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What became of Ole Miss All American punter Bill Smith? So glad you asked.

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What became of Ole Miss All American punter Bill Smith? So glad you asked.
Bill Smith once kicked an SEC record 92-yard punt for . Credit: Ole Miss athletics

Ruggedly handsome Bill Smith weighed 230 pounds and bench pressed 440 when he punted for Ole Miss in the mid-1980s. Punters aren’t often known for muscle, but Smith, a two-time All American, was one of the strongest Rebels.

Indeed, he was a college punter with the physique of an NFL linebacker. โ€œBill Smith was built like a Greek god. He might have been the strongest player on the team,โ€ says Tim Bell, a student at the time.

In 1985, Smith, strictly a punter, was voted Ole Miss football MVP. How many times does that happen? A punter? MVP? And yet Smith, who came to Ole Miss from Little Rock, Ark, never kicked a single punt in the NFL.

When author Neil White and I were researching โ€œThe Mississippi Football Book,โ€ Smith’s numbers jumped off the pages at us. He still holds the Southeastern Conference record for longest punt at 92 yards. He holds the NCAA record for most consecutive games with a punt of more than 50 yards at 32. In pregame warmups, he once booted a punt from the goal line at one end of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium that hit an Arkansas player in the helmet at the other end of the field, 98 yards away. How in the world, White and I asked one another, did a punter of such astonishing ability not make a living in pro football? Has to be a story there, we surmised.

Rick Cleveland

We surmised correctly. Pour yourself another cup of coffee. You will not believe where this story is headed.

Smith suffered a foot injury in training camp with the Green Bay Packers in 1987. The Pack cut him, and he signed on with the Tampa Bay Bucs. They cut him, too. His agent, a young Jimmy Sexton, just getting started in the business, lined up another tryout with the New England Patriots.

Smith declined. โ€œI was tired of football,โ€ he says all these years later. โ€œI was ready to get on with the real world.โ€

As it turns out, Smith’s real world was about to turn surreal.

Smith, you see, had taken a job with Union Pacific Railroad in Dallas. Smith was running several miles a day at the time and working out in the gym. He lost 30 pounds, down to 200. His face became more lean and chiseled. His high cheekbones became more defined. And, as Smith put it, โ€œMy abs had abs.โ€

He was walking through the St. Louis airport when a man, who turned out to be a Los Angeles fashion photographer, stopped him and asked if he had ever thought about modeling. โ€œYou’ve got the look,โ€ the guy said. โ€œYou ought to think about it.โ€

Another guy approached him in his Dallas gym asking if he had ever modeled. That guy knew a modeling agent and urged Smith to give the agent a call.

โ€œWhat the heck,โ€ Smith thought, and he called and set up a meeting. Long story short: The agent signed him on the spot.

That led to a to New York where Wilhelmina, one of the world’s most prominent modeling agencies, wanted to hire him full-time. Smith wasn’t so sure about that. He had a good job with the railroad. He was comfortable. But he did bring it up to his railroad boss, who told him, โ€œYou’ll always have a job here, but this seems to good to pass up. You’ve got give it a shot.โ€

Smith did. And the work โ€“ and the money โ€“ began to pour in.

โ€œI spent my time shuttling back and forth between New York and Milan, and from Milan, I got work all over Europe,โ€ Smith said. โ€œI was doing runway modeling in New York and across Europe.โ€

Ole Miss punter Bill Smith, left, became an international model. Credit: Courtesy, Bill Smith

He modeled ‘s clothing. He posed for magazine covers for Men’s Health and Men’s Journal. He did photo shoots for cologne, for men’s suits, blue jeans, and lots of other apparel for men.

โ€œI remember the first time I was walking down the street and saw myself in a big advertisement on the side of a bus. That stopped me dead in my tracks. Man, that was wild,โ€ Smith said.

But that’s not the wildest.

At one point, his agency hooked him up with Harlequin, the publishing company that specializes in romance novels written primarily for women. Smith became the de factor cover boy for Harlequin.

โ€œI posed for over 400 Harlequin book covers,โ€ Smith said. โ€œWould have been more but all those were done in New York and I was spending so much time in Europe.โ€

An illustrator would up with an idea for the cover. Smith, usually bare-chested, and a female model would then pose for photos, and, finally, an artist would do a cover illustration from the photos.

Bill Smith was the male model for more than 400 Harlequin romance novels. Credit: Courtesy, Bill Smith

In 2001, tired of living out of suitcases and constantly jetting across oceans and continents, Smith retired from modeling and planned on moving back to Dallas. But then he his sister in Denver, fell in love with the Rocky Mountains and moved there. He found a good job in mortgage lending, met his future wife and they have raised a son.

