Magnolia Tribune

As college football evolves, legends like Ole Miss’ Jake Gibbs still loom large

Published

1 year ago

August 16, 2023

A superstar on the baseball diamond and gridiron, Jake Gibbs remains a legendary reminder of the era that put Ole Miss on the map.

College football is fast approaching, and Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin has what many of his peers crave – depth and talent at quarterback.

Some of that talent is proven at the Power Five level, some of it is youthful potential.

None of it signed with Ole Miss right out of high school.

The game’s shifting landscape has created unlikely unions between traditional schools and big money conferences. It has also created departures that will likely kill the 108-year-old Pac-12 Conference.

Through Name, Image and Likeness college football players are paid, many of them quite well.

The Transfer Portal leads to roster turnover as players often have less patience with words like development and experience.

In the New CFB Order savvy Portal management can potentially yield quick benefits.

What it takes away, in many instances, is the guy on the hill.

That’s where Jake Gibbs sat one weekday afternoon in the fall of 1965.

He had finished his responsibilities as a catcher with the Yankees and had returned home to Grenada. He told his wife he thought he’d drive up to Oxford and watch football practice.

Gibbs will turn 85 this November days before the Egg Bowl. He remains in good health and makes an occasional public appearance when asked.

Fewer people ask for Gibbs in 2023, but they knew who he was in the 1960s.

Not as Tall as Advertised

“You ain’t 6-feet tall,” was the greeting he received from Clete Boyer, the Yankees third baseman, when Gibbs arrived in the Bronx for the first time.

Boyer knew this kid was coming, a football All-American who was drawing interest from multiple NFL teams. Football chased Jake Gibbs, but he played hard to get.

Houston’s pro franchises were working in tandem to sign the brash, elusive Mississippi kid of indeterminate height. MLB’s Colt 45s – the forerunner of the Astros – told Gibbs they’d sign him to a baseball contract with the idea that if he didn’t pan out they’d let the NFL’s Oilers have him.

“I said, ‘Hell no, I don’t want that, to be switching back and forth and have that on my mind. I wanted to sign one place and stay there.”

So the man on the hill picked baseball, fulfilling a dream that traced its origins to Highway 8 in North Mississippi – suburban Grenada if you will – where Gibbs showed off his athleticism and toughened up by playing with older boys.

“I wanted to play baseball. The dream was still there,” he said.

Gibbs, a catcher, signed for $100,000 and spent four years in the minor leagues. He played with the big club from 1965-1971 mostly backing up Yankee greats Elston Howard and Thurman Munson. He was a career. 233 hitter with 25 home runs, but his handling of pitchers was so valued by MLB’s most historical franchise that upon his retirement the Yankees hosted a “Jake Gibbs Day” in his honor then sent him off to manage in their farm system. That’s where he coached Derek Jeter.

Putting on the pinstripes remains the greatest thrill of his decorated athletics career, Gibbs tells friends.

But Boyer was right. Regardless of what Ole Miss sports publicists said, Gibbs wasn’t 6-feet tall.

“I told him, ‘No, I’m 5-11,” Gibbs said.

The missing one inch didn’t bother Gibbs on the football field.

He went 23-3-1 as the Ole Miss starting quarterback, his most success coming in 1959 and 1960 at the height of John Vaught’s legendary run.

He knew when to give, to keep or to pitch in Vaught’s sprint-out option offense.

And he knew why his beloved coach was losing his cool with his quarterbacks that day.

Some on-the-ball manager who had spotted Gibbs told Vaught who was watching from up on the hill.

Vaught waved him down to where the action was.

From his elevated perch Gibbs could see it all. He knew the quarterbacks, particularly a former high school defensive back that Vaught was working to convert, were getting the concepts of the offense but were applying them too slowly.

Vaught thought an illustration from Gibbs would be worth a thousand words.

“I went down there, and coach Vaught said, ‘Hey guys, this is one of my former quarterbacks, Jake Gibbs. He was a good one.’ He said, ‘I’m having quarterback problems, Jake. Get under center.’”

