Latest / Johnny's World / Episode 35-Rick Cleveland

Transcript

Episode 35-Rick Cleveland · Johnny's World

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Coming to you live from the Johnny Packer Eyewear Studios in fabulous Dark Vegas, Mississippi.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Please welcome our co-host, the best iDoc this side of the Mississippi, BW.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And now, welcome a true hero, a CF Warrior, whose favorite motto in life is just keep living.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Here's Johnny.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: All right, welcome to a brand new edition of the Johnny's World Podcast.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: Johnny here with BW.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: How you doing today, BW?
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm doing great.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: How about yourself?
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: I'm good.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: Uh man, it's good to get back in the saddle.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: We we talked uh talked earlier that me and you hadn't done an interview together since like November.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: So I know good to get back together and have a have a two-person deal and get to interview great guests.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: So happy to be back.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: And uh how's everything going up in the in the Memphis area?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's good.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: I always I always tell people I don't like the cold weather, so I tend to hibernate in the wintertime and I get pretty busy at work around the holidays and stuff like that.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: And between the cold weather and everything, I'm just like just wait till the spring comes.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: So we had six inches of snow up here Friday night and uh got up to 35 degrees on um on Saturday and melted most of it, and then it's all gone yesterday, and we're back up to 65 today.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: So kind of crazy weather.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: It is crazy.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: I went to the Mississippi State baseball game uh Friday night, and you know it was 60 65 degrees, and and then lo and behold, by midnight it was uh snowing and woke up to snow the next morning and then it and then it and then it uh the sun dried it all out and it got it was still cold, but it's crazy.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: Mississippi, you never know when the spring comes, what what uh season he might have.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: But I am glad it's baseball season.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh it's good to kind of get back in the swing of that, even though things aren't going exactly how we planned them to this year, but that's all right.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, hey, we got a national championship.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: Always be happy about that.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, uh when when all you listeners out there are state fans like us, when you're getting down on the Bulldogs and baseball, just remember that.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: So hey, we're still a national champs until next year.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: But uh yeah, it's been uh it's gonna be a challenging year to say the least, but um, I'm just I'm just ready for the like you said, to get warm up and get back out to to the dude.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: That'll be fine.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: But uh uh what what about uh uh coffee?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_02: How's everything going with that?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: Let it be.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: Speaking of warm, good segue.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yes, how about coffee?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: So we we've got the uh the Johnny Packer coffee.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, I guess it's been out what six weeks now, something like that.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: And uh we've had a lot of it's it's been real popular.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: We've we sold quite a few bags, and uh some of those folks probably got their bags about to run out um of their first bag.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: So if you like it, be sure to get back on there and order you some more.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I need to add a feature where you can do subscriptions so that when you run out, you just automatically get get more coming.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um but we've got several different varieties, and just like our our sunglasses and and Johnny Packer glasses, they're all named after Mississippi towns.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: We got the Noxapater half calf and the the Starkle grind and the Hub City Roast, and um they all have different flavors, come from different places.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: But the really cool thing about it is that when you order it, it's roasted at our facility that same week.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so if you order on a Monday, it's probably gonna get roasted on a Wednesday and then it's gonna get put in the mail and you'll have it by the the early the next week.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's it's really fresh, and um, you can get it whole bean or ground, and it tastes amazing.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's really, really good coffee.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I would encourage anybody to go on there and order.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: And when you do order, um, a percentage of the sales is still gonna go to the CF Foundation, but we also have a little feature on there where it's you can round up if you'd like to as well, so you can donate a little bit more, um, you know, an extra 20 cents or something like that.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: And um, all that makes a big difference because it it when you do that, it actually goes directly to the CF Foundation, which is nice.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: And um, the rest of it um goes to us.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: We call it Johnny Packer Corp.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: And then we'll we'll make a donation and um you know write a check kind of quarterly to the CF Foundation after that.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: So get it on there, johnnypacker.com and check it out.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, what's been the uh what's been the top seller that you've noticed?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_02: What's everybody buying?
