McCOMB — There’s never been a fall like it at Ole Miss, before or since.
Mississippians can hope, with confidence, that there’ll never be another like it, insofar as the riot and federal occupation accompanying the admission of James Meredith as the first black student at the University of Mississippi in 1962.
Alumni and Rebel football fans like me hope for another football season like that of 50 years ago — undefeated, untied, Southeastern Conference and Sugar Bowl champions and a final ranking of No. 3 in the nation.
A similar record today in the SEC probably would earn Ole Miss a No. 1 ranking, and had it not been for the bad national publicity Mississippi was getting for Gov. Ross Barnett’s mishandling of the Meredith fiasco, Ole Miss possibly could have been ranked higher in 1962.
There may have been better teams in Ole Miss football history. Some think the 1959 team, which lost one game to LSU on Billy Cannon’s famous punt return, only later to beat the Tigers in the Sugar Bowl, could have been better.
Another team in the Johnny Vaught era went undefeated but tied a couple of games — they had ties in those days.
But so far no Rebel team, except the one of 1962, has had a perfect record, and no other team had to deal with as many distractions.
The fine ESPN documentary series “30 for 30” has been showing “Ghosts of Ole Miss” this week, and I’m glad I recorded it on my DVR and watched it the other night.
Most of it is not pretty, but it is fascinating to watch.
It’s also historically accurate, whether you like it or not.
The writer, a native Mississippian, the producer and others involved in the hour-long show do a good job weaving together the history of Mississippi and Ole Miss and our love for football. Old film of the events occurring back then, including football games, is used effectively with the narration.
Several members of the 1962 team who had a reunion and were recognized at a game this fall were interviewed about their recollections.
By the way, Meredith was also at that game this year, sitting in the chancellor’s box, and he too was recognized.
Among the members of the team at the reunion and interviewed was Dr. Louis Guy, a halfback who went to Ole Miss from McComb.
Guy also was shown intercepting a pass from Tennessee in the Ole Miss end zone and running it back 103 yards for the clinching touchdown to help keep the Rebels undefeated.
Shown briefly at the beginning of the piece was the late Mary Cain, the fiery editor of the Summit Sun, holding forth on segregation. I’m not sure whether her remarks were connected to the Ole Miss riots or were about something else and were just used to reflect the tenor of those times.
Ole Miss journalism professor and author Curtis Wilkie, who grew up in Summit, was among those who recalled, as a student, the events of 1962.
He likened Ross Barnett’s speech during halftime at the Ole Miss-Kentucky game and the crowd’s reaction as similar to a Nuremberg rally when Hitler was in control of Germany in the 1930s.
I was at that game in Jackson in 1962, the same weekend Barnett was making a deal with the Kennedys — which he later welshed on — and I had the same reaction.
The program concludes, fortunately, showing how much racial progress has occurred 50 years later and how Ole Miss has grown. Among those featured is the current Ole Miss student body president — a black female.