“I had on a white shirt, cuff links and street shoes. I was dressed up on that Wednesday. He said, ‘Get under center and show these guys how to run 36 Slant.’”

“I said, ‘Coach I haven’t thrown a football in five years.’ He said, ‘I don’t give a damn, get under the center.’ That was all it took. I wasn’t going to argue with him.”

The next day Gibbs got a call from Vaught’s secretary who asked if he could meet with Vaught at 11 a.m. Saturday before the SEC opener against Vanderbilt.

The meeting was brief, and when Gibbs left he’d been hired as quarterbacks coach for $500 a month.

These days many NIL contracts are worth much more.

Drawn Back to Campus

What sets it apart from evolving college football is that Gibbs went back. He wanted to go back. His college football days were over, but he wanted to be on campus again.

Fans want players to perform, yes, but they want players to feel. Fans want players to appreciate colors changing in the Grove, walks to class and parties after the games.

Adults connect with their college days for years. That’s why club seating and other amenities exist in SEC stadiums.

When the passes, catches, touchdowns and tackles are complete the memories begin.

That mattered to Gibbs, but it’s hard to make a deep connection if you’re in a place only one or two seasons.

Gibbs wanted to help his former coach.

“They were taking eight, nine and 10 steps before they ever threw the ball. By then you’re almost out of bounds. So I said, ‘Look you’ve got to be quick. I took four steps and hit the (receiver),’” Gibbs said.

“Run it again,” Vaught yelled.

Gibbs ran the play eight times and completed eight pass attempts.

“I about worked up a sweat,” he said.

Before Gibbs became Ole Miss’s baseball coach in the 1971-72 academic year he would coach quarterbacks for five more seasons.

It was Gibbs who taught Vaught’s offense to Archie Manning.

Manning said it was a “thrill” to work with Gibbs, whose football career he followed while growing up in Drew.

‘Serious Stuff’ with Archie

In the summer of 1970 Yankees manager Ralph Houk had news for his backup catcher that was about to get him cranked up.

Houk knew of Gibbs’ second job as Ole Miss quarterbacks coach. The White Sox were in town, and Houk sent word to the bullpen during batting practice for Gibbs to join him and White Sox General Manager Ed Short behind home plate.

“Oh shoot, I thought Thurman must be sick,” Gibbs recalled.

Instead, Short had asked Houk to summon Gibbs. The White Sox liked Manning as a baseball prospect. They’d drafted him and wanted Gibbs to convince him to sign.

Gibbs in front of a cutout of him from his playing days.

“I said, ‘Ralph, don’t mess with me on this. This is serious stuff.’”

Gibbs didn’t waste time with small talk after a quick introduction to Short.

“I said, ‘If y’all go down there and sign Archie you ain’t going to be allowed in the state of Mississippi again. I’m serious,’” Gibbs recalled.

“He said, ‘Jake, we like him.’ I don’t guess Archie signed.”

The White Sox liked Manning so much that when they used their third-round pick in 1970 it was actually the second time they’d drafted him.

The Role of Gibbs, Teammates in Changing Times

As a senior quarterback in 1960 Gibbs was an All-American and the SEC Player of the Year. The Rebels went 10-0-1 and were named national champions by the Football Writers Association of America. He was third in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1960.

He was part of an Ole Miss SEC baseball championship team in 1959.

Gibbs went 485-389-8 coaching Ole Miss baseball from 1972-1990. He led the Rebels to the College World Series in 1972 and was a two-time SEC Coach of the Year.

He’s seen a lot of change in college football.

“There’s more overall speed than we had, and the size is different. There are some big ’ol boys out there playing, and those big ’ol boys can run, but it’s still about ability and how you prepare.”

There are other changes that the guy on the hill never considered during his Ole Miss playing days, changes like a football coach making $9 million, as Kiffin will this season.

Gibbs believes he and his teammates have a small role in Kiffin’s salary.

“If Ole Miss didn’t have the history that’s here … I’ve always sensed great support, great effort to get back to those days. I’ve always sensed that around here,” Gibbs said. “I think a lot of that is attributed to the success and the passion that people had for those teams.”

