Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Rick Cleveland: March Madness is upon us.

We call it March Madness. For a couple weeks, the NCAA Tournament takes over our TVs, our sports sections and our office talk.


We've had our share of it in Mississippi over the years. Mississippi State famously made the Final Four in 1996. Both Ole Miss and State have made Sweet 16s. Southern Miss won the NIT back in 1987 when people still followed that event. Mississippi Valley State once scared the bejeezus out of No. 1 seed Duke in a first round game.

We probably take March Madness a little bit for granted these days, but we should not – especially in Mississippi. That's because, for the longest time, Mississippi, in its extremely finite wisdom, chose not to take part.

And so it is that the greatest basketball player in Mississippi history never played in March Madness.

“It was the biggest disappointment of my basketball career,” Bailey Howell once told me. “I was never so disappointed. In America, no matter what you do, you have the opportunity to go as far as you can go and be whatever you can be. We were denied that opportunity.”

Howell averaged 27 points and 17 rebounds for his career at Mississippi State. He led his three varsity teams to 61 victories against 14 defeats. Howell scored as many as 47 points in a single game. He once grabbed 34 rebounds in a single game. That's right – 34. Rebounds. Sometimes, even today, teams don't get that many.

When Howell was a senior, the Bulldogs won 24 games and lost one. They were 13-1 in the league, Southeastern Conference champions, which meant an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

They may well have been the best college basketball team in the country that year, but they never got a chance to prove it.

The unwritten law in Mississippi back then was that Mississippi athletic teams were not to play against integrated teams. That meant that Babe McCarthy's best team ever – Bailey Howell's senior season – forfeited its NCAA bid. Kentucky, which State soundly beat in a regular season game, took the Bulldogs' place in a tournament that was eventually won by the University of California, a team that finished 24-4 and ranked No. 11 in the AP regular season poll.

In retrospect, Mississippi State almost surely was the better team. In its last home game of the 1958-59 season, State beat Adolph Rupp’s Kentucky team 66-58. The Bulldogs finished that season with five straight road victories over Florida, Georgia, LSU, Tulane and Ole Miss iun a 14-day span. They won those games by a total of 85 points. This was before the shot clock. Ole Miss, as many did, tried to hold the ball on the Bulldogs in that final game at Oxford. State won 23-16, an unusually close game for the Bulldogs in that magical season.

Those Bulldogs won the Sugar Bowl Tournament, defeating both Maryland and Memphis State by double digits.

“I don't know if we would have won the NCAA Tournament,” Howell told me, “but I know we sure wanted a chance to try. It was a thrill to win the SEC, but it was like we had cold water poured on it.”

Four years later, Babe McCarthy and another Mississippi State team defied the unwritten state law and flew out of town in the middle night to play against eventually NCAA Champion Loyola, an integrated team in a game that became known as “The Game of Change.”

Loyola won. As good as that State team was – and it was very good – it did not have player of Bailey Howell's caliber.

Few did. Howell would go on to be the second pick of the 1959 NBA Draft. The first pick? Wilt Chamberlain.

Howell would go on to score nearly 18,000 NBA points. He was a six-time All-Star. He was a key player on two Boston Celtics championship games.

He might well have been a college basketball champion as well.

Bailey Howell just never got the chance.

•••

Rick Cleveland (rcleveland@mississippitoday.org) is a Jackson-based syndicated columnist.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I clicked on this. Not sure why. My head hit the keyboard two paragraphs in. Forget Ambien, I now know how to fall asleep quickly. Thanks Rick for the snooze booze.

PittPanther said...

Mississippi. Sitting its own wrists for over 60 years...

Anonymous said...

Please, Lord, let it be over soon!

Anonymous said...

Rick failed to explain who at MSU made the decision to not go. Was it the coach, president, athletic director? Please identify these fine examples of statesmanship.

Anonymous said...

11:57, it was state law that no public college could play against teams that allowed blacks to play.



Never Heard THIS Story Before! said...

