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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.
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