The post As college football evolves, legends like Ole Miss’ Jake Gibbs still loom large appeared first on Magnolia Tribune.

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By: Parrish Alford
Title: As college football evolves, legends like Ole Miss’ Jake Gibbs still loom large
Sourced From: magnoliatribune.com/2023/08/14/jake-gibbs/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jake-gibbs
Published Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2023 12:52:38 +0000

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Magnolia Tribune

Staring mortality in the face at Christmas

Published

11 months ago

December 16, 2023

Staff Editor

My friend Jarrod is dying after an eight year battle with cancer. He’s lived a life worth celebrating, one that has drawn people to Christ.

I was going about my business this week when I received a text that stopped me in my tracks. A college friend was being moved to hospice care.

Jarrod Egley was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in early 2017. In the fall of 2018, tests revealed the cancer had spread to his lungs and Jarrod’s cancer was classified as Stage IV.

For almost eight years from the date of the original diagnosis, he’s fought. Through surgeries, radiation, endless rounds and cycles of chemotherapy, and experimental immunotherapies, he’s fought.

Last year, I flew out to California and spent some time with Jarrod and his wife, Emily. We sat outside one night. He acknowledged to me that it was not a question of ‘if’, but ‘when’ the cancer would claim his life. I told him I was sorry, because what else is there to say?

We talked about our faith, about the trials of Job, about Jacob wrestling with God, about Paul’s affliction. But mostly we reflected on our time together in school, on the good things, and the mundane things, that happened since.

Jarrod and I met at Tulane University. One Sunday morning in the Spring of my freshman year, I rose from my dorm room bed, dressed, and began walking down Saint Charles Avenue in New Orleans with no particular agenda. I walked until I came across First Baptist Church and the thought flickered in the vacuous recesses of my brain to enter.

Some would say it was a lark. The Calvinist in me says providence. The walk that morning changed the trajectory of my time at Tulane and my life on the whole. Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and the Baptist Collegiate Ministry became central to my life and put me in regular league with Jarrod. I met him first at the BCM and we ultimately ended up attending church together.

Jarrod was a faithful servant on and off campus. He helped organize a group of us that would weekly make our way down to the Esplanade seawall on the backside of the French Quarter to feed the homeless. On Friday nights, he could be found at chapel with a small cadre of students foregoing Bourbon Street for early 2000s worship music.

Jarrod was a loyal friend in those years. Never rude or biting. Not prone to an insult for an easy laugh. Persistently encouraging. An engineering student, his mind worked linearly and was oriented to problem solving. There were never a lot of wasted words — always a lot of deliberative questions when he disagreed or did not understand a point. He exhibited intelligence, empathy, and the kind of moral conviction that sets someone apart.

He also had a wry and dry sense of humor and a penchant for beating people at Madden football. He was fair-to-midland on the ultimate frisbee pitch. Along the way, there were crawfish boils, Mardi Gras outtings, poorly attended Tulane football games, and more than a decent amount of wing eating.

After college, I lost touch with Jarrod. He moved back to his home state of California. He got married to his college sweetheart, who could not have anticipated her husband’s journey, but has been a steady and constant helpmate throughout. Jarrod became a very successful engineer and a bourbon connoisseur. One of his bucket list trips took him to Kentucky, where he got to meet and became friends with bourbon “Hall of Famer” Freddie Johnson of Buffalo Trace acclaim.

Jarrod at Buffalo Trace Distillery (Spring 2022).

Sitting in his backyard nearly 20 years after graduating from Tulane, I saw many of the same qualities I had grown to admire when we were students together. I saw a husband who doted on and supported Emily’s passions. But I also saw someone whose body had been beaten to hell and back, who was tired, and who, like Jacob, had been wrestling with God. We quickly fell back into friendship, which perhaps is the mark of good friendship.

