By: Jimmie McDowell
Willie Richardson, the legendary Jackson State football player, called to say that of all the All-American Football foundation Banquets he had attended the 99th Banquet of Champions was the best.
Willie received the Foundation's Charlie Conerly Outstanding Pro Football player award. The Foundation honored Johnny Vaught's field generas of the Glory Years when Ole Miss competed for national and sectional honors between 1947 and 1963, starting with Conerly and ending with Glynn Griffing.
In between were fearless Faley Salmon, Herman Sidney (Eagle) Day, Raymond Brown, Bobby Ray Franklin, Jake Gibbs, and Doug Elmore, who is deceased as are Conerly, Day, and Elmore.
Conerly,who is in the College Football Hall of Fame, is a glaring ommission in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Old Timers Committee meets in August to review the Pioneer category. One problem is that some of the younger members have no idea of how great Conerly was for 14 seasons with the New York Giants.
When the Ole Miss Centennial plans were announced Conerly was listed as a quarterback which he wasn't in College Football. He was a triple threat tailback and superb safety man. Against LSU in1946 I saw Conerly make tackles near the line of scrimmage. He was a superb diagnoser of plays.
His college career as interrupted by World War II where he served in the South Pacific for three years and participated in invasions. He has his rifle shot out of his hand. He was a superb athlete and if he had not gone into Pro Football he Football he would have played Pro Baseball as a center fielder. The Giants gave Conerly a $100,000 contract to get him. This was spread over four years, which was big money in 1948.
When I volunteered for the Navy at 17 in 1944 I made $21 a month and sent five dollars home to my Momma. I wanted to send her an allotment which was turned down,. She wrote President Roosevelt and voiced her objection. The allotment was approved and Blanche Leroy Byrd McDowell sent FDR my stamp collection.
Conerly, Eagle Day and Elmore are deceased. Jimmy Lear wants Farley Salmon to take care of himself. He does not want to be Ole Miss' oldest living field general. When the Centennial team was announced by Ole Miss Archie Manning was picked as the quarterback. Eagle Day expressed the thought that how was this decision reached and wondered if winning back to back SEC championships, which he did, should have something to do with it. Archie , who made the Football News All-America team twice,never made as many All-America teams as Jake Gibbs or Griffing.
The Foundation also honored several truly great running backs for its Creighton Miller Award, including three from Mississippi Southern, Bucky McElroy, Hugh Laurin Pepper, and Sammy Winder. None ever fired a pistol on the campus as the current USM running back did recently. The end of Athletic Dormitories is one reason why there is a lack of discipline on all campuses today.
If house Father Wobble Davidson ever caught an Ole Miss player with a gun he would have stuffed the gun where the sun does not shine of that lad.
Archie, who never led Ole Miss to a SEC title, saw most of his records broken by his son, Eli.
John Vaught was not pleased when Peyton Manning chose to go to arch-rival Tennessee rather than Ole Miss.
The AAFF wanted to honor Charlie Flowers and Billy Ray Adams, a couple of All-Americans at the Jackson dinner, but Flowers was in Colorado and Adams' dear wife's Mother was on her death bed and has since passed away.
The All-American Football Foundation members have voted and selected its All-America teams and Michael Oher and Peria Jerry were included. Oher was also one of the ll Colonel Red Blaik Leadership Scholarships honorees. Ole Miss will receive S$500 from the Blaik fund to help another deserving youngster, which the University selects.
At the Ole Miss spring game April l8 Houston Nutt will receive the Foundation's Johnny Vayght Outstanding Head Coach Award. Nutt was in Jackson to address the M Club at a special luncuheon at the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. He explained that he signed over 35 high school seniors, knowing that perhaps eight can not qualify academically and will attend Junior College and hopefully come to Oxford in two years.
And now Spring Football practice begins. Both State and Southern will also have their spring game on April l8.