Bill Smith, at 58.

At 58, Smith, an Ole Miss M Club Hall of Famer, remains a diehard Rebel fan, watches all the Rebels games on TV and returns to Oxford for football weekends at least once.a season. He remains a workout junkie, often biking 50 miles at a time. He said he feels like he is 58 going on 30.

โ€œI would say I have lived an interesting ,โ€ Smith said, making it clear he can’t wait to the rest of it.

Which did he enjoy most: football or modeling?

โ€œHard to choose one over the other,โ€ he answered. โ€œI just feel so blessed to have done both.โ€

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

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Mississippi Today

Mississippi Todayโ€™s NewsMatch Campaign is Here: Support Journalism that Strengthens Mississippi

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mississippitoday.org – Mary Margaret White – 2024-11-01 12:34:00

High-quality journalism like ours depends on reader support; without it, we simply couldn’t exist. That’s why we’re proud to join the NewsMatch movement, a national initiative aimed at raising $50 million for nonprofit newsrooms that serve communities like ours here in Mississippi, where access to reliable information has often been limited.

In a time when trusted journalists and media sources are disappearing, we believe the stakes couldn’t be higher. Without on-the-ground, trustworthy reporting, civic engagement suffers, accountability falters and corruption often goes unaddressed. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Here at we act as watchdogs, holding those in power accountable, and as storytellers, giving a platform to voices that have been ignored for too long. And we’re committed to keeping our stories for everyone because information should be accessible when it’s needed most.

Why NewsMatch and Why Now?

This year’s NewsMatch campaign runs from November 1 through December 31, giving us a special opportunity to make each dollar you give go even further. Through matching funds provided by local foundations like the Maddox Foundation, and national funders like the MacArthur Foundation, the Rural Partner Fund and the Hewlett Foundation, your gift will be dollar for dollar up to $1,000. Plus, if 100 new donors join us, we’ll unlock an additional $2,000 in , bringing us even closer to our goal. Boiled down: your donation goes four times as far.

Every dollar raised strengthens our ability to serve you with fact-based journalism on issues that impact your everyday โ€”whether it’s covering local election issues or reporting on decisions affecting schools, safety and economic growth in Mississippi. Your support makes it possible for us to stay rooted in the community, offering nuanced perspectives that help Mississippians understand and engage with what’s happening around them.

Special Event: โ€œFreedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impactโ€

As part of the campaign, we’re to host a special virtual , โ€œ of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impact.โ€ Join Deep South Today newsrooms Mississippi Today and Verite News, along with national experts on press freedom, for an in-depth discussion on the unique challenges facing journalists in the Deep South. This one-hour session will explore the critical role local newsrooms play in holding power accountable, highlighting recent restrictions on press freedom such as Louisiana’s โ€œ25-foot law,โ€ which affects journalists’ ability to vital news.

We’ll examine what’s at stake if local newsrooms lose press freedoms and will discuss how you, as members of the public, can help protect it. This event is open to Mississippi Today and Verite News members as a special thank-you for supporting local journalism and standing with us in this mission. Donate today to RSVP!

How You Can Help

Make Your Gift Today

Together, let’s ensure Mississippi has the robust, independent journalism it needs to thrive. Your support fuels our ability to expose the truth, elevate marginalized stories and build a more informed Mississippi.

Thank you for believing in the power of journalism to strengthen the communities we loveโ€”not only during election season but year-round. With your help, we’ll keep Mississippi informed, engaged and connected for generations to .

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

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Mississippi Today

Hinds County loses fight over control of jail

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mississippitoday.org – Mina Corpuz – 2024-11-01 12:57:00

The sheriff and Board of Supervisors have lost an appeal to prevent control of its jail by a court-appointed receiver and an injunction that orders the county to address unconstitutional conditions in the facility.   

Two members from a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with decisions by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves to appoint a receiver to oversee day-to-day jail operations and keep parts of a previous consent decree in place to fix constitutional violations, a failure to protect detainees from harm. 

However, the appeals court called the new injunction โ€œoverly broadโ€ in one area and is asking Reeves to reevaluate the scope of the receivership.

The injunction retained provisions relating to sexual assault, but the appeals court found the provisions were tied to general risk of violence at the jail, rather than specific concerns about the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The court reversed those points of the injunction and remanded them to the district court so the provisions can be

The court also found that the receiver should not have authority over budgeting and staff salaries for the Raymond Detention Center, which could be seen as โ€œfederal intrusion into RDC’s budgetโ€ โ€“ especially if the receivership has no end date. 