We all have aspirations in our youth — for the kind of spouse or parent we might be, for what we might accomplish, for what we might experience. Along the way, dreams are satisfied, modified, or they die on the vine. The clock inevitably works against all of us. That night in Oceanside, California, Jarrod, a numbers guy, saw that time was not on his side. He believed, as we all would, that he still had more to give, more impact to be made, and more things to see and experience.

After that trip, Jarrod and I stayed in touch, most frequently triggered by news of his cancer. It has been mostly the bad variety in recent months. Now spread throughout his body, down to his bones, he has lived in constant pain for months. Not even a steady diet of morphine and an implanted pain pump solve for it. Jarrod’s been hospitalized twelve times just in 2023.

But his matter of fact sense of humor and way of seeing the world remains in tact. So too does his faith that despite these trials, he has always been safe in the hands of Christ.

There are people in the world who believe that life is random, disordered, and without reason. I am not among them. I think my friend is staring mortality in the face at Christmas for a reason.

For thousands of years before Christ came, there was darkness and despair. Sin and shame gripped the hearts of men. Until one holy night, God, in His infinite love, mercy and wisdom, sent His son to save. Jesus is the light of the world and the hope of man. He has won victory over death and Jarrod’s will not be the exception. Jesus came for Jarrod, and for you.

For thousands of years since Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection, His disciples have been used as divine instruments to point the way to God. Jarrod is among them. If life expectancies were the measure, Jarrod would be at the midway point for most people. He’s made a lifetime of impact for the Kingdom and on other people.

So, to my friend Jarrod, you were placed here with a purpose. You have run your race. You are loved. And when this chapter closes, you will hear “well done, my good and faithful servant.” There is no greater evidence of a life well lived.

While Jarrod and Emily have been fortunate to have health insurance, their portion of the medical bills so far in 2023 have eclipsed $30,000, and Emily is facing additional uncovered expenses during Jarrod’s hospice care, including a night nurse that costs over $400 a night. If you would like to help defray the cost, a contribution can be made at their Go Fund Me page.

The post Staring mortality in the face at Christmas appeared first on Magnolia Tribune.

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By: Russ Latino
Title: Staring mortality in the face at Christmas
Sourced From: magnoliatribune.com/2023/12/16/staring-mortality-in-the-face-at-christmas/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=staring-mortality-in-the-face-at-christmas
Published Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2023 15:05:22 +0000

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Magnolia Tribune

Magnolia Mornings: December 15, 2023

Published

11 months ago

December 15, 2023

Staff Editor

Important state and national stories, market and business news, sports and entertainment, delivered in quick-hit fashion to start your day informed.

In Mississippi

1. Laurin St. Pe’ named CEO of Singing River Health System

The Board of Trustees of Singing River Health System announced the immediate appointment of Laurin St. Pe’ as the Chief Executive Officer on Thursday.

“We are thrilled to announce Laurin St. Pe as the new CEO of Singing River,” said Steve Ates, Board President in a statement. “His wealth of healthcare experience and proven track record make him the ideal leader to steer our health system toward its next phase of growth and success.”

St. Pe’, who has been serving as Interim CEO since July 2023, said he is honored to assume the role of CEO at Singing River. He has worked at Singing River as Administrator of Singing River Health System’s Pascagoula Hospital and Gulfport Hospital, in addition to overseeing program service lines throughout the entire system to his subsequent appointment as Chief Operating Officer of Singing River.

The health system says St. Pe played a crucial role in the financial revitalization of Singing River Health System while steering the organization toward financial stability.

2. Gulfport-Biloxi airport, Stennis evacuated after threats

The Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport was evacuated on Thursday morning “out of an abundance of caution,” airport officials said, after receiving an emailed threat to certain transportation entities across the state.

The airport was thoroughly security swept, cleared and reopened in just over two hours. Gulfport-Biloxi is now operating regularly.

The threat was also sent to Stennis International Airport. Their staff and personnel were also evacuated until the facilities could be swept and cleared.

Any passenger whose travel was affected by the evacuation is encouraged to contact their respective air carrier.

3. Cassidy arrested in Iowa for beheading Satanic Temple statue

Former Mississippi congressional and legislative candidate Michael Cassidy was arrested this week in Iowa for beheading a statue at the state’s Capitol erected by The Satanic Temple.