Wait, do you mean that Mississippi has a racial past? Gee, I've never heard that before. If only some sanctimonious journalist would have opened my eyes over the past 50 years and told me (over and over and over and over) that my home state once treated black people poorly, especially since NO OTHER STATE, not in the South and ESPECIALLY not in the North, treated them as anything other than august citizens of the highest caliber.

You know, I wonder how many people know this. Maybe we should all be lectured to again.

And again.

And again.

...

Anonymous said...

Ahole at 5:08. This is not a lecture about our racial past. It is an ode to one of the greatest basketball players this state has ever seen - and that includes all the hotshots of today. The fact that Bailey Howell didn't get a chance to play for the national championship is part of his story, as it is part of the state's history. But the column - at least to me - is about a guy that could score 25+ points a game when teams played a four corner offense to kill the clock and there were no three point shots. Realize that is probably before your time and therefore you don't give a damn. But some of us do, so get over it. You don't want to read anything about history, sports or otherwise, fine. Just go on to the next post and shut the f**k up.

Anonymous said...

3:35 I believe Rick said it was an "unwritten law" which would seem to mean that it was understood rather than a written law. As such, someone at MSU had to make the call.

Anonymous said...

Giant self loather at 8:19, yeah yeah. My whole life has been stories about how this group or that person was treated poorly through the 1960s because of Mississippi and the Klan and the mood of the times and blah blah blah.

I get it. Holy hell I get it. I don't need to hear it again, and I certainly don't need yet another lecture from a sanctimonious sports guy who is suddenly Mr. Civil Rights when he wasn't writing such smug articles in the 70s.

But I suppose it is the penance that those of us who never did a damn thing to keep anyone down must pay, to be constantly berated by Ex-CL staff and gutless anonymous posters about how terrible "we" were simply because we reside in this geographic area.

I fully expect this to be trotted out again next year. And the next.

Ad Infinitum.

Anonymous said...

9:51 Gutless anonymous posters. Talking about yourself - guess that fits with your playing with yourself. Don't like the column, don't read it. There are some that can read about our history, be it either that part that you get tired of (racial instances in south from 1870s to 1960s) or we can read about Crusades, or Revolutionary War, or Great War without getting our panties in a wad. And we can read a sports history without thinking it is a racial lecture. Grow up ahole.

I can't stop crying over here said...

guess that fits with your playing with yourself.

Oooh! You got me with your rapier-like wit. I'm sure no one in Mrs. Watson's class wants to go against YOU!

A retort truly worthy of the king of the 5th grade playground.


Recent Comments

Search Jackson Jambalaya

Subscribe to JJ's Youtube channel

Archives

Trollfest '09

Trollfest '07 was such a success that Jackson Jambalaya will once again host Trollfest '09. Catch this great event which will leave NE Jackson & Fondren in flames. Othor Cain and his band, The Black Power Structure headline the night while Sonjay Poontang returns for an encore performance. Former Frank Melton bodyguard Marcus Wright makes his premier appearance at Trollfest singing "I'm a Sweet Transvestite" from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Kamikaze will sing his new hit, “How I sold out to da Man.” Robbie Bell again performs: “Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be Bells” and “Any friend of Ed Peters is a friend of mine”. After the show, Ms. Bell will autograph copies of her mug shot photos. In a salute to “Dancing with the Stars”, Ms. Bell and Hinds County District Attorney Robert Smith will dance the Wango Tango.

Wrestling returns, except this time it will be a Battle Royal with Othor Cain, Ben Allen, Kim Wade, Haley Fisackerly, Alan Lange, and “Big Cat” Donna Ladd all in the ring at the same time. The Battle Royal will be in a steel cage, no time limit, no referee, and the losers must leave town. Marshand Crisler will be the honorary referee (as it gives him a title without actually having to do anything).


Meet KIM Waaaaaade at the Entergy Tent. For five pesos, Kim will sell you a chance to win a deed to a crack house on Ridgeway Street stuffed in the Howard Industries pinata. Don't worry if the pinata is beaten to shreds, as Mr. Wade has Jose, Emmanuel, and Carlos, all illegal immigrants, available as replacements for the it. Upon leaving the Entergy tent, fig leaves will be available in case Entergy literally takes everything you have as part of its Trollfest ticket price adjustment charge.