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: The uh the Starkville one has probably been the the top one, and then um the uh the dark roast, the the Octibaha County Mud has been a good one too.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: Well, uh well and and also if you're out there listening, you're wondering, you got on the website and say where the glasses go, and you hadn't listened to our previous podcast about the coffee.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um you can still, am I right?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_02: You still have some in in your office in Cornville?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: And then they're and then they're they're at Mississippi Iowa and Start on uh on Main Street.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: So you can still drop by those two places if you if you still want uh glasses and sunglasses with it getting spring and sunny outside.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um and uh so you can still get that but on the website, uh get you some coffee.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_02: And so uh that's the best part about it is that it's going to CF, but it automatically uh takes it out, and then you can, like you said, give a little bit more if you feel inclined to.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: So good things happening over there at jonypacker.com.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: So encourage everyone to go go check it out.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, sir.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: You want to introduce our guests?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we got a great guest, you know.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: Uh as you said earlier, uh after naming the glasses and the and the coffee after Mississippi Towns, we kind of got that Mississippi connection.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: We're we're both Mississippians, and we've had a lot of people uh guests on our show who are well-known Mississippians, and and today we have another one that that's well known throughout the state.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: And uh a lot of people will recognize him and and know him from his time at at the Clarion Ledger and being a sports writer, and now he's the sports editor for uh Mississippi Today.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_02: So uh so Rick Cleveland, welcome to the show.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much for joining us, Rick.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: Good to be here.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Rick, tell us a little bit about uh what you're doing now.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: I I know you said you're the sports editor at Mississippi Today, but for those who's listening and want to read your stuff, how how do they find that out or tell us a little bit about that?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they find it on it's uh mississippytoday.org and um that's mississippytoday.org.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, you know, we got a lot of inflation going on, but but Mississippi Today is free.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_03: It's uh it's uh I write two or three times a week for them and have a podcast on there.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_03: And uh welcome everybody to come give it a try.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_03: Awesome.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: And what's the name of the podcast?
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: Is that just on the you can go to the website and see that as well?
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the the name of the podcast is the uh crooked letter sports podcast, and it's actually me and my my son and I do it.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_03: We've been uh we do it weekly, and I guess we've done uh about 40 of them now.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's funny because I I grew up uh reading your columns in the Clarion Ledger, and you know that you were probably one of the only real things I would read as a teenage, teenage boy in Mississippi.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and so I I remember seeing you know your your face, the little picture there on there, and but I never actually heard your voice until just now.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's kind of an interesting moment to to hear that.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_03: Well, um yeah, I've I've you know I've done a whole bunch of people's podcasts, and I've always uh Mississippi today's been wanting me to do one for a long time, but but uh I put it off, put it off, and then I said, Well, look, can I do it with my son?
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_03: And they said sure.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_03: And so I I'm I'm doing it now, and uh it's a lot of fun.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_03: Of course, anytime you do something with your son, it's fun.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_03: Definitely.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: So is uh is your son into the writing as well, like you are, or how how did he get involved with that?
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, he is he works for scorebook live, uh, which is uh um it covers high school sports in Mississippi.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um well it covers in every state in the country, but he's the editor for uh for the Mississippi website.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_03: It's uh scorebooklive.com.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_03: And what they're trying to do is fill the void that was left.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, when I was at the Claren Ledger, we used to at one point we had five five high school writers, a high school editor, and then a you know, a crew of about 25 college and high school kids who came in on Fridays and Saturday nights that helped us, you know, kind of be the high school Bible for for high school sports bible for Mississippi.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_03: And and you know, it's just that's changed so much and it's it's left kind of a void, and and uh that's what Tyler, my son's name's Tyler, and Tyler and Scorebook Life are are attempting to fill fill that void.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_03: I encourage anybody to check it out if you um like this past uh this past week during the state high school basketball tournament.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_03: I think I think Tyler covered all 36 games.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, uh he had basketballs bouncing in his dreams, I think.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: So did he grow up uh just watching you writing and everything and decided he wanted to follow in your footsteps, or what what led him to that?
