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So strong, so fast, but the collisions had lasting effect on Johnie Cooks

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Some days you never forget: This was August of 1979. I was new to the Clarion Ledger where my first job was to cover Mississippi State. The football Bulldogs were in two-a-days, and it was a brutally hot, humid morning workout when I first saw Johnie Cooks, shirtless and in shorts, glistening with sweat, running through drills.

Johnie Cooks will be remembered as one Mississippi State’s greatest football legends. He died July 6, 2023, after a long illness. Credit: MSY athletics

“My God,” I remember thinking, “who is that?” As I wrote that day, “Cooks has more muscles in his neck than most humans have in their arms.” He was a sculpted 6 feet, 3 inches tall and weighed 240 pounds, slim in the waist, huge through his chest and shoulders. His trapezoid muscles, the ones between his neck and shoulders, were insanely huge and seemed to ripple as he ran. He was as fast as the fastest running backs and cornerbacks.

Some plays you never forget: This was October of 1980, Orange Bowl Stadium, Miami. State was playing the mighty Miami Hurricanes, quarterbacked by future first ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Kelly. The game was tied, and Miami had the ball. Kelly went back to pass. Defensive ends Tyrone Keys and Billy Jackson hit Kelly from either side just as he threw. The ball fluttered down the field until Cooks snatched it, and headed for the end zone, knees pumping high. Two Miami players hit him en route, but Cooks did not so much as acknowledge them. He shrugged them off like pesky gnats and never broke stride. His pick-six gave the Bulldogs the lead in a game they would win 34-31.

Rick Cleveland

Some games you never forget: 1980, Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium, Alabama vs. Mississippi State. No. 1 ranked Bama, coached by Bear Bryant, hadn’t lost in forever, certainly not to Mississippi State, and was a 20-point favorite. Cooks, from his middle linebacker position in State’s 4-3 defense, was everywhere that day. He made 20 tackles and at one point in State’s landmark 6-3 victory, Cooks challenged the Bear himself. Bama had called timeout on a fourth and one situation. Cooks took a few steps toward the Bama sideline and shouted, “You got to go for it. You know you got to go for it. You are Bear Bryant, you know you got to go for it.” 

And this one from 1981, also at The Vet: Southern Miss vs. State, both nationally ranked. Emory Bellard, the State coach, called it “a hoss and and a hoss.” The next week, Southern Miss would put up 58 points on Bobby Bowden and Florida State. Not this day. Southern Miss, with the remarkable Reggie Collier at quarterback, eked out a 7-6 victory in a game that was stopped intermittently as players from both teams were helped off the field after violent collisions, many involving Cooks. The great Orley Hood dubbed it, “The Limp Off Bowl.”  “Cook was a monster,” Collier told me years later. “What a great, great player. I’ve never been hit so hard in my life.”

All these memories flashed Thursday when I heard the news that Leland native Johnie Earl Cooks, age 64, had passed away following a long illness. Johnie and I ran into each other often over the years, and I know this to be true: A proud warrior on the field, he was kind, caring and funny off it. I always enjoyed his company. How could you not?

Glenn Collins, the Jackson native and superb defensive tackle who played six NFL seasons after his State days, knew Cooks better than most. “Johnie was such a tremendous linebacker but an even a better person and teammate,” Collins said. “He kept us all laughing all the time.”

Cooks will go down as one as the greatest players in Mississippi State football history, despite missing most of that 1979 season with a severe knee injury that required surgery. It was the first of many football afflictions that would take a terrible toll on Cooks in his later years. We will get to that.

Johnie Cooks

But first we should talk about all Cooks did achieve, which is to become a first team All American in his senior season at State, the second overall pick in the 1982 NFL Draft, a Super Bowl champion in 1991 with the New York Giants, and a Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer in 2004.

Prior to his 2004 induction Cooks talked about growing up poor – but very much loved – in the community of Long Switch, out from Leland in Washington County. He was the sixth of nine children. Entering the ninth grade, Cooks, bigger and faster than his classmates, decided he wanted to play football. One problem: A physical exam was required and the exam cost five dollars, which the Cooks family did not have have. Minnie Bell Cooks, his mother, improvised, as Johnie would explain: “My mom borrowed the five bucks from her bossman so I could play. Her only requirement was that I couldn’t quit.”

And Cooks didn’t quit until at age 33, in 1991, a series of injuries forced the issue. The cumulative effect of all those injuries took a much greater toll later in life. In 2008, Billy Watkins and I wrote a project for The Clarion Ledger about the myriad physical issues former Mississippi NFL football stars were facing later in life and how little the NFL was doing to help them.

