1959 Ole Miss Football team.
OXFORD, Miss. - Considered by many to be the best team in Ole Miss
football history, the legendary 1959 Rebels are being celebrated in a
panel discussion Friday (Oct. 23) at the University of Mississippi.
The team won 10 games and produced six first-team All-Americans, two
members of the College Football Hall of Fame and a graduating class
that included distinguished physicians, business and professional
leaders and a future athletics director and UM chancellor.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the season, David Kellum, radio
"Voice of the Rebels," leads a discussion with Hall of Fame members
Jake Gibbs and Charlie Flowers and their teammates Warner Alford, Bobby
Franklin and Robert Khayat at 5 p.m. in the Overby Center for Southern
Journalism and Politics. The free program, which is open to the public,
also includes a screening of film footage from the season.
Ole Miss capped that season with a 21-0 victory over LSU in the Sugar Bowl and was named the SEC "Team of the Decade."
"They finished 10-1 and gave up only 21 points all year and shut
out eight opponents," said Langston Rogers, senior associate athletics
director. "Four different ratings systems declared them national
champions. In fact, Sagarin selected the 1959 Rebels as its No. 3
all-time, highest-rated college team from 1956 to 1995, trailing only
Nebraska's 1995 and 1971 teams."
The leader of the team, Coach Johnny Vaught, was later named to
the College Football Hall of Fame, and six members of the team -
Flowers, Gibbs, Marvin Terrell, Johnny Brewer, Doug Elmore and Billy
Ray Adams - earned first team All-American honors during their careers.
All surviving members of the team have been invited to the program. A reception in the Overby Center follows.
The salute to the Ole Miss team is the fourth in a series this
fall called "Gatherings Before the Grove" on Friday afternoons before
home football games.
For more information about "Gatherings Before the Grove," visit http://www.overbycenter.org.
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