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you know, that's the way it was with my dad.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_03: My dad was uh when I was uh when I was one year old, he was the sports editor of the Jackson Daily News.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_03: And uh and then our house became then he moved, he he moved to uh become the um PR director at uh the University of Southern Mississippi.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_03: And so I was around sports writers all the time.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_03: He ran the ran the press box at the football games and you know and all the sporting events, and so I grew up with sports writers coming to our house and everything, and I it just seemed like a hell of a good way to make a living to me.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_03: Uh of course my daddy said you make a whole lot more money doing something else, and he would he was right about that.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_03: And I told my son the same thing, and but but uh uh you know I didn't have any better luck talking him out of it than than my daddy did talking me out of it, and I got no complaints, you know.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_03: I'm I've been comfortable and I've I've enjoyed, I've been doing this uh I'm 69.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_03: I turned, I started writing for the Hattiesburg American when I was 13.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_03: So I've been doing it for 56 years now.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_03: Wow, and uh, you know, people ask me if you you ever get tired of going to games, and you know, I really don't.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_03: It's um every game is a different, you know, it's a different animal.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_03: Every every game is different.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_03: And um I don't ever get tired of going to the ballpark or the football stadium or the gym or the golf course or any of it.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_03: I I just enjoy it.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: Well, well, Rick, uh talking about all these years covered, I have to ask you what just tell us some of your fondest memories or what's what's been some of their favorite events or sports that you've covered or uh throughout your time.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: Do you have any to stand out?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I've got several that stand out.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, I know I know you're uh Mississippi State fan, the the 1980 Mississippi State Alabama game when Bear Bryan had the really, really unbelievable um SEC winning streak and and a big winning streak over Mississippi State.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_03: And and they were ranked number one and they were 20-point favorites at Memorial Stadium and uh state won six to three, and that's that's certainly uh would be real close to the top of of all the events that I've covered.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_03: Uh you know, I I covered uh the states run to the Final Four in '96, um starting with the SEC tournament, and then then every every game at the NCA tournament.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_03: Uh that was pretty amazing.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um when I was a freshman at Southern Miss and was the uh uh covered covered was was on the staff.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_03: I was going to school full time and working full time too.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_03: And that was the 1970 football season when uh uh Southern Miss upset old Miss 30 to 14, which is golly, what are we now?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_03: We're 50 52 years later or yeah, yeah, 52 years later, and that's still the biggest upset I've ever seen.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_03: It was it was a way bigger upset than than state beating Alabama.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, state was only a 20-point underdog.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_03: I think Southern Miss was a 49-point underdog and had gotten beat 69 to 7 by Ole Miss the season before.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it was Archie's senior year, and he was the leading candidate for the Heisman Trophy.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_03: And they were coming off, Ole Miss was coming off victories over Georgia and Alabama, and Southern Miss was coming off a 40-point defeat to San Diego State, I think.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it was it was a classic case of one team being overconfident and not playing very well, and and the other team just collectively.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, if there are 44 players that played, they all played the game of their lives.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_03: And uh so I I remember that well.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I was sitting by my daddy down at Tulane Stadium the day that Tom Dempsey kicked a 63-yard field goal to beat the Detroit Lions.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_03: That was in the same football season, by the way.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_03: That was uh I think the uh about one month in between the Southern beating Ole Miss and then Dempsey kicking that field goal.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I'll never forget that one for sure.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_03: But there's been there's been a ton of things, and and then you know, this past spring, you mentioned it uh earlier about state being the national champion, but uh that run that that whole thing in Omaha was pretty incredible.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I've never seen in in my 56 years of sports writing, I've never seen a fan base take over a site, a tournament site or a game site or anything the way state fans took over Omaha.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and the way they played, it was just it was unbelievable.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um just an unbelievable experience.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_03: And um, you know, I finished my column the night after the you know, in the press box there at the game, and that took about an hour and a half, and I walked out of the entrance, and there were Mississippi State fans lined up for at least a hundred yards to in line waiting to get their picture, make selfies at the statue.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_03: You know, unbelievable.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_03: Just uh amazing experience.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it really was incredible to see how that how that took place.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: And uh it's just a long time coming, you know.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: So uh so happy that it happened.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: And uh so Rick, tell us a little bit about.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: I remember uh I've I've been quite a few times, and then uh um I went with Coach Cheryl was inducted to the Hall of Fame.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_02: Tell tell us about the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, it's kind of a it's kind of a treasure, you know, to to someone who are is not really familiar with Mississippi sports and wants to learn up about it.