Playing Anyway: The Heroes Who Changed Southern Sports

A new joint guideline from the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology calls for earlier diagnosis and treatment of hypertension to reduce risk of heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, cognitive decline and dementia. The new guideline reflects several major changes since 2017, including use of the American Heart Association’s PREVENT (Predicting Risk of cardiovascular disease EVENTs) risk calculator to estimate cardiovascular disease risk. It also provides updated guidance on medication options, including the early treatment for high blood pressure to reduce the risk of cognitive decline and dementia; use of specific medications including the possible addition of newer therapies such as GLP-1 medications in those with overweight or obesity; and recommendations for managing high blood pressure before, during and after pregnancy to reduce the risk of preeclampsia. Also new this year is the link between high blood pressure and brain health. High blood pressure can damage small blood vessels in the brain, resulting in memory problems and long-term cognitive decline. “Now there is clear evidence that lowering blood pressure can reduce the risk of dementia,” said Dr. Daniel W. Jones, dean and professor emeritus of the University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Medicine and chair of the guideline writing committee. Jones, who served as chancellor at the University of Mississippi from 2009 to 2015, was president of the American Heart Association from 2007 to 2008. “High blood pressure is the most common and most modifiable risk factor for heart disease,” Jones said. “By addressing individual risks earlier and offering more tailored strategies across the lifespan, the 2025 guideline aims to aid clinicians in helping more people manage their blood pressure and reduce the toll of heart disease, kidney disease, Type 2 diabetes and dementia.” The new clinical guideline, which replaces guidance written in 2017, was published Thursday in the American Heart Association’s peerreviewed journals Circulation and Hypertension and in JACC, the flagship journal of the American College of Cardiology. Dr. Michael Hall, chair of the UMMC Department of Medicine, said Jones’ role in chairing the writing committee shows the Medical Center’s global influence on hypertension care. “His influence is particularly important because this guideline is something the rest of the world pays attention to,” Hall said. Hall, who worked for Jones early in his career, said years of providing care to patients with high blood pressure are reflected in Jones’ writing on hypertension. “He has realworld experience and truly practices what he preaches,” Hall said of Jones, who has researched hypertension in Mississippi as well as South Korea. “His writing is based on science as well as the observations made in caring for thousands of patients.” High blood pressure is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and around the world. More than 43.9% of adult Mississippians – nearly 1 million – had hypertension in 2021, Mississippi State Department of Health statistics show. Among Mississippians older than 65, the hypertension rate was 73.3% that year. The blood pressure criteria of the 2017 UMMC PROFESSOR EMERITUS LEADS DEVELOPMENT OF NEW HYPERTENSION GUIDELINE

The Southeastern Conference claims college football “just means more” in the region of the country it represents. On the eve of another season, let us remember the courage of some who helped it claim that battle cry. One was Georgia Tech football coach Bobby Dodd, whose story has been told in a historical documentary about the SEC shown recently on the league’s television network.

Dodd headed the program at Tech while that university was still an SEC member. He defied Georgia Gov. Marvin Griffin and other officials who dictated that Tech shouldn’t play Pittsburgh in the 1956 Sugar Bowl because Pitt carried one Black player on its roster. The Yellow Jackets played anyway, winning 7-0.

The 1963 Mississippi State University basketball team was hauled out of the state in the middle of the night by coach Babe McCarthy to play in the NCAA Tournament, ignoring Gov. Ross Barnett and others who said they shouldn’t play ball because their opponent, Loyola University of Chicago, included several Black players on its roster.

MSU lost a close game in Michigan to eventual national champion Loyola. McCarthy, who went from junior high school coach at Baldwyn to SEC head coach in one giant leap, has remained one of my heroes for his stand. Besides his determination to play that game, his teams won four SEC championships, beating the vaunted Kentucky Wildcats and coach Adolph Rupp several times.

Bear Bryant, Alabama’s legendary football coach, didn’t recruit Blacks until Southern California’s integrated team horsewhipped his Crimson Tide 42-21 in 1970. That result so infuriated Bryant that he began immediately to recruit Blacks, opening the door for most SEC teams to follow him.

Ole Miss and Mississippi State were slow to recruit Black players, but State is admired for hiring the Southeastern Conference’s first Black head football coach, Sylvester Croom, in the league’s 71-year history in 2003. State had broken the football color line by signing Frank Dowsing Jr. and Robert Bell in 1969.

Ole Miss’ first Black athlete was basketball star Coolidge Ball in 1970. Its first Black football player was “Gentle Ben” Williams in 1972. He was All-American in 1975. (Willie Heidelberg became Southern Mississippi’s first Black football player in 1970, leading an epic upset in Oxford of highly-ranked

Ole Miss, led by Archie Manning.)

The documentary highlighted Nathaniel Northington of Kentucky who in 1976 became the first Black to play football in the SEC. Charlie Bradshaw was his coach.

I and 17 other 15-year-old boys from McComb were involved in one of those ridiculous “don’t play against Blacks” situations when our 1963 Babe Ruth Baseball all-star team won the Mississippi state championship and thought we’d be competing in the Babe Ruth Regional tournament outside the state.

As we congratulated ourselves after the championship game, members of the McComb Rotary Club, our local league sponsor, gathered us up and informed the team that we’d not be competing in the regional tournament because we might encounter a team with blacks on its roster.

We boys were crushed to hear that news. We would have played Russia, Red China, Iran, Cuba or a team of 16 Blacks from anywhere in the world. All we wanted to do was play more baseball and possibly win the Babe Ruth national championship. Three years earlier, almost the same team won the state youth baseball championship and was co-runnerup in the World Series. We had a fine baseball team.

Thank you coaches Bradshaw, Dodd, McCarthy, Bryant, Croom and the others who boldly stepped out of the world of segregated athletics in this region. It’s time again to play some ball.

---Mac Gordon is a native of McComb. He is a retired newspaperman. He can be reached at macmarygordon@gmail.com. COME SEE DR. LAMPTON AT THE FRYE/MAGNOLIA CLINIC BUILDING LOCATED AT 111 MAGNOLIA STREET!!! Mississippi State University basketball Coach Babe McCarthy. Playing Anyway: THE HEROS WHO CHANGED SOUTHERN SPORTS by Mac Gordon, GAZETTE Contributing Editor Georgia Tech football coach Bobby Dodd.