Next month, on Sept. 19, the center of the college football universe will be Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford.
That’s when and where Lane Kiffin, Oxford’s public enemy No. 1, will make his return to Ole Miss, bringing his LSU Tigers (and some former Ole Miss players and coaches), with him.
Hitler might have received a warmer welcome in Poland.
Any LSU-Ole Miss football game is huge, but this one is assuredly the biggest since at least 1959 and that game wasn’t played in Mississippi. Both teams will be nationally ranked and are considered national championship contenders. ABC will telecast the game around the world. ESPN’s College Game Day will be camped out in The Grove. And then there’s the incest involved. Eight of 11 LSU coaches, including Kiffin, coached at Ole Miss last year. Four LSU players, including two of the Rebels’ biggest, brightest defensive stars, played for Ole Miss last season. Little wonder, the game has long since been sold out. Not to worry, you can get two tickets on the secondary market for just over two grand.
Some pundits already have called the upcoming LSU-Ole Miss game the biggest, most anticipated sporting event ever played on Mississippi soil. It might be, but history tells us it has a lot of competition. Biggest in history? You decide.
What follows are 10 sports events that happened in Mississippi that surely would challenge next month’s showdown at Oxford.
This list appears in the order the events occurred.
July 8, 1889
From an international perspective, this has to be the biggest. On this date, in the tiny Mississippi community of Richburg, just south of Hattiesburg, world heavyweight champion John L. Sullivan and challenger Jake Kilrain squared off in the final world championship bare-knuckle boxing match in history. It was deemed “The Rumble in Richburg.” It was a doozy.
Why Richburg? Glad you asked. The fight was supposed to have taken place in New Orleans, but bare-knuckle fighting had been outlawed in all 38 states at the time. Lamar County lumberman Charles Rich offered his land 100 miles away as a possible site and since there was a railroad that went directly from New Orleans to near Rich’s property, that’s what happened. More than 2,000, including Sullivan, Kilrain, and international reporters, boarded chartered trains on the morning of the fight. Mississippi Gov. Robert Lowry opposed the fight and dispatched state troopers to the Louisiana-Mississippi border. The trains barreled on through.
Once the fight party reached Richburg, the Lamar County sheriff formally protested but was badly outnumbered. He watched the fight from ringside. The ring and bleachers had been hastily constructed from freshly cut pine, and temperatures soared to over 100 degrees that afternoon. Resin seeped from the just-cut pine, causing several spectators to lose the backside of their britches. Kilrain suffered a much worse fate. He was battered, bruised, and bloodied for 75 rounds by Sullivan — “The Boston Strongboy” and the son of Irish immigrant parents. Back then, a round lasted until one of the combatants was floored. On that brutally hot day, the shortest round lasted three seconds, the longest more than 15 minutes.
Sullivan, the bigger, stronger man, consumed a quart of whiskey, mixed with tea, during the fight. Not surprisingly, he lost his breakfast and much of the brandy an hour into the fight, causing Kilrain to propose a draw. Sullivan answered by knocking Kilrain down for the umpteenth time. In the 68th round, Sullivan sent Kilrain flying across the ring with a vicious uppercut. The end was near.
After 75 rounds, a doctor told Kilrain’s handlers their fighter might die if the fight continued. With Kilrain bloodied and barely conscious but standing and ready to continue, his corner threw in a bloody towel and conceded.
The fight was the lead story in newspapers around the world, including the New York Times, which began its report thusly: “Never, during even a Presidential election, has there been so much excitement as there is now, even when the brutal exhibition is over and it is known that John L. Sullivan was successful and that 75 rounds were necessary to knock out Jake Kilrain.”
Nov. 29, 1941
Ole Miss and Mississippi State’s football teams have battled 119 times in a series dating back to 1901. Many years, the Egg Bowl, as it is now called, is the single biggest sporting event in the state. Only once, 85 years ago, have the two teams met with the championship of the Southeastern Conference on the line. The game was played at Oxford. Mississippi State won 6-0.
Covering the game for the Ole Miss school newspaper was none other than the late William Winter, who would become the state’s 58th governor. “Ole Miss was heavily favored that day,” Winter once told this writer. “I was devastated by the result.”
