Celebrated Mississippi sports writers Rick Cleveland and Neil White spoke to the Greenville Rotary Club on Thursday about their “Mississippi Football Book” which came out last August. The book details the rich careers of so many gridiron Hall of Famers from the Magnolia State like Jerry Rice, Walter Payton, Archie Manning and Brett Favre.
However, both Cleveland and White spoke, perhaps even more glowingly, about how their book would not have been complete without the stories of the football legends who once called Greenville home.
Cleveland first spoke about the legendary Greenville tight end Jimmy Giles, who went on to have a long and illustrious career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Jimmy Giles
“One of my favorite stories in this book is about Jimmy Giles. Jimmy grew up wanting to be the next George Boomer Scott who was the great baseball player from Greenville. Jimmie signed a baseball scholarship down at Alcorn State. He was playing intramural football one day and the football coach happened to walk on the field and they saw him catching passes for one of the intramural teams and the coach said, ‘I don’t know if you can make it in Major League Baseball but I can put you in the NFL if you come out for football.’ And sure, enough that is what happened. The first jersey retired in Tampa Bay was Doug Williams. The second number who went up there was Jimmy Giles. Jimmy changed the way tight ends are viewed in pro football. He was the first one who had the speed to go down field and catch the ball. he wasn’t just a blocker. He didn’t just catch short passes he could catch anything.”
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Later, White spoke of about the amazing careers of former Greenville players like Allen Dinkey Bowan, Jimmy Patton, Howard Dyer Jr. and Raymond Brown.
Here is what he said about the four players.
Allen “Dinkey” Bowan
“He was the first of the Greenville stars and the the first Mississippian to ever break an national individual high school record. He was a quarterback here at Greenville. In 1943 he led the nation in scoring scoring 227 points. He went on to play at Georgia Tech and he was moved to running back because the quarterback was a man named Frank Broyes who went on to coach at Arkansas.”
Jimmy Patton
“Jimmy was a defensive back who died at age 39 in a head on car collision in Georgia. He was a running back and defensive back in Greenville. He went to Ole Miss and led the SEC in interceptions and then went to play for the New York Giants. He was a five time pro-bowler from Greenville. He led the league in interceptions in 1958 and when he retired in 1966 he had 52 interception which at the time was the third highest in NFL history.
Howard Dyer Jr.
Howard played at VMI and he led the Southern League in scoring and was a two-time time all-Southern League. Howard was drafted by the New York Titans who later became the New York Jets but he opted to go to Ole Miss and go to law school.
Raymond Brown
Raymond Brown was three years older than Howard and they were both quarterbacks from Greenville. Raymond played for the Baltimore Colts and was their backup quarterback and would have been there starting quarterback but there was a guy named Johnny Unitas in front of him. He was the starting safety and punter for the Colts and after his third year Raymond Brown quit the NFL to be a clerk for United States Justice Tom Clark. So, those two men (Howard Dyer and Raymond Brown) could have had great careers in the NFL both opted to go in the legal field and that tells you what the pay was like in the NFL back then.
“Howard Dyer and Raymond Brown were great quarterbacks and they would be the first ones to tell you that they were great quarterbacks so when Raymond Brown was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, the people who didn’t know them very well invited Howard Dyer to introduce Raymond Brown. Howard did a good job. He told all about what he did and all the records he broke and how he was MVP of the Sugar Bowl and after those accolades, “He said ladies and gentlemen I want to give you the newest inductee into the Mississippi Hall of Fame and the second best quarterback to ever come out of Greenville, Raymond Brown.”
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Along with local Greenville football legends, Cleveland also told the Rotarians some of his own recollections of the greatest Mississippi football players ever.
“Mississippi has produced more NFL players than any other state in the Union per capita. And more pro football Hall of Famers per capita than any other state. It is incredibly rich football history.”
Cleveland added that Walter Payton was the greatest athlete he ever covered, and Brett Favre had the strongest arm he had ever seen.
He also told the following story about Delta legend Archie Manning.
Archie Manning
“Here is a quick story on why Archie is one of my favorite people I ever covered. Archie was at the end of his career. He had already been an All-American at Ole Miss and played for the Saints, playing great football for an awful team. He was traded to the Oilers and traded to Minnesota and he was playing out the string for the Vikings. The Vikings were playing a Thursday night game around 1983 or 1984 and Archie was at that time he was the backup to Wade Wilson. But, they were playing on Thursday night and had the Monday Night Football crew with Howard Cosell and all those guys doing the game. I got through working at the Jackson Daily News and had already written my column for the next day’s paper and I went home. The Vikings were playing the Steelers and the Steelers were going to beat the crap out of them. We didn’t know if Wade Wilson would survive. Sure enough the Steelers were winning 28-0 at halftime and Wade Wilson had gotten beaten up all over. So, they put Archie in to start the second half and somehow or another Archie turns back the clock, throwing darts and great passes. Cossel and Don Meredith are going crazy about him on TV and I called the office and said, ‘You guys hold the paper. I am going to rewrite and write about what Archie did.’ And that is what I did. They didn’t win the game, but they did make it a one score game in the fourth quarter. So, I wrote my column about it and sent it to the paper and it published the next afternoon.
“I go to work the next day and about mid-afternoon my phone rings and I answer it and it is Archie on the other end and I recognize his voice. And Archie said I just wanted to call you and thank you for what I wrote today. This is 1984 before the Internet. We circulated pretty good up here in the Delta but we didn’t do too well up in Minneapolis-St. Paul. I was taken all aback. For all these years, I have been doing this, you don’t get too many star athletes calling you and thanking you for what you wrote about them, especially when they are 1,000 miles away and there is no Internet. At any rate, I said, ‘Archie, that is great and I appreciate it. But how did you know about it.’ He said, ‘Because my momma just called me and read me every word.’
That is Archie. And his sons are just the way he was. They, as did Boo Ferriss. They live by the Golden Rule. They treat others like they would like to be treated.
More on the authors
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, and executive director of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. His work as a syndicated columnist and celebrated sportswriter has appeared in numerous magazines, periodicals, and newspapers. Rick has been recognized 14 times as Mississippi Sportswriter of the Year (his first was in 1973 at age 20; his fourteenth fifty years later in 2023). He is also the recipient of multiple awards and honors for his reporting and writing.
Neil White lives in Oxford where he operates Nautilus Publishing, writes essays, and teaches memoir writing. His New York Times bestselling memoir, In the Sanctuary of Outcasts (Morrow/HarperCollins), garnered critical acclaim. He has written, edited, or published over 50 books, including co-authoring memoirs with football greats Robert Khayat and Larry Csonka.