Cassidy reportedly decapitated the statue and turned himself to police on Thursday. He was charged with fourth degree criminal mischief. He then started an online legal defense fund where he’s raised upwards of $20,000 as of Thursday night, according to his X account.

4. “Serial fraudster” ordered to cease offering investments into companies

According to the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office, on October 26, 2023, Secretary Michael Watson and the Securities Division issued an order against Stephone N. Patton. The SOS says Patton is a serial fraudster with multiple criminal convictions in Mississippi and Florida.

Through business filings with the SEC and Mississippi, Patton has held himself to be the CEO of various companies, including Star Oil and Gas Company, Inc., North Gulf Energy Corporation, Inc., Patton Oilfield Services, Inc., and Patton Farms, LLC.

The SOS says using these business filings and company websites, Patton claimed to have raised hundreds of billions of dollars through investment opportunities. Through investigative efforts and collaboration with the SEC, the SOS discovered none of Patton’s companies are operational, have any assets, or generate any revenues. Account records show Patton spent investors’ funds almost as soon as he received them on personal expenses. The total amount of known investments made to Patton’s fraudulent companies is over $80,000. Further, none of Patton’s investment offerings have been registered or notice filed with the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office.

The SOS order requires Patton to cease and desist from offering investments with his companies, requiring Patton to permanently deactivate his companies’ websites to prevent any further dissemination of his false or misleading information. Patton is also ordered to pay an administrative penalty of $25,000 to the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office for these violations, in addition to restitution owed to all his Mississippi investors.

National News & Foreign Policy

1. Congressional retirements mounting as 2024 election cycle nears

Retirement and departure announcements are piling up ahead of the start to the 2024 election cycle. The New York Times has developed a Retirement Tracker that currently shows 22 Democrats and 11 Republicans who are in Congress now will not be seeking re-election next year.

“Dozens of members of Congress have announced plans to leave their seats in the House of Representatives, setting a rapid pace for congressional departures, with more expected as the 2024 election draws closer,” the NY Times reports. “Given Republicans’ razor-thin House majority, the wave of exits has the potential to lead to a significant shake-up next year.”

You can find the tracker here.

2. Texas, Daily Wire, The Federalist sue U.S. State Department over media censorship

The U.S. State Department’s Global Engagement Center has come under fire as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton along with The Daily Wire and The Federalist have filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the department funded technology that could “render disfavored press outlets unprofitable.” They claim that the department has helped social media – Facebook, YouTube and X (formerly Twitter) – to censor free speech while funding technologies used to censor right-leaning news outlets such as theirs.

New Civil Liberties Alliance is representing The Daily Wire and The Federalist. Paxton and the outlets claim the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), a British think tank, received a $100,000 grant from the State Department in 2021, and NewsGuard, which rates the “misinformation” levels of news outlets, received $25,000 from the State Department in 2020, according to the lawsuit.

According to the State Department’s website, the Global Engagement Center’s mission is to direct, lead, synchronize, integrate, and coordinate U.S. Federal Government efforts to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations.

As reported by Reuters, the lawsuit cited a GDI-produced list from December 2022 that ranked The Daily Wire and The Federalist as among the 10 “riskiest sites” for news while the least-risky included The New York Times, Associated Press and NPR. Reuters notes that the lawsuit alleges such “blacklists” are reducing revenues to The Daily Wire and The Federalist along with their visibility on social media and ranking results from browser searches.

Sports & Entertainment

1. SEC releases 2024 schedules

Wednesday evening, the Southeastern Conference released the 2024 football schedules for its member schools, including of interest in the Magnolia State the schedules for Ole Miss and Mississippi State.

It is the first schedule that includes new conference members University of Oklahoma and University of Texas, bringing the conference to 16 schools. Each SEC team will play eight conference football games plus at least one required opponent from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12 or major independent, each team will have two open dates.

The 2024 season will be the first year the SEC will play a schedule without divisional competition since 1991. The top two teams in the league standings based on winning percentage will play in the 33rd SEC Football Championship Game in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Saturday, December 7.

