The great Sonny Jones remembered

This was September of 2004. Ole Miss was about to go play Wyoming in football. The better story, turns out, was at the Barnett Reservoir in the home of Walker "Sonny" Jones, a former Wyoming football star and an avid Ole Miss fan.

 

I went and spent a Wednesday morning with Sonny to learn how a kid from Philadelphia, Miss., became one of Wyoming's all-time football greats, then became the father and grandfather of two Ole Miss football stars. The coffee was good, the conversation better. I wish I had a recording.

Sonny, who died Friday at the age of 88, could ever more tell a story.

Here's part of the column:

The date was Nov. 5, 1949. Wyoming, playing on the road in Greeley, Col., led Northern Colorado 103 to 0 in the fourth quarter. Wyoming running star Walker "Sonny" Jones already had scored several touchdowns and had long since taken a seat on the sidelines.

Wet football? You ain't seen nothing...

 

The forecast for season openers at Oxford and Starkville calls for wind and a chance of thunderstorms. Dress appropriately. And remember, no matter, what Mother Nature does, it won't be the worst-ever playing conditions for a college football in Mississippi.

That probably happened in 1907 when Ole Miss and State traveled to Jackson for their annual grudge match. Back then, they played at the State Fairgrounds. In 1907, they played after several days of hard rain. Much of the field was under water. Newspaper reports say that in some areas of the
field, water was nearly knee deep.

State, then Mississippi A&M, won the game 15-0, and nobody drowned.

Some Ole Miss players, however, did get sloshed. Legend has it that Ole Miss
coach Frank Mason chose to provide an urn of coffee on the sideline to keep
his team warm. To make sure that his guys were good and warm, he spiked the
coffee with bourbon whiskey.

So you probably won't be surprised to learn that Mason coached only that one
season at Ole Miss - or that his team lost all six of its games, scoring six
points and allowing 195.

When asked afterward about his team's travel plans, Mason said he was
staying in Jackson but sending his team back to Oxford.

"And I hope I never see them again," coach Frank Mason said.

If that's not a Hall of Fame moment, I don't know what is.

Orley vs. Rick: Here's how we pick 'em

I'll never forget what my daddy told me when I first started picking games for a newspaper more than 40 years ago. "Son," he said. "You were better at picking your nose."

Ace, my dad, had a way with words. So does Orley Hood, already a sports writing legend before he went to the other side of the newsroom way back when. Can't tell you how many times I picked up Orley's column and said, "Dang, I wish I had written that."

"O" and I are going to have some fun picking the games this season. Hope you enjoy.

My picks

Mississippi State 45, Jackson State 7: State simply has more and better athletes. Bigger, faster, stronger. JSU will get a nice paycheck. This would have been a more interesting game in, say, the early 1970s when JSU was churning out NFL players the way the SEC does now.

Ole Miss 31, Central Arkansas 17: Should Central Arkansas win, it would not be as big an upset as Jacksonville State beating Ole Miss in 2010. I would expect the Rebels, playing their first game under a new coach, to be more ready for this one. Ole Miss needs to play well. This is not a sure thing.

Nebraska 24, Southern Miss 17: The betting line — 19.5 at last look — seems far out of line to me. Unless USM has a rash of turnovers I would expect this to be a close game in the fourth quarter. If USM gets good play at the QB position an upset is quite possible.

Orley's

Mississippi State 52, Jackson State 14: Rick's right. This would be more fun if Walter Payton and Robert Brazille were playing for the Tigers. Alas. The fear for JSU's coaches has to be a double-edged brain-blistering psychic bleed-out from playing against SEC athletes on the road with three hours of tens of thousands of cowbells ringing as background music. Hope the money's
worth it for JSU.

Ole Miss 24, Central Arkansas 10: But, hey, who knows? Four years ago could you have pictured such uncertainty confronting an Ole Miss team against a, uh, nobody? Last time I was in the stadium, Alabama's Trent Richardson scored four touchdowns in the time it takes to put mustard on a concession stand hotdog. I haven't gotten over it. Hope the Rebels have.

Southern Miss 24, Nebraska 20: OK. I know. New coach. New quarterback. Yada, yada, yada. Against Nebraska! Mighty Nebraska. Big Red. Yada. But I'd rather risk looking like a dope than pick a Big Ten team over Our People. Besides, you know Ellis Johnson's guys will play like their hair's on fire. Hope that never changes.

 

Here's how they'll finish....

These predictions come with with a caution: As hard as it is to believe, I have been wrong before. One year, long ago, I picked Mississippi State to win seven games. The Bulldogs won one and lost 10. As the season progressed and losses mounted, I received a phone call from the same Ole Miss fan every Sunday morning. "Well, the Bullies lost again and I just want to know," the wise guy would say, "was that one of the seven or one of the four."

That said, most times I have come within one or two games of the teams' actually records. Let's try again.