Donna Ladd of The Jackson Free Press will give several classes on learning how to write. Smearing, writing without factchecking, and reporting only one side of a story will be covered. A donation to pay their taxes will be accepted and she will be signing copies of their former federal tax liens. Ms. Ladd will give a dramatic reading of her two award-winning essays (They received The Jackson Free Press "Best Of" awards.) "Why everything is always about me" and "Why I cover murders better than anyone else in Jackson".

In the spirit of helping those who are less fortunate, Trollfest '09 adopts a cause for which a portion of the proceeds and donations will be donated: Keeping Frank Melton in his home. The “Keep Frank Melton From Being Homeless” booth will sell chances for five dollars to pin the tail on the jackass. John Reeves has graciously volunteered to be the jackass for this honorable excursion into saving Frank's ass. What's an ass between two friends after all? If Mr. Reeves is unable to um, perform, Speaker Billy McCoy has also volunteered as when the word “jackass” was mentioned he immediately ran as fast as he could to sign up.


In order to help clean up the legal profession, Adam Kilgore of the Mississippi Bar will be giving away free, round-trip plane tickets to the North Pole where they keep their bar complaint forms (which are NOT available online). If you don't want to go to the North Pole, you can enjoy Brant Brantley's (of the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance) free guided tours of the quicksand field over by High Street where all complaints against judges disappear. If for some reason you are unable to control yourself, never fear; Judge Houston Patton will operate his jail where no lawyers are needed or allowed as you just sit there for minutes... hours.... months...years until he decides he is tired of you sitting in his jail. Do not think Judge Patton is a bad judge however as he plans to serve free Mad Dog 20/20 to all inmates.

Trollfest '09 is a pet-friendly event as well. Feel free to bring your dog with you and do not worry if your pet gets hungry, as employees of the Jackson Zoo will be on hand to provide some of their animals as food when it gets to be feeding time for your little loved one.

Relax at the Fox News Tent. Since there are only three blonde reporters in Jackson (being blonde is a requirement for working at Fox News), Megan and Kathryn from WAPT and Wendy from WLBT will be on loan to Fox. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both and a torn-up Obama yard sign will entitle you to free drinks served by Megan, Wendy, and Kathryn. Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required. Just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '09 is for EVERYONE!!!

This is definitely a Beaver production.


Note: Security provided by INS.

Trollfest '07

Jackson Jambalaya is the home of Trollfest '07. Catch this great event which promises to leave NE Jackson & Fondren in flames. Sonjay Poontang and his band headline the night with a special steel cage, no time limit "loser must leave town" bout between Alan Lange and "Big Cat"Donna Ladd following afterwards. Kamikaze will perform his new song F*** Bush, he's still a _____. Did I mention there was no referee? Dr. Heddy Matthias and Lori Gregory will face off in the undercard dueling with dangling participles and other um, devices. Robbie Bell will perform Her two latest songs: My Best Friends are in the Media and Mama's, Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be George Bell. Sid Salter of The Clarion-Ledger will host "Pin the Tail on the Trial Lawyer", sponsored by State Farm.

There will be a hugging booth where in exchange for your young son, Frank Melton will give you a loooong hug. Trollfest will have a dunking booth where Muhammed the terrorist will curse you to Allah as you try to hit a target that will drop him into a vat of pig grease. However, in the true spirit of Separate But Equal, Don Imus and someone from NE Jackson will also sit in the dunking booth for an equal amount of time. Tom Head will give a reading for two hours on why he can't figure out who the hell he is. Cliff Cargill will give lessons with his .80 caliber desert eagle, using Frank Melton photos as targets. Tackleberry will be on hand for an autograph session. KIM Waaaaaade will be passing out free titles and deeds to crackhouses formerly owned by The Wood Street Players.

If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!

This is definitely a Beaver production.

Note: Security provided by INS
.