Delta Heroes

January is the month in which The DSU Year of Delta Heritage focuses its attention on the heroes of the Mississippi Delta. The Delta has produced many heroes.  Early settlers like Mary Hamilton braved bears, poisonous snakes, malaria, and floods as they moved into America’s final frontier.  Visionary businessmen like Will Dockery and Leroy Percy created huge vertically integrated international businesses as they built their plantations and brought railroads and banks to the Delta.  Journalists like David Cohn and Hodding Carter, Jr., and writers like Richard Wright changed the ways America thinks.  Civil rights activists like Aaron Henry and Fanny Lou Hamer led a social revolution that brought voting rights and political power to all Americans.  And hundreds of thousands of field hands toiled heroically, although perhaps unrecognized, as they built the Delta’s economy by raising cotton.

Many of the months in our Year of Delta Heritage celebrate Delta heroism by focusing on musical, political, or artistic heritage.  One area that is not covered elsewhere concerns sports, and the Delta has many sports heroes.

Archie Manning was born in Drew.  He played college football at Ole Miss and professionally for the New Orleans Saints, Houston Oilers, and Minnesota Vikings.  He was also a professional bowler for two years before fathering a dynasty through sons Peyton and Eli.  Archie Moore, born in Benoit, was a professional boxer for 27 years, with more knockouts (141) than any other professional boxer in history.  He is the only boxer to have fought both Rocky Marciano and Muhammad Ali.  Margaret Wade effectively made women’s basketball into an intercollegiate sport while coaching at DSU.  She had three AIAW national championships (1975-77) and a 93-4 record that included a 51-game winning streak and her name is now given to the women’s basketball equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.  Jerry Rice began his football career playing for Mississippi Valley State University and went on to the San Francisco 49r’s, winning Super Bowls in 1989, 1990 and 1995.  He later played with the Oakland Raiders and Seattle Seahawks, setting 38 NFL records.  David “Boo” Ferriss, born in Shaw, pitched for the Boston Red Sox from 1945-50 before becoming a coach at Delta State and was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2002.  Charley Pride was born in Sledge, and played baseball professionally for the Memphis Red Sox Negro League before becoming a country music great.  He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and is the first African American member of Grand Ole Opry.  Lusia Harris-Stewart, born in Minter City left Delta State to become an All American and an Olympian during the first year women’s Basketball was an Olympic sport.  She is the only woman to be drafted by a men’s basketball team (New Orleans Jazz) and the first woman inducted into Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.  Other Delta sports heroes include Sank Powe, long time coach at East Side and Cleveland High Schools and scout for the St. Louis Cardinals; “Chuckin’ Charlie” Conerly who left Clarksdale for the NY Giants and the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame;  Floyd “Porkchop” Womack (Cleveland, MS,  to the Seattle Seahawks); Dorsett Davis from Shelby (Denver Broncos); Ken Lucas (Cleveland, MS,  to the Seattle Seahawks and Carolina Panthers); Kent Hull (Greenwood High School to the Buffalo Bills); Robert “Gentle Ben” Williams of Yazoo City, first black football player at Ole Miss, first black “Colonel Reb,” and All Pro with the Buffalo Bills; George "Boomer" Scott (Greenville, to the Boston Red Sox, Kansas City Royals, New York Yankees, and Milwaukee Brewers); Eddie Tucker (Greenville, to the Boston Astros and Cleveland Indians); and Bob Aylward (Pace, to Executive VP Business Operations, Seattle Mariners).   And of course we can’t forget the Fighting Okra of Delta State, the only vegetable mascot in America, and a mean one to boot. 

Delta citizens have played heroic roles in the development of sports in America, as is the case in other aspects of American culture.  Whether we’re talking about music, civil rights, literature, food, business, military or political leadership, the Mississippi Delta has produced many heroes that we can all be proud of.