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's it's awesome.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: And um tell us how that came about.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I know you were in charge of that for a little while.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and and you you remember, um I don't know if you knew him, but Michael Rubenstein, who was a really good friend of mine, and he was doing TV at WLBT for about as long as I had done uh sports at the Claren Ledger.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_03: And uh we became good friends, you know, going to a lot of the same events together.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_03: And um, and we were both in a group of people um who before there was a Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, we we started a group to try to to have one, you know.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_03: It was to me, it was a big void in a state that loves sports as much as Mississippians do, and and also that that has the success that Mississippians have had in not just football and baseball, but in basketball, track and field, Olympics, everything.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um that we didn't have one.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_03: And so Michael, uh when we when we when we were successful, and it wasn't just Michael and me, there was there was a whole bunch of people that were involved in it, um, including Bailey Howell, Mississippi State, Archie Manning at Ole Miss, uh my dad had a hand in it that uh he was at Southern Miss.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it was kind of a statewide effort.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_03: But anyway, once it got going, uh Michael became the executive director of it and and was for the first 18, 19 years.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_03: And then when he got really ill and passed away in December of 2011, I was still at the Claren Ledger.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, I was on the way to cover another coach firing or hiring.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_03: I think it was when uh Houston Nut, maybe Houston Nut, maybe Hugh Freeze, one one or the other was being hired at at Ole Miss, and somebody on the board at the sports hall fame called me and said, Um, would you be interested in taking Michael's place?
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_03: And at the same time, I had gotten a um a letter in the mail from Gannett that said I was that's the company that owns the Claren Ledger in USA today and about 90 other newspapers around the country that was telling me that I was eligible for a buyout where they would pay me a year's salary and a year's benefits to just take a buyout.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_03: And um so I went into the publisher's office and I said, Well, you're offering me a year's salary to quit.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_03: And she said, Well, I didn't offer you that.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_03: We don't want you to take it.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Well, I've got I've got a job another job offer now that pays you know, pays a good bit more than what you're paying me here.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and basically uh said, the ball's in your court, but I'm I'm not gonna stay here for less money when I can earn a year's salary from you without doing anything and make a higher salary for this other group.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_03: And um she said, Well, my hands are tied, I can't do anything about it.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_03: So I I took the buyout and took the job at the Hall of Fame, and it was great, you know.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, uh for I did it for four years, and um we had a lot of success during that time.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_03: We raised a bunch of money, which uh made a lot of improvements to the hall of fame.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_03: And what was so fun about it for me, guys, was that I uh was working with all all the Hall of Famers were people that that I had covered all my life, you know.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_03: You know, going back to when I was 13 years old, these were these were people that I knew and cared about.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um and um so it was it was it was a it was a lot of fun.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_03: That was a lot of work too.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it was um, you know, for however many years it was before I took that job when I was a sports rider, I never really felt like I was going to work.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, raising money and and uh keeping a 24,000 square foot museum open six days a week, 52 weeks out of a year was that was a different animal.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_03: That was a lot of work.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_03: Uh but I'm glad I did it.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: And um I'm glad that Bill Blackwell's the executive director now and they and they're doing a great job there still.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm a big supporter of it and still serve on several committees on it, but um but I'm glad to be back to riding sports full time instead of um you know raising money and running a museum.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_03: That's a long answer, probably more than you wanted to know.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_02: No, that's exactly what we wanted to know.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, it's it's a it's a great place over there.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: I always look forward to seeing who the who the uh nominees are for the upcoming Hall of Fame class every year.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's uh it's a growing class.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's pretty uh it's it's awesome how how they do that over there.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um we you know we we it's six a year is what the bylaws call for, and it's it's almost like it's not enough.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_03: There's so many deserving people who are not.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I could rattle off 40 or 50 names right now of people who who have done enough to be in the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and they're just waiting their waiting their time.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_03: Meanwhile, you know, and uh a whole new group is getting eligible every year.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_03: So it's uh I uh I have encouraged and I hope at some point they're gonna do like almost like the uh major league baseball in the NFL does.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_03: They have a uh veterans committee and put in some people who have been, I guess more or less overlooked over the years, and right and and maybe have some uh you know add a few inductees a year.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_03: We'll see if that happens.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_03: I I'm I'm highly in favor of it.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_02: Is there like uh I know in the professional sports you have to wait five years, is there a time limit like that?