---30---
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Return to Mobile
MOBILE----In 1951 I covered the first Senior Bowl played in Mobile. The inaugural Senior Bowl was staged in Jacksonville and a semi-disaster forcing Founder Jimmy Pearee to look for another site. He called his good friend Fred Russell, the great Nashville Banner Sports Editor and asked for his help. Freddie called ole pal Pat Moulton who had left the newspaper business to go to work for the Waterman Steam Ship Lines in Mobile.
Moutlon discussed this with his boss and a meeting was scheduled with Jimmy Pearee, who quickly accepted Waterman's invitation to relocate in Mobile. The game was scheduled putting another group of North and South seniors, with the players on the winning team getting $200 and the losers $100. It was a close game, a key penalty was called against the North by a group of South stripe shirts in the waning moments and Dixie prevailed.
I covered this game for the Jackson Daily News as the assistant sports editor. I did not have this title but since there were only two men in the sports department and I was the Number Two man I guess I can claim that title over a half century later.
I have attended practically all of the SeniorBowl practice sessions all of these years. It is always a pleasure to be there for the contest, managed superbly now by Steve Hale and his dedicated staff. A group of Jackson Touchdown Clubbers attend practice sessions now for a look at the stars of tomorrow and also lining up speakers for the Club meetings which begin after Labor Day. Good ole Bill Lee, who has had two knees replaced, still walks with his Senior Bowl limp once he gets there to hopefully convince the legion of scouts that he was an old football player. Billy Beard, who warms up for the meetings by talking to a wooden Indian, also has two new knees.Beard, Lee, Mack Cameron, Leonard Van Slyke, Bob Harrison and I were the Jackson T D Club reps at the 2009 session.
Pro scouts were there by the hundreds, including Bill Parsells, who could have been an assistant coach at Ole Miss when Steve Sloan came on board, was offered another job instead.
The city of Mobile supports the Senior Bowl with gusto with another full house attending the game. Jackson with over 60,000 seats could be a Bowl game site if the State and City Fathers got off their rear ends. Mobile has two bowl games as does New Orleans.
Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Jackson State, and Southern Miss were represented at this year's Senior Bowl and the players got a chance to show case themselves, which they did in splendid fashion.
College signing day this week is of great interest to all football fans. Major changes in SEC coaching staffs could result in early commitments shifting to other campuses in the next few days. Once Ole Miss kidnapped Perry Lee Dunn, staked him out at a hunting camp to the dismay of LSU Coach Pepsodent Paul Dietzel. I personally hid out Hugh Laurin Pepper while working for Southern Mississippi in early 1953 to the distress of Tulsa Coach Hillary Horne and Spook Murphy of Memphis State.
The All-American Football Foundation's 99th Banquet of Champions will be held at the Jackson Hilton Feb. l6. The Banquet is dedicated to Johnny Vaught's Glory Years Field Generals from 194 7-l963, saluting Charlie Conerly, Farley Salmon, Jimmy Lear, Eagle Day, Raymond Brown, Bobby Franklin, Jake Gibbs, and Glynhn Griffing and the Creighton Miller Outstanding Running Back awardees Bucky McElroy, Hugh Laurin Pepper, Sammy Winder of Southern Miss and David McIntosh of Millsaps, all of whom should be in the College Football Hall of Fame.
And speaking of Football Hall of Fames Charlie Conerly is still the most glaring ommission in the NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame. In the so-called Greatest Game Conerly led the New York Giants to an early lead. The sports writers choose the MVP in the fourth quarter and selected Conerly. Baltimore rallied to tie the score on a field goal, then win in over time on Alan Ameche's famous four yard run. The writers voted again and picked Johnny Unitas, who is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Beside calling the signals, passing to Frank Gifford and Kyle Rote and holding the ball for Pat Summerall's conversions and field goals, Conerly also provided rich leadership for the Giants for 14 seasons. Conerly also was a WW II Marine in the South Pacific dodging Nipponese bullets.
