Roy Cochran: a Mississippi Olympic story

I've covered nearly 30 Super Bowls, more Masters than I can count, a couple U.S. Opens, a World Series and several national championship games.

But I covered the Olympics only once — in Atlanta, in 1996. It was an experience not to be forgotten, including the bomb that went off in Centennial Park one night just before our deadline.

There was no shortage of Mississippi stories to write. Ruthie Bolton, from the tiny Greene County town of McLain, was the heart and soul of a gold medal-winning U.S. women's basketball team. Angel Martino, who then lived in Hattiesburg, was gold-medal winning captain of the U.S. Women's Swim team. Ron Polk helped coach the bronze medal-winning U.S. baseball team.

And then there was the day I met Janice Cochran-Pendleton, a woman from Kansas whose roots went back to tiny Richton, Mississippi, near McLain.

Turns out Janice Cochran-Pendleton was the daughter of Leroy Braxton “Roy”Cochran, of Richton, who had won two gold medals in the 1948 Olympic Games at London. Boy, did Janice have a story to tell....

Proctor Brought High School Sports Into the 21st Century

Ennis Proctor began his career as a coach and ended it as an administrator to whom high school athletes and coaches across Mississippi owe boundless gratitude.

Simply put, Proctor brought Mississippi high school sports into the 21st century after inheriting an organization that languished in something very much like the 19th century.

When Proctor took over as the executive director of the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) in 1991, the state's public schools offered only nine sanctioned sports. Worse, the MHSAA had less than $100,000 in the bank and one telephone line in the office. The MHSAA didn't even have a fax machine. Relations between the governing body of Mississippi high school sports and the media covering it bordered on non-existent.

Now then, look at what Proctor left behind when he retired in 2011: 24 sanctioned sports (an addition of 15); a bank account of more than $2 million; an office with multiple phone lines, fax machines and computers; televised championships; and the respect of coaches, administrators and media statewide.

"Ennis Proctor has done more for the improvement and promotion of high school sports than anyone I know in Mississippi or anywhere else," says his successor, Don Hinton. "His accomplishments are truly legendary and are not just recognized in Mississippi but all over the country."

Bulldogs' Malone Could Score With the Best of Them

It's a relatively new term basketball coaches use these days when they say a player "can score the ball." It means that a player can find different ways to get the ball in the hoop.

Well, brothers and sisters, Jeff Malone could ever more score the basketball, even before there was such a phrasing. He could score it from long range, from mid-range and by taking it straight to the hoop. He could score coming off a screen or by pulling up and shooting over the defender.

He became Mississippi State's all-time leading scorer before going on to score more than 17,000 points over a 13-year professional basketball career.

Malone's first year at Mississippi State (1979-80) coincided with my first year of covering State for The Clarion-Ledger. Not before – or since — have I seen a smoother, more technically correct jump shot. Malone, a strongly built, 6-foot, 4-inch shooting guard, would elevate and then put up a shot that so soft that it seemed it almost had to go through the bucket.

Naismith Hall of Famer Bailey Howell, generally recognized as Mississippi's most accomplished basketball player, was an MSU season ticket holder when Malone played for the Bulldogs

Hall Won Sudden Death Playoff with Death Itself

Lots of golfers can say they won a sudden death playoff. But, how many can say they won a sudden death playoff with death itself?

Sam Hall, one of tonight’s Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame inductees, can.

This was in 1995 when the then-61-year-old Hall already had won more than 300 amateur golf tournaments. Hall suffered a heart attack – and that was just for starters. Complications from an aneurysm in his abdomen led to gangrene in his feet. Doctors lopped off four of his toes and approximately a third of his right foot.

He was hospitalized for nearly three months, bedridden for most of five. He lost 37 pounds.

Jerry Weeks, now the Southern Miss golf coach, then the Hattiesburg Country Club pro, remembers visiting a gaunt and much-in-pain Hall in the hospital. "I thought he was going to die," Weeks says.

"There were some times we didn't know," Stan Hall, Sam's son, says."The outlook wasn't all that great."

"I think now that I might have been the only one around who didn't believe I was going to die," Hall says. "Dying never entered my mind."

Rebels' Crawford: A Jack of all Trade

We live in a sports era of specialization. Young athletes choose a sport - or parents choose it for them - at an early age and stick with that sport at the expense of all others.

Gone are the days of the three-sport letterman at the collegiate level. Rarely, do we find one who even plays two.

