Manning: Their Father's Day

From SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, October 12, 1970

ARCHIE Manning is the red-haired, freckled-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, "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, Oct. 3, to beat Bear Bryant and his Alabama team. All week the game had been billed as a replay of last year's turmoil, which was 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 of total offense, not to mention a national reputation, but Alabama and its fine quarterback, Scott Hunter, had won 33-32. The game ended with a to-be-continued feeling in the air, because Ole Miss was driving as the final whistle sounded. Every Rebels fan believed that, given a few more seconds, Archie would have been able to save Ole Miss's honor. 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. This time Alabama played without Hunter, who was on the sideline because of a shoulder separation, and that was a pity. Manning, however, showed the enemy none as he marched the Rebels to touchdowns the first two times they had the ball. On the field, guard Skip Jernigan smiled grimly to his 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 temporarily off-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 the Rebels had three more touchdowns and had turned the Tide for good.