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The Men Who Put Southern Miss on The Map

Sue Honea

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By: Andy Baeuerle

 

On October 13, 1912, the Mississippi Normal Normalites took the field for the first time. This game, led by coach Ronald Slay, would end with a 30-0 Normalite victory over the Hattiesburg Boy Scouts. Since that day, the program has gone through 3 name changes, four mascots, 22 head coaches, and played 1,106 games. For anyone, it’s a long way to the top. But for football in Hattiesburg, five men in particular took time to help in this climb.

 

Reed Green (1937-1942, 1946-1948)

Reed Green

A star high school player named Reed Green came to Hattiesburg in 1930 to play football for the Mississippi State Teachers College (MSTC) Yellow Jackets. But little did he know, he would go much farther than playing in Faulkner Stadium.

After graduating in 1934, Green became a freshman coach for the Yellow Jackets’ football team under head coach Allison “Pooley” Hubert. The following year, he was promoted to assistant head coach, a position he served for two years. From 1935-36, the Yellow Jackets had a 13-6-1 record, prompting other schools to take note of the coaches. Coach Hubert took a job as head football coach at the Virginia Military Institute, and Reed Green was upgraded to head football coach.

Green served as head coach from 1937 to 1942, when he was called to serve in the Navy for World War II. Up to this point, the Yellow Jackets achieved a 38-11-4 record. Following the war, things returned to normal in 1946, and for three seasons, the newly renamed Mississippi Southern Southerners went 21-9. After the ‘48 season, Coach Green was able to climb up one more step on the Mississippi Southern ladder: He was offered a position as the athletic director for Mississippi Southern College. Green would serve this position for the next 25 years, overseeing the construction of Reed Green Coliseum, two expansions of Faulkner Stadium, and hiring another coach who is on this list. After his 1974 retirement, Coach Green remained a prominent figure in Hattiesburg until his 2002 death.

Thad “Pie” Vann (1949-1968)

Coach Pie Vann

Thad Vann was a football standout. After completing a playing career at Ole Miss as a tackle, Vann was hired as an assistant coach for the Mississippi State Teachers College Yellow Jackets, under Reed Green. In 1949, when Reed Green accepted the Athletic Director job for the newly renamed Mississippi Southern Southerners, his first action was hiring a football coach. But no one would’ve expected what came from his hiring choice.

In Vann’s first 5 seasons, the Southerners achieved a 37-17 record, 2 Gulf States Conference Championships, and the first NCAA bowl game appearance in school history, the 1952 Sun Bowl. Also in that time, 8 of Vann’s players were selected in the NFL and AFL Drafts, with two of them, Bucky McElroy & Laurin Pepper, being selected twice, despite opting for the MLB. In his last 10 years as head coach, the UPI named Mississippi Southern/Southern Miss the Small College National Champions twice, in 1958 and 1962. In 1968, Vann hung up his hat in Hattiesburg and also hung up on a successful career. Today, Vann is still known as the “Father of Southern Miss Football,” and I believe his stats support this.

Bobby Collins (1975-1981)

If ever there was a mastermind in college football, it was Bobby Collins. Despite his possible involvement in the actions that led to the SMU Mustangs getting the “death penalty” punishment from the NCAA, Coach Collins still remains an important figure in Southern Miss history.

In Coach Collins’ time, the Golden Eagles recruited some of their most notable players of all time, including Reggie Collier, Louis Lipps, Hanford Dixon, and Sammy Winder. Coach Collins also brought in notable assistants who became legends all their own, including Mack Brown and Jim Carmody. Coach Collins also led the Eagles to their first bowl win, the 1980 Independence Bowl, since the 1946 Bacardi Bowl.

Bobby Collins came to Hattiesburg in 1975 with a plethora of football experience, having played under Coach Darrell Royal at Mississippi State, and also coaching under Jerry Claiborne at Virginia Tech and Bill Dooley at North Carolina.