“State scored in the second quarter on a mis-direction play,” Winter remembered. “Jennings Moates took a direct snap and turned around to hide the ball. Meanwhile, State faked a run to the right side. When Ole Miss pursued in that direction, Moates took off through the left side for 40 yards and a touchdown.”
As is usually the case when State and Ole Miss play, controversy ensued. Ole Miss had a long touchdown run called back when an official ruled Ray Terrell had stepped out of bounds.
There was no SEC championship game back then and no Sugar Bowl bid for the winner. Eight days later, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The U.S. was at war, and many Bulldogs and Rebels would fight and die.
Oct. 17, 1970
Ole Miss was undefeated, coming off wins over Alabama and Georgia, and Archie Manning was the leading candidate for the Heisman Trophy. Southern Miss had been hammered 41-14 by San Diego State the week before. Ole Miss had torched USM 69-7 the season before. Ole Miss was a 50-point favorite, but Southern Miss won the game 30-14 behind Ray Guy’s punting and Willie Heidelberg’s two touchdown runs. Heidelberg, all 143 pounds of him, was the only African American player on the field.
Sept. 17, 1977
Nobody present will forget this one, and they may still be sweating. Ole Miss, a 21-point underdog, defeated eventual national champion Notre Dame 20-13 at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson. Quarterback Tim Ellis came off the bench in the fourth quarter to lead a furious Ole Miss comeback that was aided by stifling heat and humidity, which sapped the bigger, stronger Fighting Irish. Unlike Ellis, the great Joe Montana never got off the bench that day but then led the Irish to victories in 10 straight games, including a rout of previously No. 1 ranked Texas in the Cotton Bowl.
Nov. 1, 1980
As the doomsday headline in the next day’s Clarion Ledger proclaimed, “State 6, Bama 3.” No 1 ranked Alabama, coached by Bear Bryant, had defeated Mississippi State 22 straight times. The Crimson Tide had won 28 straight games, 26 straight SEC games, and were 20-point favorites. But State head coach Emory Bellard’s defense ruled the day at Veterans Memorial Stadium and afterwards Bryant called the three-point State victory “decisive.” Bryant told all who would listen: “It was a spirited, hard-hitting game and most of the hard hitting was done by them.” Bryant, as classy as ever, stood on a metal folding chair in the State locker room to congratulate the Bulldogs.
Nov. 4, 1984
On a Sunday afternoon, the public address announcer at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium said it all: “Welcome to the game of the week, the game of the month, the game of the year, the game of the decade, the game of the century!” It wasn’t Ole Miss-Mississippi State. No, it was Mississippi Valley State vs. Alcorn State, as the two HBCUs, both with undefeated seasons on the line, took center stage. The game was supposed to have been played the day before at Itta Bena. It was moved to Jackson and played on a Sunday by popular demand. A standing room only crowd of nearly 64,000 attended. Alcorn, coached by the venerable Marino Casem, defeated Valley, which featured Willie Totten throwing to Jerry Rice, 42-28. It was televised in Mississippi and doubled NFL games in ratings that day.
June 3-6, 1999
They said he couldn’t do it, but West Point businessman George Bryan did. He brought the U.S. Women’s Open golf tournament to rural Clay County and Old Waverly, the course he envisioned and then built. More than 125,000 braved Mississippi heat and humidity to watch in person and millions more watched on TV around the globe. Juli Inkster won the 54th U.S. Women’s Open by five shots to claim the winner’s share of $350,000.
Oct. 4, 2014
Nick Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide was ranked No. 1 and led Ole Miss 14-3 at halftime. But the Rebels fired back behind Bo Wallace’s three second half touchdown passes to defeat Bama 23-17, sparking a memorable scene that included the goal posts being paraded to – and then around – the Oxford Square.’
Oct. 11, 2014
With Dak Prescott leading the way before a stadium record crowd of nearly 63,000, Mississippi State soundly defeated No. 2 ranked Auburn 38-23 to ascend to a No. 1 ranking for the first time in school history. The Bulldogs would remain No. 1 for six weeks.
June 11-12, 2022
In a much-anticipated NCAA Super Regional, Mike Bianco’s Ole Miss baseball team, given up for dead a month earlier, defeated host Southern Miss 10-0 and 5-0 before sweltering, sellout crowds. The two victories served as a springboard to the Rebels’ first national baseball championship.
