It is one of the most sacred traditions in the Southeastern Conference if not all of college football and it all stems from a seemingly innocuous play in a 1989 game between Ole Miss and Vanderbilt.
The date was October 28 and the Rebels were playing the Commodores in the Rebs’ Homecoming Game in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
Vanderbilt fullback Brad Gaines was the target of a short pass. As Gaines tried to secure the catch, Ole Miss defensive back Chucky Mullins hit the much-heavier Gaines and knocked the ball loose. The two players went down in a heap, but only Gaines was able to get to his feet.
Mullins lay on the turf with four vertebrae in his cervical spine shattered. He was instantly paralyzed and airlifted to Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis where doctors performed a tracheotomy and a five-hour bone graft. The doctors saved Mullins’ life but he would never walk again.
The injury caused an outpouring of emotion and financial support for the junior from Russellville, Alabama. Ole Miss established the Chucky Mullins Trust Fund to manage the money that came in to help the paralyzed player. The city of Oxford donated land for a specifically-designed handicap accessible house for Mullins.
During Mullins’ time in the hospital, Gaines visited him and the two formed a deep friendship. Despite his paralysis, Mullins returned to Ole Miss on June 20, 1990 to complete his undergraduate studies. But on May 6, 1991, he was stricken by a pulmonary embolism and died.
Through the years Gaines has maintained his devotion to the memory of his friend. He maintains Mullins gravesite in Russellville three times a year — May 6 on the anniversary of Mullins’ death, October 28 the anniversary of the injury, and December 25th. Gaines continues his personal pilgrimage to this day.
“The mind is a powerful thing; I don’t know if you’d call it guilt by association or what,” Gaines told Rick Cleveland in a 2009 story in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. “All I know is I’d look at Chucky, not being able to move, and it just killed me inside. In retrospect, I think Chucky could sense the way I felt. He always had that smile, that infectious smile. He always tried to make me feel better about myself and what had happened.”
When recalling the play, Gaines remembered, “It doesn’t look that bad. It looks like a good hit, a good defensive play. You see the same kind of play every Saturday. It’s not helmet to helmet. It doesn’t look that bad, but …”
Billy Brewer was coaching the Rebels that fateful day.
“After he got hurt, all Chucky could move were his lips and his eyes, but they were always smiling,” Brewer told Cleveland. “He never asked, ‘Why me?’ He was a positive influence on everyone he encountered. He kept fighting. He wanted to live.
“He wasn’t big enough or fast enough, but he just worked so hard at it and he made everyone around him a better player. I told him we just didn’t have room for him. But Chucky looked me right in the eye and kept telling me that if we gave him a scholarship, he would earn it, and that we wouldn’t be sorry.
“He told me he’d do anything I’d ask and he’d work hard to get bigger, stronger and faster. I told him that if another recruit backed out of his commitment, I’d call him. Sure enough, somebody did. And Chucky was right. We never regretted it,” said Brewer.
And that’s why at the end of spring football every year the current Ole Miss coach decides which player has earned the right to wear Chucky Mullins’ No. 38 for the coming season.
Mike Marry is a 6-foot-3, 256-pound senior linebacker from Clearwater, Florida. He was third on the Rebels last season with 78 tackles, which ranked 35th in the SEC. He had 10.5 tackles for losses, 2.5 sacks, an interception, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. When you look at game films of the Rebels’ 2012 season, Marry is not hard to spot. He’s the one causing major disruptions for Rebel opponents.
But this season, don’t look for Marry in his familiar No. 52 jersey. Instead, he is the recipient of the Chucky Mullins Memorial Courage Award and will be wearing No. 38, the highest honor an Ole Miss player can achieve.
“It’s a great honor to be a part of this tradition,” Marry said. “Not many people get the chance to do it and it comes with a lot of responsibility, but I feel that the coaches believe that I can handle them, so I am glad that they chose me. It will make me try to go harder and make sure that I do all the little things right because I have more eyes on me now.”
“Mike understands how to be the best teammate on the field and off the field,” Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze said. “He not only plays with great energy and passion, but he understands that building a team and being a leader on the team also requires you to make the proper decisions off the field. He does that very well and expects to hold others to the same standards. Whoever wears 38 has to understand that, and he gets it very clearly.”
Mullins’ life ended far too soon but his spirit is alive on the Ole Miss campus. On game days in Oxford, every Ole Miss player touches a bust of Mullins when he takes the field. And, of course, you can look on the field and there is the reminder of Chucky Mullins with one player wearing No. 38.
This year that tradition will be carried on by Marry.