Mississippi Today (https://mississippitoday.org/author/rickcleveland/page/2/)
Rick Cleveland, a native of Hattiesburg and resident of Jackson, has been Mississippi Today’s sports columnist since 2016. A graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi with a bachelor’s in journalism, Rick has worked for the Monroe (La.) News Star World, Jackson Daily News and Clarion Ledger. He was sports editor of Hattiesburg American, executive director of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. His work as a syndicated columnist and celebrated sports writer has appeared in numerous magazines, periodicals and newspapers. Rick has been recognized 11 times as Mississippi Sports Writer of the Year, and is recipient of multiple awards and honors for his reporting and writing.
These days, Reese divides her time between the demands of training for this autumn’s world championships and next year’s Olympics and raising her 11-year old son, Alex Wildee, whom she adopted three years ago.
Sunday, 21-year-old Andy Ogletree, a grocer’s son from the tiny community of Little Rock in Newton County, became the first Mississippian to win the United States Amateur Championship.
A total of 7,191 golfers worldwide tried to qualify for the U.S. Amateur. Of those, 256 made it to Pinehurst, 64 qualified for match play and now they are down to eight. Two are Mississippians.
After a terrible start, Jake Mangum is now doing what he has always done: hit then all where they ain’t.
Women from 17 countries, five continents and 33 U.S. states have congregated at Old Waverly to compete for the U.S. Women’s Amateur golf championship. Youth is being served in Clay County.
The newest exhibit at the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum will showcase the sport’s history here and at least one professional hockey player born and raised in Mississippi will be on hand for the dedication.
Half of Greenwood might be in town Saturday when one of the first five golfers (and the only woman) inducted into the Mississippi Golf Hall of Fame last year takes her rightful place in the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.
Rockey Felker on Susan Felker: “She had no idea what she was getting into … but she was the perfect coach’s wife. She held our family together. She was a rock.”
Coach Black just wins. He won at small schools and large schools. He won in public schools and also at a private school. He won running veer and wishbone option offenses and has won with pro style offenses. He once won with country kids and now he wins with city kids. He just wins.
Amazingly, Price will be the 14th 1959 Ole Miss football player inducted into Mississippi’s sports shrine. The ’59 Rebels, who outscored opponents 349-21, were just that good, that dominant.
Weir High School had never had a baseball team until Oswalt came along, a skinny 10th grader with a rocket for an arm. He was throwing 90 mph when he was 15 years old and weighed a whopping 140 pounds. He went on to become one of the best pitchers in the Major Leagues for 12-plus seasons.
Running back from Greenville was briefly in the backfield with Walter Payton before a distinguished career at Abilene Christian and in the NFL and is now set to join him in the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.
Thursday, at the British Open, David Duval shot a 91. That’s 20 shots over par. That’s two over even bogey. That won’t win the fifth flight at your club championship.
So many of our greatest football heroes would have been soccer sensations. But they chose to go where the scholarships and the big bucks were. That’s still the case.
Author/publisher Neil White: “It’s a cliché, now, to say a death is like ‘a library burning down,’ but in the case of David Sansing, it’s true. No one knew more about Mississippi history, its characters, and the stories that comprised the complex narrative of this strange state.”