Archie And The War Between The States

Mississippi is the place where a doctor hangs up a picture of Archie Manning and asks, "Is it really wrong for a 40-year-old man to be in love with a 21-year-old boy?" Manning is the red-haired, freckle-faced country boy who serves the University of Mississippi both as superstar quarterback and resident folk hero, and last week before the big game with Alabama all sorts of Archie jokes were floating around the Ole Miss campus. For example, there was the one about the poor fellow in Tupelo who intended to jump off a bridge.

"Wait," said a friend. "Think about your family and your religion."

"Don't have any family," the jumper said, "and I don't believe in religion."

"Well," said his friend, desperately, "then think about Archie."

"Archie who?"

"Jump, you s.o.b., jump."

So you might say Manning was in people's thoughts as Ole Miss set out last Saturday night to beat Bear Bryant and his stoked-up, much improved Alabama team. All week the game had been billed as a replay of last year's turmoil. That had been college football's answer to Gone with the Wind, an Old South spectacular awash with melodrama, madness and more passes than Rhett Butler ever threw. At the end Manning had 540 yards in total offense, not to mention a national reputation, but Alabama and its fine quarterback, Scott Hunter, had won 33-32. The game had ended with a to-be-continued feeling in the air, however, because Ole Miss was driving as the final whistle sounded. Every Rebel fan believed that, given a few more seconds, Archie would have been able to save the honor of the Rebels. Sour grits, said Alabamans; take your loss and mount it up there with your Archie buttons. And there the matter simmered until last weekend, when the rivals met chinstrap-to-chinstrap in Jackson's Memorial Stadium. The game had been a sellout for four months. At the kickoff the 46,000 seats were overflowing with bourbon-sipping, flag-waving zealots, and the flags were not designed by Betsy Ross.

This time Alabama had to play without Hunter, who was on the sidelines because of a shoulder separation, and that was a pity. However, Manning showed the enemy none as he marched the Rebels to touchdowns the first two times they had the ball. The score was 14-0, it was still early in the first quarter, and all the Ole Miss fans were risking tennis elbow from waving their Stars and Bars. But on the field, Guard Skip Jernigan smiled grimly to a teammate and said, "The thing about Alabama is that they never give up. You can have them down 40-0 and they will still come back."

Come back they did. With Manning unable to run well because of a groin injury, and not really on target with his passing, the Ole Miss offense sputtered long enough for Alabama to creep back within nine points, 26-17, in the third quarter. Then the Mississippi defense, which had been swarming over Alabama Quarterback Neb Hayden, recovered a fumbled punt, and that was all the inspiration Archie needed. His passes began connecting. Suddenly Ole Miss had three more touchdowns and had turned the Tide for good.

With the final score Ole Miss 48, Alabama 23, Rebel rooters were justifiably jubilant. It was only the second time Mississippi had beaten Alabama in the last 60 years. Moreover, the Rebels now were 3-0 on the season and bound to move up in the polls. The one person who was not completely happy was Manning himself, even though he had completed 10 of 24 passes for 157 yards and three touchdowns and had run nine times for 46 yards and two more TDs. "I didn't think our passing game was real sharp," Archie said between sips of Coke in the locker room. "And my leg was hurting, so I didn't feel fast. Understand, I'm not complaining, because we got the points on the scoreboard. But the defense won this game. They gave us all the breaks and we took it in."