2. White, Jesiolowski, Jones honored by MAIS

The Midsouth Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) in Mississippi, comprised of non-public schools, announced this week that Madison-Ridgeland Academy’s senior quarterback John White was named the 6A Player of the Year while Hartfield’s Reed Jesiolowski and Hartfield Chris Jones were named the MAIS 6A Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year, respectively.

All three have committed to play college football at the University of Mississippi.

White is Mississippi’s all-time leader in career passing yards with 15,259 yards, a record he broke during the 2023 season.

MAIS, like the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) for public schools, is broken down into classifications, from 1A to 6A. However, MHSAA added a 7A this season.

Markets & Business

1. Consumer retail sales up as energy, gas prices move down

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this week that the Consumer Price Index rose 0.1% in November after being unchanged in October. Retail sales rose 0.3% in November after rising 0.2% in October, meaning consumers continue to spend at the start of the holiday season.

The CPI or inflation rate is 3.1%, higher than the Federal Reserve target of 2% but below the 9% peak in 2022 which reached a 40-year high.

As for the energy index, BLS reported that it fell 2.3% in November after decreasing 2.5% in October. The gasoline index decreased 6% in November, following a 5% decrease in the previous month.

The index for fuel oil fell in November, decreasing 2.7%. However, the natural gas index rose 2.8% over the month after rising 1.2% the previous month. The index for electricity also rose 1.4% in November, after increasing 0.3% in October.

The energy index fell 5.4% over the past 12 months. The gasoline index decreased 8.9%, the natural gas index declined 10.4%, and the fuel oil index fell 24.8% over this 12-month span.

2. Week’s market rally continues into Friday

At close of trading on Thursday, the U.S. markets continued the week’s rally, pushing the Dow up 158 points to 37,248 while the Nasdaq and S&P also made gains, 27 points and 12 points, respectively, to close at 14,761 and 4,719.

The record high for the Dow on Thursday moved futures up 102 points.

According to CNBC, the major averages are headed for their seventh straight positive week. As of Thursday, the Dow is higher on the week by 2.8%. The S&P 500 is up by 2.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.5% this week.

Stocks rallied after the Federal Reserve left rates unchanged this week while members look towards cuts in the new year and beyond.

The post Magnolia Mornings: December 15, 2023 appeared first on Magnolia Tribune.

…

By: Magnolia Tribune
Title: Magnolia Mornings: December 15, 2023
Sourced From: magnoliatribune.com/2023/12/15/magnolia-mornings-december-15-2023/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=magnolia-mornings-december-15-2023
Published Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2023 13:00:00 +0000

Magnolia Tribune

New water rates expected in Jackson come 2024; those who don’t pay face shut off

Published

11 months ago

December 15, 2023

Staff Editor

Interim Third-Party Director Ted Henifin said this week that only about 59% of the City of Jackson’s water customers are paying their bills.

JXN Water has announced new rates and fees coming in 2024. Those who are not paying will be at risk of shut offs.

The company, which was established by federal appointed interim Third-Party Director Ted Henifin, has been overseeing the city’s water system for the better part of a year.

Officials estimated that the average cost for water in the city was $76 per month for residents. Henifin clarified that JXN water will not attempt to recoup any charges prior to November 29, 2022, and will work with those who have failed to pay since that time.

He said only about 59 percent of the city’s water customers are paying their bills.

“You can’t forgive bills, so we have to be creative in how we part that,” said Henifin in reference to Mississippi’s laws that prevent giving away water.

According to a release by JXN Water announcing the rate changes, residents in single family households with small meters that use up to 748 gallons daily would see a bill increase of roughly .30 cents per day. Research indicates that the average U.S. family uses 300 gallons per day.

SNAP customers will have a new rate tier that could lower their bill by up to .69 cents per day, on average.

“Those who need to save the most benefit from saving money by drinking tap water. This new rate structure makes water affordability possible for 12,500 JXN Water customers who receive SNAP benefits,” said Henifin in the release.