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: You have to be out a certain amount of years to be be eligible, yeah.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_03: You have to be uh retired from your sport for five years, right?
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_03: Or you know, for people that like play golf or other sports, you have to be 50 years old.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_03: Gotcha.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_03: Uh or yeah.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: So either you're retired or you have reached we may need to you know we need to make an exception for for all uh our old basketball coach, uh Richard Deweis at MRA.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: He's uh he doesn't seem like he's gonna hang it up anytime soon, but he just keeps winning.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_03: Well, he's over I know Richard well.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_03: He's over 50 years old.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_03: So he's uh I'm not sure he's ever been nominated.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_03: Uh you could go on the website, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame website, Missfame.com, and see.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but you know, probably, and I'm you know, and I'm I'm prejudiced toward them because I think that that uh high school coaches probably have as much of an effect on our society as as anybody, as any one group of people.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um and um I think I think maybe they're the most underserved group where the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame is concerned.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_03: Of course, they have their own Hall of Fame, the Mississippi Association of Coaches Hall of Fame.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_03: A lot, a lot of coaches are are members of that who haven't gotten into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_03: But there's lots of just to give you an example, there was you know, Mike Justice, who won so many high school state football championships and over 300 games as a high school football coach.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um he's he's been uh up for it for about three or four years and and and hadn't gotten in yet.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, clearly he's deserving.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um but there's lots of people like that.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_03: Um and I hope, you know, again, that's one reason why I hope we'll have a um maybe come up with a veterans committee or something like that.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_02: Well, or Rick, I have to ask you this question.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_02: So I mean, a lot of people who uh I don't know how many people around the world or the United States realize what great athletes we have in Mississippi.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, uh I remember when Mike Leach took the job here at Mississippi State, he he immediately rattled off, you know, we got this this state is just not not just Mississippi State, but rich in athletes, you know, from Archie Manning and and uh Brett Farr, Walter Payton, Jerry Rice, all that sort of stuff.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: If you had to choose for a Mount Rushmore of Mississippi sports stars through the years, who would be your Mount Ruschmore, do you think?
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_03: Oh man, oh that's that's uh that's a really and you know so many of them are friends of mine, but uh um you know I I would think surely Walter Payton and Jerry Rice.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, they're you can make an argument that they're the two best football players that I think so at their perspective.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I mean uh and you know, and I I covered I covered Walter from Columbia High School when I was a kid, all the way through you know, his his entire pro football career.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_03: And and Jerry Rice, I remember hearing about him for the first time when he was at Mississippi Valley and going and covering him and just unbelievable.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_03: But you've got to have, you know, you uh you you'd have to include more than football.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_03: And right, you know Bailey Howell.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_03: My God, what a great.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, he you know, we yeah, people make a big deal, right?
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_03: You know, these days people make a big deal about somebody having a double double.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_03: Bailey Bailey for his career at Mississippi State averaged, I mean, averaged 27 points and 17 rebounds a game.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_03: Wow, I mean, that's just that's ridiculous.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, he would certainly deserve to be uh and then there's you know, I'm I'm prejudiced about Boo Ferris because he allowed allowed me to write his book, and and plus he's the finest, he's as good a human being as anybody I've ever met.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, I mean he would deserve to be I think so.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_03: God, we'd we'd have to have a we'd have to have more mountain peaks than you know, and you know, there's so so many more.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_03: Ralph Boston from Laurel, Mississippi, the the long jumper, uh who you know, over three consecutive Olympics won a um a gold medal, silver medal, and a bronze medal in in the Olympics.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_03: Um I don't I don't know why it is that our guy, our our people can jump so far, but uh Larry Myrick's is another Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer who was um best in the world when he was long jumping.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um we had a one lady from Money, Mississippi, named um Willie Willie B.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_03: White, who, you know, at the age of uh 16 won a silver medal uh around the world and Australia uh in the long jump.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so many so many unbelievable stories that have uh and unbelievable people uh come through Mississippi uh in a in a lot of different sports.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well, um the only other thing I wanted to ask you, Rick, was I know you've you've traveled a lot of places and and probably eaten a lot of good meals.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_01: Does it there any meals that that stand out to you anywhere on the road that you've got to go, you know, that you miss that you want to go to every year or anything like that?
