Wednesday, September 13, 2023

Sid Salter: Doug Shanks was a fearless change agent in baseball and Mississippi GOP politics

  At the age of 29, then-Republican Jackson City Commissioner Doug Shanks had no less than the political writers at The New York Times hanging on his every utterance during the Republican National Convention battle between then-President Gerald Ford and insurgent California GOP Gov. Ronald Reagan.

White House Press Secretary Ron Nessen led an impromptu press conference at Jackson’s Ramada Inn on July 30, 1976, that featured Shanks and Meridian businessman and GOP gubernatorial contender Gil Carmichael, then the co-chairmen of the President Ford Committee for the State of Mississippi, answering questions about President Ford’s meeting with Mississippi’s Republican delegates to the 1976 Republican presidential convention.

For a time, Doug Shanks – a native of Soso, Mississippi - stood at the red-hot center of American politics. The 1976 Republican convention gave Mississippi a moment in the sun as Ford and Reagan sparred for the soul of the states GOP and the GOP presidential nomination.

After assuming the presidency following the 1974 resignation of President Richard Nixon in the depths of the Watergate scandal, President Gerald Ford began in 1975 to seek the 1976 Republican nomination for president that would culminate at the Kansas City GOP National Convention.

In Mississippi, Reagan had earlier won support from Greenvilles Clarke Reed, then-State Sen. Charles Pickering of Laurel and Jackson oilman W.D. Billy Mounger. Ford was supported by then-U.S. Rep. Thad Cochran, Carmichael, and Shanks, among others.

But when Reagan chose liberal Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Richard Schweiker as his running mate, Reed defected to the Ford camp and other Mississippi Republican delegates – including then-U.S. Rep. Trent Lott and Pickering - followed.

Nationally, the Ford-Reagan battle for the nomination was almost dead even and both candidates began to scour the country for uncommitted delegates to the convention. Because of the so-called unit rule - which required that the candidate who had the support of the majority of the states 30 delegates got all 30 votes - a procedural vote on a Reagan-backed convention rules change was the showdown vote.

Mississippis 30 votes went against the rules change and Reagans bid for the nomination was effectively dead.

Montana Technological University historian Chris Danielson, who earned his doctorate at the University of Mississippi in 2006, authored a 2009 article entitled “Lily White and Hard Right: The Mississippi Republican Party and Black Voting, 1965-1980” in the Journal of Southern History that offered this summary of Shanks’ moment in the nation’s political history:

The Mississippi delegation was officially uncommitted, but after Reagan’s string of victories in the southern primaries, the Ford campaign diverted its resources to other regions. However, Harry S. Dent, Ford’s southern campaign manager, saw a chance for Ford to win (Mississippi’s) winner-take-all primary. Carmichael and Doug Shanks…were the key Ford backers within the Mississippi delegation. One political observer said that pairing the two moderates in the delegation was ‘like boarding a couple of vampires at a blood bank.’”

Shanks, even at 29, was a master of bringing disparate people together. His political papers, scrapbooks and other memorabilia are housed in the Mississippi Political Collection at the Mississippi State University Libraries, including his papers on the 1976 GOP presidential campaign. 

As sportswriter Rick Cleveland deftly recorded earlier, Doug had a productive and remarkable second life after Mississippi politics. He coached baseball from Babe Ruth to the college ranks. He is perhaps best known for his long and distinguished career at Mississippi Valley State University from 2000 to 2015.

As a former MSU student, it was evident how much pride Doug took in bringing his Delta Devil squads to play the Bulldogs at Dudy Noble Field. His teams were fundamentally sound and disciplined. Like their coach, there was no quit in them.

A white pioneer of the Mississippi Republican Party coaching college baseball successfully at a historically Black university in the impoverished Mississippi Delta? That’s the kind of good and decent man - and baseball man - that Doug Shanks was. He loved the game.


Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com.


10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The only color Coach knew was winning!

Anonymous said...

Guy had some balls! Was not scared!

Anonymous said...

Last sentence nails it!

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed reading this. All the highschool kids he coached recently not only had a great coach but also a real connection to American history. 50 years from now when stories are told about the 76 convention they will be able to say “ hey that guy in the middle of all that was was baseball coach”.
Truly a man of many talents.

Anonymous said...

50 years from now when stories are told about the 76 convention they will be able to say “ hey that guy in the middle of all that was was baseball coach”.

Who exactly will be telling these stories 97 years removed from the event?

Get real.

Anonymous said...

Nothing by the Mississippi press can be written without intertwining race.

Also, did this guy coach at Hartfield?

Anonymous said...

Half the time Sid Salter’s “columns” are political or historical revisionist fan-fiction. The other half of the time they read like some Lemon Party fantasy. This is the latter.

Anonymous said...

There appears to be a lot of copying and pasting in Sid's articles, but I doubt that surprises anyone.

Kingfish said...

The topic is abut Mr. Shanks. Please stay on topic. Almost had a Trump Biden fight break out here.

Anonymous said...

Man, I've about come to the conclusion that many who post here lead absolutely miserable lives. This is an article about the death of a good man. It would be difficult for any of you to find someone who says he wasn't that. But y'all figured our a way to trash the comments section. Congrats.


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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!!!

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