Jim “Big Nasty” Carmody (1982-1987)

Coach Jim Carmody

Shortly after Coach Collins left for the head coaching job at Southern Methodist, Southern Miss Athletic Director Roland Dale sought an upgrade from within and hired Jim “Big Nasty” Carmody as the next head coach for the Golden Eagles. Now you may wonder why I call Jim Carmody “Big Nasty.”

Jim Carmody was a defensive mastermind. Following playing career at Co-Lin Community College and Tulane, Carmody’s coaching career kicked off in the early 1950s, serving in assistant and coordinator positions at Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and North Carolina. Then, in 1978, Carmody was hired at Southern Miss as a defensive coordinator under Bobby Collins. In this time, Carmody created a booming defensive strategy that crippled SEC and other big opponents. In this time, Carmody’s defense at Southern Miss became known as the “Nasty Bunch,” with Carmody as their leader being named “The Big Nasty.”

In 1982 when Coach Collins took the HC job at SMU, Carmody was brought up in his place, and things took off on a boom. Carmody’s teams were beating Bryant-led Alabama, Bowden-led Florida State, and Brewer-led Ole Miss. Jim Carmody also recruited Southern Miss legends Brett Favre, Richard Byrd, and Michael Jackson. Following his retirement from USM in 1987, Coach Carmody came back to coach in positions at Mississippi State and Ole Miss, making him the only coach to serve in two positions at each of the Big 3 Schools in Mississippi.

Jeff Bower (1990-2007)

All of these coaches, outside of Coach Collins, all had previous positions at Southern Miss, and it ultimately helped push their careers to new heights. And Jeff Bower is the ultimate Southern Miss Success Story.

A transfer quarterback from the University of Georgia, Jeff Bower quickly proved he could start for Southern Miss and set new program records in the passing game. Following his time as quarterback, Bower served as a graduate assistant under Bobby Collins, before being upgraded to a wide receivers and quarterbacks coach. Bower remained an assistant at Southern Miss until he left with Bobby Collins to go to SMU, where he was the Mustangs’ quarterback coach. Following the fallout of the SMU scandal in 1986, Bower was hired to Wake Forest as the QB coach for Bill Dooley’s Demon Deacons. Even though this stint lasted for only the 1987 season, Bower would be invited back home to Hattiesburg to serve as the assistant head coach, quarterbacks coach, and offensive coordinator for Curley Hallman’s Golden Eagles. From 1988-1989, Coach Bower was one of the driving forces over the successful college career of Brett Favre, one of the all-time greats in football. In 1990, Bower took the OC/QB coaching job for Oklahoma State, but this stint didn’t even last a full season.

Just before the 1990 All-American Bowl, Southern Miss head coach Curley Hallman resigned to take the head coaching position for the LSU Tigers football team. With an open spot at the helm and a bowl game looming, Southern Miss AD Bill McLellan knew just who to call. “Do you want to become our new head coach?” was all Coach Bower needed to hear.

Jeff Bower instantly became a legend at Southern Miss, taking down teams such as Auburn, Georgia, Alabama, and TCU. Coach Bower also won 4 conference championships, was a 3x C-USA Coach of the Year, and the C-USA Coach of the 1990s. Southern Miss football was also averaging nearly 30,000 a game in attendance in Bower’s later career and was featured in more Top 25 matchups than any coach in USM history. Also, during his time, Southern Miss started taking demanding leads in its rivalries against Tulane, Memphis, and East Carolina.

Following his 2007 retirement, Coach Bower has remained an integral figure in the Southern Miss world, as well as college football. From 2016 to 2018, Bower served on the College Football Playoff Selection Committee, further cementing his legacy in college football.

 

Nearly 112 years ago, the first football game in USM’s history was played and ended in a booming result. And over all this time, the program has grown and grown over time to become known as a giant killer and a team that even famed sportswriter Mickey Spagnola once wrote, warning opponents, “Don’t fight Southern Miss, because no matter how hard you fight, those folks will fight harder.” Southern Miss has had a way of battling out of tight spots and becoming a secret giant in the kingdom of Southeastern College Football.

 

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