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I'm talking to you from New Orleans, and I've spent a lot of my life covering games down here, and uh it's hard to find a bad meal.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_03: Um but uh you know, as far as a favorite place, uh there used to be a place here that that is is no longer because of Katrina, but it was a place called Uglisic.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_03: That's what that was the name, was the name of the guy that owned Uglisic.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_03: He was an old Yugoslavian uh guy who uh Anthony Uglisic, and it's uh it's it's my favorite restaurant of all time.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_03: I love to go to Dreamland.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah, yeah, and uh yeah, that that that's up there on the list as well.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um those would probably be two two of my two of my favorites.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's a good thing about that's a cool thing about going to games out uh out of sometimes when you go out of state or follow someone, follow a team that you're following, just to stop by and see.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know, me and Brandon, we love to eat at like hole-in-the-wall places.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_02: We seem like those are the best places to you just stumble across one and like and uh so there's lots of lots of cool things to to go and see at different places when they're when they're going to games.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, well, both those places I mentioned are are definitely in the hole in the wall category.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_03: I enjoy the um the uh college world series.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_03: I've covered state several times, uh Ole Miss once and Southern Miss once in the College World Series, but uh uh that's always a great great um assignment because you uh you know you go.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_03: I I usually get up and play golf in the morning.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_03: They got great golf courses in Omaha and then and then uh go cover games and then end up the night eating a steak somewhere.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_03: Uh the drovers where I became my go-to spot this past college world series.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I've heard that place is that that place is really, really good.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_02: I heard uh when we were I went in 2018 and uh stayed for a while at in Omaha and um we were going to that place, but I think they were booked up and we ended up eating this uh gosh.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_02: I wish I could remember the name of it.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_02: It was like a it was a steak place, but it was like a knights and castle type team place, and they had recommended it, and it was really good.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_02: But uh yeah, the drover I've I've heard is fantastic.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there was uh um that, and then there was a Mr.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_03: C's that was really, really good back in the day.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_03: That's where Skip Bergman used to go all the time.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_03: Uh uh yeah, but you know what is funny about that that this this past year is I think that uh Mississipp State's had better baseball teams than the one that finally won it.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_03: Start starting with 1985.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_03: There's no question that that might have been the best college baseball team I've ever seen.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um but this team just you know put it all together at the right time, and and it was uh they got great uh performances off the bench from from people I've never heard of, you know, until I got to Omaha.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_03: And and then Landon Sims was just so good.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, um yeah, I saw the news today about him.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_02: It just it's just so heartbreaking about him hurting his arm like that.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_03: And well, what is it?
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_03: What what did they say today?
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: I had I haven't been around he he's out and he's gonna have to have surgery.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_02: Tommy him and Stone Simmons then now it's both both pitchers.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah, they both hurt the their arms during the two lane two lane series.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, Landon's such a talent, like I mean, I it didn't say, but he made it sound like that his career as Mississippi State is over with.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_02: So uh because you know, I think the Tommy John is a whole year process of recovery, and I mean he'll still get drafted, but uh yeah, and he'll still my guess is he'll still go in the first round.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_03: I think so.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I was telling you about my our our podcast that I have with my son, and when we were doing our pre-baseball season thing, I I I said that I that I really thought that it was a gamble to to move the best closer in the country, right?
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_03: One of the best closers in the history of college baseball uh to a Friday night starter.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm not saying that's why he got hurt, don't get me wrong.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just saying I I thought uh he gave you a chance to win more games as a closer than he than he does as a starter, and it's a total different mindset too, right?