Gone are the days of athletes as versatile as Eddie Crawford, who not only lettered but starred in three sports at Ole Miss. Crawford belongs in the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame for any number of reasons, not the least of which was his amazing versatility.

Crawford starred as a halfback and defensive back for coach Johnny Vaught's 1954-56 football teams that won 26 games and played in both Sugar and Cotton Bowls. For four years, he was the Ole Miss center fielder in baseball, leading the SEC in home runs and making All-Conference as a senior. In 1954-55, he was a standout for the Ole Miss basketball team and also competed in sprint events for the Rebels track team. He turned down bonus money from the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team to return and play his senior season of football for Vaught, a story we'll get to later.

A typical February day for Crawford in 1955: Classes all morning, batting practice at noon, spring football practice at 2 and a basketball game or practice that night.

Blades Blazes Trail for Softball

Before Courtney Blades-Rogers became an All-American softball pitcher at Southern Miss, no pitcher in NCAA history had ever struck out as many as 500 batters in a single season.

As a senior in the spring 2000, Blades-Rogers, fanned 663.

She practically rewrote the NCAA softball record book, which is why Blades-Rogers tonight becomes the first softball player ever to be inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.

You could make a case that no athlete in Mississippi history has ever had a greater impact on one athletic program than Blades-Rogers had on USM softball. Back then, USM didn't even have a softball stadium, and yet the Lady Eagles advanced to the College World Series in both her junior and senior seasons.

The numbers sound like they are coming directly out of Ripley's Believe it or Not. After transferring from Nicholls (La.) State to USM for her junior season, she proceeded to strike out 497 batters, setting a new NCAA Division I season record, eclipsing Michelle Granger's previous mark of 484, set in 1993. Her 43 wins, 0.99 earned run average, 318.0 innings and 22 shutouts set all new school records. The victory total was the fourth best ever in the NCAA annals and led the nation that year.

She was just getting warmed up. She won 52 games, another NCAA record, as a senior, setting the career strikeout record in the process. She pitched two perfect games that season, including a 1-0 victory over the No. 2 ranked Arizona Wildcats, who led the nation in hitting that season. USM finished third in the College World Series, still the highest ever finish for a Mississippi softball team.

"I was very fortunate, but I also know that I worked very hard," Blades-Rogers says, when asked about her success at USM. "I really think that I had a great team behind me. Coach (Lu) Harris called the pitches so she made that easy for me. I still talk to each and every one of those players to this day.

We've Lost Three Great Ones

Tonight we celebrate Mississippi's rich sports history with the 50th annual Hall of Fame Induction Banquet, sponsored by BancorpSouth. We celebrate the present. We celebrate the past.

Sadly, we will remember the three Hall of Famers we have lost in the past 12 months: Roland Dale, Kent Hull and Bucky McElroy. I am proud to have called all three friends.

Roland Dale, a great player and top-notch assistant coach at Ole Miss, later became the athletic director at Southern Miss. He steered the Golden Eagles into the Metro Conference and hired these Hall of Fame coaches: M.K. Turk, Bobby Collins and Hill Denson. At USM, Roland always did a lot with a little. I knew him to be a kind and honest man, who could be tough when the situation called for toughness.

I first met Kent Hull when he was a 17-year-old, 195-pound freshman center at Mississippi State, elevated to a starter because of injuries. He took his licks early on but Emory Bellard was right when he said, "Kent Hull is going to be a great one." I later covered Kent in four different Super Bowls. He never changed. He was always kind, always honest, always humble — a true gentleman. This will tell you something: When Kent retired from the Buffalo Bills, the Buffalo area media threw a party for him. That might not have happened before or since where any professional athlete is concerned. But Kent was that kind of person. People gravitated to him; people loved him.

Bucky McElroy played at USM before my memory begins, but my daddy always talked about what a splendid player he was and I've seen the 16 mm film from those days when little Mississippi Southern defeated both Georgia and Alabama. Bucky was a big, fast back with the size and speed to play today. I did know Bucky later in life and attended his funeral last week in Monroe, La., where his rich life was celebrated by a church filled with friends and admirers. He was remembered for his philanthropy in Monroe, especially for the hungry and the homeless. A month ago, I received a letter in the mail from Bucky. He said he regretted that he could not attend this years induction ceremony for the first time but his health just wouldn't allow it. He enclosed a check for $1,000 to the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and said, "Rick, I know you can use this."

We certainly can. We induct six new members of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, but we also remember the three splendid Hall of Famers we have lost.