Hinds County Board of Supervisors President Robert Graham was not immediately available for comment Friday. Sheriff Tyree Jones declined to comment because he has not yet read the entire court opinion.ย 

In 2016, the Department of Justice sued Hinds County alleging a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conditions in four of its detention facilities. The county and DOJ entered a consent decree with stipulated changes to make for the jail system, which people facing trial. 

โ€œBut the decree did not resolve the dispute; to the contrary, a yearslong battle ensued in the district court as to whether and to what extent the County was complying with the consent decree,โ€ the appeals court wrote.  

This prompted Reeves to hold the county in contempt of court twice in 2022. 

The county argued it was doing its best to comply with the consent decree and spending millions to fix the jail. One of the they offered was building a new jail, which is now under construction in

The county had a to further prove itself during three weeks of hearings held in February 2022. Focuses included the of seven detainees in 2021 from assaults and suicide and issues with staffing, contraband, old and use of force. 

Seeing partial compliance by the county, in April 2022 Reeves dismissed the consent decree and issued a new, shorter injunction focused on the jail and removed some provisions from the decree.

But Reeves didn’t see improvement from there. In July 2022, he ordered receivership and wrote that it was needed because of an ongoing risk of unconstitutional harm to jail detainees and staff. 

The county pushed back against federal oversight and filed an appeal, arguing that there isn’t sufficient evidence to show that there are current and ongoing constitutional violations at the jail and that the county has acted with deliberate indifference. 

Days before the appointed receiver was set to take control of the jail at the beginning of 2023, the 5th Circuit Court ordered a stay to halt that receiver’s work. The new injunction ordered by Reeves was also stayed, and a three-person jail monitoring team that had been in place for years also was ordered to stop work. 

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

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2 out of 5 child care teachers make so little they need public assistance tosupport their families

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mississippitoday.org – Jackie Mader, The Hechinger – 2024-11-01 08:49:00

This story about child care wages was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit,
independent organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger’s early childhood newsletter.

Caring for during their first few years is a complex and critical job: A child’s
brain develops more in the first five years than at any other point in . Yet in America,
individuals engaged in this crucial role are paid less than animal caretakers and
dressing room attendants.

That’s a major finding of one of two new reports on the dismal treatment of child care
workers. Together, the reports offer a distressing picture of how child care staff are
faring economically, the troubling changes low wages have caused to the
workforce.

Early childhood workers nationally earn a median wage of $13.07 per hour, resulting in
poverty-level earnings for 13 percent of such educators, according to the first report, the
Early Childhood Workforce Index 2024. Released earlier this month by the Center for
the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California, Berkeley, the annual
report also found:

? 43 percent of families of early educators rely on public assistance like
food stamps and Medicaid.

? Pay inequity exists within these low wages: Black early childhood
educators earn about $8,000 less per year than their white peers. The
same pay gap exists between early educators who work with infants and
toddlers and those who work with preschoolers, who have more
opportunities to work in school districts that pay higher wages.

? Wages for early educators are rising more slowly than wages in other
industries, including fast food and retail.

In part due to these conditions, the industry is losing some of its highest-educated
workers, according to a second new report, by Chris M. Herbst, a professor at Arizona
University’s School of Public Affairs. That study compares the pay of child care
workers with that of workers in other lower-income professions, including cooks and
retail workers; it finds child care workers are the tenth lowest-paid occupation out of
around 750 in the . The report also looks at the โ€˜relative quality’ of child care
staff, as defined by math and literacy scores and education level. Higher-educated
workers, Herbst suggests, are being siphoned off by higher-paying .

That’s led to a โ€œbit of a spiralโ€ in terms of how child care work is perceived, and
contributes to the persistent low wages, he said in an interview. Some additional
findings from Herbst’s study:

? Higher-educated women increasingly find employment in the child care
industry to be less attractive. The share of workers in the child care
industry with a bachelor’s degree barely budged over the past few
decades, increasing by only 0.3 percent. In contrast, the share of those in
the industry who have 12 years of schooling but no high school degree,
quadrupled.

? Median numeracy and literacy scores for female child care workers
(who are the majority of the industry staff) fall at the 35 th and 36 th
percentiles respectively, to all female workers. Improving these
scores is important, Herbst says, considering the importance of education
in the early years, when children experience rapid brain development.

This doesn’t mean child care staff with lower education levels can’t be good early
educators. Patience, communication skills and a commitment to working with young
children also matter greatly, Herbst writes. However, higher education levels may mean
staff have a stronger background not only in English and math but also in topics like
behavior modification and special education, which are sometimes left out of
certification programs for child care teachers.

You can read Herbst’s full report here, and the 2024 workforce index here.

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

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