falcons, whoever has the ball is last is either going to win or lose.” Well, yeah. What Bobby was saying as only he can, is that […]
Our new Kent Hull Exhibit at your Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. Demand for seating at the Tribute to Kent Hull Banquet has been such that we’ve had to switch venues. Originally scheduled for the main arena of your Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum (seating capacity 240), the event has […]
I wrote this during NBC’s extended NFL pre-game show last night. I never miss a chance to watch Peyton Manning play, and I never get tired of it. As you surely know by now, he threw a record-tying seven touchdowns last night. So I am sitting here watching three presumably intelligent men, including Super Bowl […]