Mississippi State: I can guarantee you these Bulldogs won't go 1-10. They play 12 games. I'm guessing they eventually will play 13 because they'll win eight in the regular season and then go bowling. As I wrote yesterday, the Auburn game on Sept. 8, is huge. Win that one and the Bulldogs have a chance — a chance, mind you — to be 7-0 going into Alabama. The schedule is back end-loaded, however. After playing Middle Tennessee State on Oct. 20, the Bulldogs play Alabama, Texas A & M, LSU and Arkansas, before finishing with Ole Miss.

Ole Miss: If Hugh Freeze were to win four five games, he ought to be Coach of the year. If they Rebels win six, they should go ahead and commission a statue. Unfortunately, I think the Rebels are destined for 3-9. Freeze inherits a mess. This is going to take some time.

Southern Miss: If USM has success against the first half of its schedule, the Eagles could garner some national headlines. They open with Nebraska and also play Louisivlle, Boise State and UCF in a front-loaded schedule. So much depends on the quarterback position after four years of Austin Davis. It would be better to play that front end on the back end, after the new coaching staff has settled on a quarterback. As it stands, I've got USM at 8-4 and bowling.

Jackson State: Quarterback is also the key at JSU. The Tigers will badly need to win against Tennessee State Sept. 8 at Memphis after taking a licking Sept. 1 at Starkville. I've got the Tigers finishing 7-4.

Circle these games, dates

Mississippi football fans, circle these games:

• Auburn at Mississippi State, Sept. 8, 11 a.m. It's one of the biggest early season games in recent memory in Mississippi college football. You look at this State schedule, and the Bulldogs, with a victory over Auburn, would have a chance to take a 7-0 record into an Oct. 27 game at Alabama. A chance, mind you: Troy, on the road, is not a gimmee. Neither is Kentucky on the road or Tennessee at home. But State has a chance to make a national splash this year. The schedule sets up nicely for the Bulldogs.

• Central Arkansas at Ole Miss, Sept. 1. 6 p.m. There's no such thing as a gimmee for Hugh Freeze's first Ole Miss team. Can't remember a Mississippi coach inheriting such a problematic team or such a horrendous schedule. “But Central Arkansas?” you say. Central Arkansas was 9-3 last year and boasts a roster with several BCS transfers, including former Ole Miss receiver Jesse Grandy. Again, this Ole Miss can't look past anybody.
  
  
• USM at Nebraska Sept. 1, 2:30 p.m. Oddsmakers have Nebraska a three-touchdown favorite, in large part because the Golden Eagles break in a new quarterback after four years of the splendid Austin Davis. USM has won at Lincoln as a three-TD underdog before. Hard to see it happening this time, but I'd also be surprised if Nebraska wins in a rout.
  
  
• Jackson State at Texas Southern, Sept. 15 at Houston. The Tigers need to come out of their first two games (non-conference games at Mississippi State and against Tennessee State in Memphis) with a 1-1 record. Then comes Texas Southern in the SWAC opener. That one very well could determine the direction of this JSU team.

Tomorrow: A stab at predicting the records of State, USM, Ole Miss and Jackson State.

He could throw that speedball by you....

Seems like every class in every school has one. Bobby Myrick, who died Thursday in Hattiesburg, was ours. He was that guy who could do anything in sports. Just give him the ball and get out of the way.

A three-sport star, Bobby was voted most athletic of our very athletic Class of 1970 at Hattiesburg High School. He went on to pitch for Mississippi State, the original Jackson Mets and then in the Major Leagues for the New York Mets and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

What those Major Leaguers never knew is that they never saw the real Bobby Myrick. He hurt his arm at State and never really did throw as hard — or with as much pop, as they say — after that. But he was so gifted he was still in that tiny fraction of one percent that make the big leagues.

In Hattiesburg, we saw the real Bobby. I caught him as a kid. He was my claim to fame as an athlete. Really. Kids would come by the dugout to look at my left hand, red and swollen from his wicked fastballs. I caught Bobby by default. Most everyone else was scared to.

Remembering Superman (Hamilton)

The last time these eyes saw Taylorsville native Billy Hamilton, he was playing basketball, not baseball, and he was stealing balls, not bases. This was Feb. 24, 2009, at Mississippi Coliseum.

The headline on my next day's column read: "Sometimes even Superman loses."

Billy Hamilton was Superman that day. Apparently, he still is.

Surely, you've seen the news about how Hamilton, playing for the Class AA Pensacola Blue Wahoos, has broken Vince Coleman's record and become the all-time single season stolen base king of professional baseball. He had stolen 147 going into Wednesday night's game. If the Cincinnati Reds don't call him up before then, he will put that speed on display at Trustmark Park beginning Friday night when the Wahoos come to Pearl for a five-game series.

Hamilton, you will remember, was all-state in three sports at Taylorsville. He might have been the state's best player in three sports. He certainly was the quickest and the fastest.

Here's one passage from that column of of three years ago: "In what sadly might have been the last basketball game he will ever play, Taylorsville's Billy Hamilton did everything Tuesday - everything, that is, except win. Hamilton, as quick and fast as any hoops player these eyes have seen, scored 39 points, passed out nine assists, grabbed six rebounds and had a personal hand in 59 of his team's 70 points. Coahoma County nevertheless managed a 74-70 victory over Taylorsville in the opening round of the State Class 2ATournament."