Cooks’ was among the worst-case scenarios. At age 49, he was afflicted with arthritic knees, severe lower back issues, numbness in his legs and feet, the near total loss of vision in his left eye and several other lesser ailments. He said he couldn’t remember the last time he had slept through the night.

As the years have passed, those ailments worsened considerably, a sad reminder of the price many football warriors pay later in life for the glory of their younger years. Few pay a more painful debt than did Cooks from so many hits in four years of high school ball, four years at State and 10 in the NFL playing a position in which violent collisions are part of the job description. Again, few hit harder than Cooks, but in football the guy delivering the hit often suffers as much damage as the guy he hits.

Better, today, to remember the Johnie Earl Cooks of 1979, with a physique as chiseled as a Greek statue, a broad smile, a quick laugh, and with the speed to run down the fastest backs.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

1964: Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was formed

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April 26, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-04-26 07:00:00

by Jerry Mitchell, Mississippi Today
April 26, 2025

April 26, 1964

Aaron Henry testifies before the Credentials Committee at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

Civil rights activists started the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to challenge the state’s all-white regular delegation to the Democratic National Convention. 

The regulars had already adopted this resolution: “We oppose, condemn and deplore the Civil Rights Act of 1964 … We believe in separation of the races in all phases of our society. It is our belief that the separation of the races is necessary for the peace and tranquility of all the people of Mississippi, and the continuing good relationship which has existed over the years.” 

In reality, Black Mississippians had been victims of intimidation, harassment and violence for daring to try and vote as well as laws passed to disenfranchise them. As a result, by 1964, only 6% of Black Mississippians were permitted to vote. A year earlier, activists had run a mock election in which thousands of Black Mississippians showed they would vote if given an opportunity. 

In August 1964, the Freedom Party decided to challenge the all-white delegation, saying they had been illegally elected in a segregated process and had no intention of supporting President Lyndon B. Johnson in the November election. 

The prediction proved true, with white Mississippi Democrats overwhelmingly supporting Republican candidate Barry Goldwater, who opposed the Civil Rights Act. While the activists fell short of replacing the regulars, their courageous stand led to changes in both parties.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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Mississippi Today

Mississippi River flooding Vicksburg, expected to crest on Monday

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April 25, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – @alxrzr – 2025-04-25 16:04:00

by Alex Rozier, Mississippi Today
April 25, 2025

Warren County Emergency Management Director John Elfer said Friday floodwaters from the Mississippi River, which have reached homes in and around Vicksburg, will likely persist until early May. Elfer estimated there areabout 15 to 20 roads underwater in the area.

A truck sits in high water after the owner parked, then boated to his residence on Chickasaw Road in Vicksburg as a rising Mississippi River causes backwater flooding, Friday, April 25, 2025.

“We’re about half a foot (on the river gauge) from a major flood,” he said. “But we don’t think it’s going to be like in 2011, so we can kind of manage this.”

The National Weather projects the river to crest at 49.5 feet on Monday, making it the highest peak at the Vicksburg gauge since 2020. Elfer said some residents in north Vicksburg — including at the Ford Subdivision as well as near Chickasaw Road and Hutson Street — are having to take boats to get home, adding that those who live on the unprotected side of the levee are generally prepared for flooding.

A rising Mississippi River causing backwater flooding near Chickasaw Road in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.
Old tires aligned a backyard as a deterrent to rising water north of Vicksburg along U.S. 61, Friday, April 25, 2025.
As the Mississippi River rises, backwater flooding creeps towards a home located on Falk Steel Road in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.

“There are a few (inundated homes), but we’ve mitigated a lot of them,” he said. “Some of the structures have been torn down or raised. There are a few people that still live on the wet side of the levee, but they kind of know what to expect. So we’re not too concerned with that.”

The river first reached flood stage in the city — 43 feet — on April 14. State officials closed Highway 465, which connects the Eagle Lake community just north of Vicksburg to Highway 61, last Friday.

Flood waters along Kings Point Road in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.

Elfer said the areas impacted are mostly residential and he didn’t believe any businesses have been affected, emphasizing that downtown Vicksburg is still safe for visitors. He said Warren County has worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency to secure pumps and barriers.

“Everybody thus far has been very cooperative,” he said. “We continue to tell people stay out of the flood areas, don’t drive around barricades and don’t drive around road close signs. Not only is it illegal, it’s dangerous.”

NWS projects the river to stay at flood stage in Vicksburg until May 6. The river reached its record crest of 57.1 feet in 2011.