Members of the NFL Veterans Committee are picking younger Veterans. Some of those scribes probably never saw Number 42 play.
In his prime Conerly was to Football in New York what Joe DiMaggio was to Baseball.
--30-----
Moutlon discussed this with his boss and a meeting was scheduled with Jimmy Pearee, who quickly accepted Waterman's invitation to relocate in Mobile. The game was scheduled putting another group of North and South seniors, with the players on the winning team getting $200 and the losers $100. It was a close game, a key penalty was called against the North by a group of South stripe shirts in the waning moments and Dixie prevailed.
I covered this game for the Jackson Daily News as the assistant sports editor. I did not have this title but since there were only two men in the sports department and I was the Number Two man I guess I can claim that title over a half century later.
I have attended practically all of the SeniorBowl practice sessions all of these years. It is always a pleasure to be there for the contest, managed superbly now by Steve Hale and his dedicated staff. A group of Jackson Touchdown Clubbers attend practice sessions now for a look at the stars of tomorrow and also lining up speakers for the Club meetings which begin after Labor Day. Good ole Bill Lee, who has had two knees replaced, still walks with his Senior Bowl limp once he gets there to hopefully convince the legion of scouts that he was an old football player. Billy Beard, who warms up for the meetings by talking to a wooden Indian, also has two new knees.Beard, Lee, Mack Cameron, Leonard Van Slyke, Bob Harrison and I were the Jackson T D Club reps at the 2009 session.
Pro scouts were there by the hundreds, including Bill Parsells, who could have been an assistant coach at Ole Miss when Steve Sloan came on board, was offered another job instead.
The city of Mobile supports the Senior Bowl with gusto with another full house attending the game. Jackson with over 60,000 seats could be a Bowl game site if the State and City Fathers got off their rear ends. Mobile has two bowl games as does New Orleans.
Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Jackson State, and Southern Miss were represented at this year's Senior Bowl and the players got a chance to show case themselves, which they did in splendid fashion.
College signing day this week is of great interest to all football fans. Major changes in SEC coaching staffs could result in early commitments shifting to other campuses in the next few days. Once Ole Miss kidnapped Perry Lee Dunn, staked him out at a hunting camp to the dismay of LSU Coach Pepsodent Paul Dietzel. I personally hid out Hugh Laurin Pepper while working for Southern Mississippi in early 1953 to the distress of Tulsa Coach Hillary Horne and Spook Murphy of Memphis State.
The All-American Football Foundation's 99th Banquet of Champions will be held at the Jackson Hilton Feb. l6. The Banquet is dedicated to Johnny Vaught's Glory Years Field Generals from 194 7-l963, saluting Charlie Conerly, Farley Salmon, Jimmy Lear, Eagle Day, Raymond Brown, Bobby Franklin, Jake Gibbs, and Glynhn Griffing and the Creighton Miller Outstanding Running Back awardees Bucky McElroy, Hugh Laurin Pepper, Sammy Winder of Southern Miss and David McIntosh of Millsaps, all of whom should be in the College Football Hall of Fame.
And speaking of Football Hall of Fames Charlie Conerly is still the most glaring ommission in the NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame. In the so-called Greatest Game Conerly led the New York Giants to an early lead. The sports writers choose the MVP in the fourth quarter and selected Conerly. Baltimore rallied to tie the score on a field goal, then win in over time on Alan Ameche's famous four yard run. The writers voted again and picked Johnny Unitas, who is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Beside calling the signals, passing to Frank Gifford and Kyle Rote and holding the ball for Pat Summerall's conversions and field goals, Conerly also provided rich leadership for the Giants for 14 seasons. Conerly also was a WW II Marine in the South Pacific dodging Nipponese bullets.
Members of the NFL Veterans Committee are picking younger Veterans. Some of those scribes probably never saw Number 42 play.
In his prime Conerly was to Football in New York what Joe DiMaggio was to Baseball.
--30-----
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