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_03: You know, as a as a closer.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, he I don't know if I ever saw him throw anything besides a fastball and a slider as a closer.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_03: And you you gotta have you gotta have more than two pitches as a as a as a starter.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_03: You just can't you can't go through the lineup three or four or five times with uh with two pitches, you know, as good as they are.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_03: So I just hate to see it happen, but I hope he recovers and I hope he has a long uh uh lucrative career because he he he's he's as good as I've ever seen.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um you know, you're you're talking about that 85 team being so good and everything.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, it it kind of was kind of the way that worked out this past year, you know, Mississippi State fans have always dreaded, you know, that game with Texas and Gene Morgan and the foot, you know, that whole thing.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_02: And wasn't that something for Mississippi State to knock off Texas to get to the national camps?
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_02: It was kind of like slaying the ghost of the past or something.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_02: It that it that it was Texas, that team that that knocked state out all, you know.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, there was yeah.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_03: It was um yeah, it was it was there was a lot of stuff going on in Omaha, as you know, the whole North Carolina state thing.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um you know, but uh but when when it when all was said and done, I I really do think that the best the best team, and that and certainly the team that was playing the best one.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_02: And Vanderbilt, another thing, Vanderbilt's always had state numbers in these recent years, and and uh for them to knock them off to win it all, that that was kind of special too.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_02: So uh going through through Texas and Vanderbilt.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, you know, I would I I I somehow, I mean I I know it's wasn't possible, but I wish um Jake Mangelman hadn't won.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and of course, I everybody who was part of the team still considered him part of it.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_03: But right if there's ever been anybody that that that uh worked hard and and loved a place as much as he he loves Mississippi State, it would have been great for him to have been a member of the national championship team.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_02: We had Jake back on the podcast in the fall, and and uh it's it's gonna be great to follow him in his pro career.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, he said that that after they got knocked out his senior year, uh I'm vividly remembering saying Coach Lamonix are gonna be the first coach to bring a national championship in Mississippi State, and lo and behold, he was he was on that.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_02: And that's uh really special.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_03: So uh he was looking right at me when he said that.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_03: I'll never he was yeah, yeah.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, I think he's got a great bright future of head of ahead of him in Pro Ball.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_03: I hope so.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_03: The game of baseball, the major league game has changed so much.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um you know, he added he added some pop last year, which will uh you know, yeah, it's it's a hell of a thing.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_03: But I mean, it's not the kind of baseball I grew up with, but you you know, hitting 325 with singles and and a few doubles is not not what they're looking for anymore.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um and the fact that you can cover so much ground, you know, in the outfield, and and the fact that you can win games in so many different ways, everybody wants the long ball, you know, especially in the outfield positions.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's definitely changed a lot through the through the years.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_02: And uh uh Rick, what what's your I want to get your take on uh on the NIL stuff with with Todd's football.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_02: What's your take on that?
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_02: What's your thoughts on all that stuff?
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_02: I know a lot of people have different opinions on it.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_03: It's just I'm I'm I'm learning every day.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I I do think that in the end the rich are just gonna get richer.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, the the teams right you know uh and now it's legal, you know.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah now you don't have to buy them, it's it's legal.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_03: You can just you can pay them.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_03: And um I don't I don't see it helping the Mississippi schools at all over the long run.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_03: I just I don't see it.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_03: And I I don't, you know, obviously you you couldn't go on with a system where the coaches are making five, six, seven million dollars a year and the players are getting tuition room and board.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_03: That wasn't right, but I just don't know how it's gonna all uh uh you know the the the uh Texas's and Texas AM's and um Georgia's and Alabama's uh they're just gonna continue to to get the best players, I think.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_01: Rick, uh this has been great.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_01: We really appreciate you coming on today.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um we'll definitely have to tell all listeners to tune into the Cricket Letter Sports Podcast.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'll have to get on and subscribe to that too.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, definitely.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, Mississippoday.org.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_03: I write, I write uh two or three columns a week for it.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I I'm prejudiced, but I also think we do the best.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um our reporters do the best job of covering Mississippi government than than than any other publication you'll find.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_03: Awesome.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_03: I've enjoyed it, guys.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, thank you, Rick.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_03: We gotta go find one of those good New Orleans restaurants now.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, I'm jealous, man.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_03: All right, well, y'all take care.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks so much.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: By going to Johnny Packer.com.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: You can also reach us at Johnny PackerIwear at gmail.com.