The boat launch area is closed and shored up on Levee Street in Vicksburg as the Mississippi River rises, Friday, April 25, 2025.
The boat launch area (right) is closed and under water on Levee Street in Vicksburg as the Mississippi River rises, Friday, April 25, 2025.
City of Vicksburg workers shore up the bank along Levee Street as the Mississippi River rises, Friday, April 25, 2025.
The old pedestrian bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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Mississippi Today

With domestic violence law, victims ‘will be a number with a purpose,’ mother says

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April 25, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-04-25 15:07:00

by Mina Corpuz, Mississippi Today
April 25, 2025

Joslin Napier. Carlos Collins. Bailey Mae Reed. 

They are among Mississippi domestic violence homicide victims whose family members carried their photos as the governor signed a bill that will establish a board to study such deaths and how to prevent them. 

Tara Gandy, who lost her daughter Napier in Waynesboro in 2022, said it’s a moment she plans to tell her 5-year-old grandson about when he is old enough. Napier’s presence, in spirit, at the bill signing can be another way for her grandson to feel proud of his mother. 

“(The board) will allow for my daughter and those who have already lost their lives to domestic violence … to no longer be just a number,” Gandy said. “They will be a number with a purpose.” 

Family members at the April 15 private bill signing included Ashla Hudson, whose son Collins, died last year in Jackson. Grandparents Mary and Charles Reed and brother Colby Kernell attended the event in honor of Bailey Mae Reed, who died in Oxford in 2023. 

Joining them were staff and board members from the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the statewide group that supports shelters and advocated for the passage of Senate Bill 2886 to form a Domestic Violence Facility Review Board. 

The law will go into effect July 1, and the coalition hopes to partner with elected officials who will make recommendations for members to serve on the board. The coalition wants to see appointees who have frontline experience with domestic violence survivors, said Luis Montgomery, public policy specialist for the coalition. 

A spokesperson from Gov. Tate Reeves’ office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Establishment of the board would make Mississippi the 45th state to review domestic violence fatalities. 

Montgomery has worked on passing a review board bill since December 2023. After an unsuccessful effort in 2024, the coalition worked to build support and educate people about the need for such a board. 

In the recent legislative session, there were House and Senate versions of the bill that unanimously passed their respective chambers. Authors of the bills are from both political parties. 

The review board is tasked with reviewing a variety of documents to learn about the lead up and circumstances in which people died in domestic violence-related fatalities, near fatalities and suicides – records that can include police records, court documents, medical records and more. 

From each review, trends will emerge and that information can be used for the board to make recommendations to lawmakers about how to prevent domestic violence deaths. 

“This is coming at a really great time because we can really get proactive,” Montgomery said. 

Without a board and data collection, advocates say it is difficult to know how many people have died or been injured in domestic-violence related incidents.

A Mississippi Today analysis found at least 300 people, including victims, abusers and collateral victims, died from domestic violence between 2020 and 2024. That analysis came from reviewing local news stories, the Gun Violence Archive, the National Gun Violence Memorial, law enforcement reports and court documents. 

Some recent cases the board could review are the deaths of Collins, Napier and Reed. 

In court records, prosecutors wrote that Napier, 24, faced increased violence after ending a relationship with Chance Fabian Jones. She took action, including purchasing a firearm and filing for a protective order against Jones.

Jones’s trial is set for May 12 in Wayne County. His indictment for capital murder came on the first anniversary of her death, according to court records. 

Collins, 25, worked as a nurse and was from Yazoo City. His ex-boyfriend Marcus Johnson has been indicted for capital murder and shooting into Collins’ apartment. Family members say Collins had filed several restraining orders against Johnson. 

Johnson was denied bond and remains in jail. His trial is scheduled for July 28 in Hinds County.  

He was a Jackson police officer for eight months in 2013. Johnson was separated from the department pending disciplinary action leading up to immediate termination, but he resigned before he was fired, Jackson police confirmed to local media. 

Reed, 21, was born and raised in Michigan and moved to Water Valley to live with her grandparents and help care for her cousin, according to her obituary. 

Kylan Jacques Phillips was charged with first degree murder for beating Reed, according to court records. In February, the court ordered him to undergo a mental evaluation to determine if he is competent to stand trial, according to court documents. 

At the bill signing, Gandy said it was bittersweet and an honor to meet the families of other domestic violence homicide victims.

“We were there knowing we are not alone, we can travel this road together and hopefully find ways to prevent and bring more awareness about domestic violence,” she said.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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