By Steve Stricker
Columnist

The 1989 Ole Miss Rebels first home football game with seventh-year head coach Billy Brewer was Arkansas State, 1:00 pm Saturday, September 16th. To avoid traffic, parked my bought new 1971 MGB-GT by St. Peters Episcopal Church and walked to the stadium. The temperature in the 90s, sidewalks jammed with festive people dressed in red and blue, pulling coolers on wheels, babies in “backpacks,” six-year-old cheerleaders and rising football players everywhere.

As I passed in front of now “my” St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, could hear the Ole Miss band and resisted the urge to walk faster. Glad I walked as traffic was bumper to bumper, cars parked all over University Avenue on curbs, grass, and sidewalks, wedged into every nook and cranny forcing us pedestrian ants to weave around them. Crossing the 1857 Hilgard Cut Railroad Bridge, stopped in my tracks to take in the most extraordinary sight of my entire life – the Grove was transformed from a beautiful, peaceful 10-acre green space into an amazing city of red and blue canopies, parked cars, and hordes of impeccably dressed people, including visitors, having a swell, Hotty Toddy time.

Standing on the sidewalk across from Coulter Hall, gazing out across the Grove, know my mouth was wide open as my brain tried to absorb the spectacle. The Grove had changed so much I hardly knew where was slowly navigating my way through this wonderland. Some “tents” were festooned with chandeliers hanging above tables covered with white cloths laden with enough food on silver platters to feed a small army. It became quickly apparent that generations of Ole Miss Rebels were celebrating this annual event and passing on time-honored and elegant traditions.

My first experience with The University of Mississippi and Oxford was in 1967 when my Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO) Pike pledge class captured an active and went on a “Walkout” to the Ole Miss Pike chapter. Falling in love with the Campus and town, as the very attractive sorority lass around the gathered piano, sang, “Let’ all get drunk and go naked,” I vowed then and there that if possible I would return one day to work there. Fast forward a lifetime to finally graduating from SEMO, not dying (God) immediately after drafted in Vietnam, marriage, divorce, three sons, two master’s degrees, wanting my Ph.D., applied for a Graphics Art position at Ole Miss, only thing open, so my studies would be paid for.

While waiting for a reply, on Saturday, October 8 (son Stephen’s birthday) watched on TV as Ole Miss defeated Alabama for the first time ever at home 22-12! This was a good sign as I received an interview that next month, drove to Oxford, was offered the job, accepted into the Counseling program, and began my eight-year trek to completion of my Ph.D., May 10th my birthday, hooded by hero Chancellor Robert Khayat, and delivered a commencement speech as President of the Graduate Student Body with the entire family present.

An hour before the game, still anesthetized by Grove City, followed slow-moving streams of people to the stadium to find my seat and absorb all the pre-game activities. Unreal! We won the game 34-31, and in the electrified atmosphere, I learned how to Hotty Toddy. I had to pinch myself several times (as now) that I was actually in “Camelot,” employed by The University of Mississippi and part of this fabulous SEC sports program as a new Rebel.

Two games later on a gorgeous fall day, I was able to share this experience with sons, Stephen, Scott and Shane as we parked my  MG in the Grove, beat Georgia 17-13, and then again in a frigid Liberty Bowl on December 28 in Memphis defeating Air Force 42-29 for an 8-4 season. Thirty-five years later (bloody hell), I am just as, if not more astonished by the transformed Grove on game day and am so thankful I still live in Oxford.

Hotty Toddy y’all – Go Rebels! JMJ (Jesus, Mary, Joseph).

Steve lives in Oxford, worked on Campus, and received his Ph.D. in Counseling from Ole Miss.