Rick Cleveland - Mississippi Today

RIP: Gentle Ben Williams, who broke football color line at Ole Miss and became ‘Colonel Rebel’

By Rick Cleveland - Mississippi Today, READ MORE > 308 Reads
On Thu, 05/28/2020 - 11:49 AM

They called him Gentle Ben. But Jim Carmody, who coached history-making, trail-blazing Ben Williams at both Ole Miss and then the Buffalo Bills, would like to expound on that nickname.

Baseball humbled Jordan

By Rick Cleveland - Mississippi Today, READ MORE > 1,146 Reads
On Thu, 05/21/2020 - 11:54 AM

We reached the part in Michael Jordan’s “The Last Dance” in which Jordan – at age 31 and having not played baseball in 14 years – leaves the Chicago Bulls to try to make the Major Leagues.

Remembering the colorful Doug Sanders

By Rick Cleveland - Mississippi Today, READ MORE > 1,102 Reads
On Fri, 05/15/2020 - 12:14 PM

Sadly, golf’s Doug Sanders, once famously known as the “Peacock of the Fairways,” died in April at his home in Houston. An accomplished winner of 20 PGA Tour tournaments – but better known for his bright, flashy, color-coordinated outfits – Sanders was 86 at the time of his death.

Is Stevens Saints’ next Taysom Hill?

By Rick Cleveland - Mississippi Today, READ MORE > 297 Reads
On Thu, 05/07/2020 - 03:16 PM

The NFL Draft was rocking along, nearing its end, and then, rolling across the bottom of our TV screens, came this bolt out of the blue: The New Orleans Saints, with pick No. 240 in the seventh round, take Mississippi State quarterback Tommy Stevens.
Say what?

State’s restaurants face precarious future even after Reeves’ new executive order

By Rick Cleveland - Mississippi Today, READ MORE > 2,281 Reads
On Wed, 05/06/2020 - 01:10 PM

Greek immigrants opened Jackson’s venerable Mayflower Cafe, now a downtown mecca of broiled fish, as a hamburger stand 85 years ago. This week, the Mayflower offers something that it hasn’t since that very beginning in 1935: curb service.

Of Pistol Pete and Wonderous Wendell

By Rick Cleveland - Mississippi Today, READ MORE > 1,213 Reads
On Fri, 05/01/2020 - 01:04 PM

So, I was doing a podcast with a friend the other day, and he posed this: “Tell me the most amazing performance you’ve seen in sports in Mississippi that our listeners wouldn’t know much about…”

Nobody really knows if we’ll play football in 2020, but history might give us a hint

By Rick Cleveland - Mississippi Today, READ MORE > 1,223 Reads
On Fri, 04/24/2020 - 12:11 PM

In answer to a question I have been asked countless times these past few weeks:
No, I have no idea whether or not there will be a 2020 college football season. Don’t have a clue. John Cohen and Keith Carter don’t know either, and neither does Jeremy McClain. Nobody knows right now, and if they tell you they do, they’re lying.

Schaefer going home; leaves State better

By Rick Cleveland - Mississippi Today, READ MORE > 577 Reads
On Fri, 04/17/2020 - 10:07 AM

Home. That’s the main reason why Vic Schaefer left Missi-ssippi State for Texas. To go home, to the place of his birth, Austin, Texas.
Schaefer was born in a hospital just a short walk from the UT campus. He was raised there and in Houston. He is a Texan, and most Texans I know are just plain jingoistic about Texas.

I didn’t know how much I would miss the games

By Rick Cleveland - Mississippi Today, READ MORE > 1,285 Reads
On Thu, 04/09/2020 - 05:23 PM

Mid-Mississippi, this time of the year, looks a lot like April at Augusta National.

MSU players regret not having chance

By Rick Cleveland - Mississippi Today, READ MORE > 229 Reads
On Fri, 03/27/2020 - 11:57 AM

Mississippi State’s Ben Howland has coached college basketball for 37 years, 24 as a head coach. Only once before has he conducted a team meeting as emotional as the one in Nashville when he told his Bulldogs their season was over.

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