So, I suppose we should be immune to it by now. I’m talking about how the rest of the world, and mostly the national networks, always confuse all things Mississippi. On ESPN, Ole Miss gets called Mississippi State. Southern Miss gets called Ole Miss. Ole Miss gets called Ole Miss State. Sometimes it seems like […]
I am forever amazed by the relationships among our Mississippi Sports Hall of Famers and the influences they have had on one another. These relationships and influences know no boundaries, most certainly not school loyalties or even the sports they played. Former Delta State and Ole Miss basketball star Gerald Glass was at the museum […]
We lost a Hall of Famer this past week in P.W. “Bear” Underwood, who first gained fame as a Mississippi Southern defensive tackle and later as a Southern Miss defensive coach and then head coach. He was a legendary character, P.W. was — legendary for his strength, for his gruff voice and for his ability […]
Long-time readers know of my general distaste for recruiting rankings and the monstrous hype of the process leading up to national signing day. Commitments are celebrated like winning lottery tickets, and commitments, after all, are only promises and promises are broken all the time. That is especially true of 17- and 18-year-olds. Much of my […]
Jackson native and Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer Doug Kenna, who died Jan. 28 at the age of 88, once achieved one of the greatest scholar-athlete years in college sports history. You could look it up. I did. This was the school year of 1944-45 and Kenna played his sports and took his classes at […]
The date was Oct. 17, 1970. It was a muggy day, unseasonably warm. I was a just-turned-18-year-old USM freshman writing sports for the Hattiesburg American, and I had just seen a miracle. Southern Miss, coached by second-year Golden Eagle coach P. W. “Bear” Underwood, had just stunned mighty Ole Miss 30-14 on the new artificial […]
As a sports columnist, I covered 29 Super Bowls. Now, people often ask if I miss covering it. The answer is simple: I miss some aspects of it. I don’t miss a lot more. I absolutely miss seeing my sports writing friends from around the country. I do not miss 500 of us trying to […]
We begin in the spring of 2001 with an eighth grade home room class from Terry making a field trip to the Mississippi Hall of Fame and Museum. Anthony Dixon, 13, steps up to the football touch-screen kiosk and taps up his hero Walter Payton. Along with films of Payton’s miraculous runs at Jackson State […]
