{fall tr avel is sue}
Ole Miss, who has written extensively on the period. “Meredith has always been his own man.” That has infuriated his critics, never more than when he became an adviser to conservative North Caro- lina Sen. Jesse Helms in the late 1980s. “I wrote to every office on Capitol Hill looking for work, and he was the only one who offered me a job,” Meredith says. But his historical status appears se-
cure. As the throng moves from the Grove to the game, we meet three black students, all Ole Miss freshmen. One calls Meredith his hero. “You hear about him all the time,” he says. “But I never thought I’d get to see him.”
■
Vaught-Hemingway Stadium is by far the largest structure on campus, and the 60,000-seat shrine to Mississippi foot- ball is filled to capacity for today’s game. Thousands of crimson-clad Alabama fans are on hand, many seated behind one end zone with their team’s famed “million-dollar” marching band, which puts on an impressive pre-game show. Eastland and Meredith have seats
near midfield just below the press box, where, according to Hiram, Archie Manning is a home-game regular. In Mississippi, Manning is a football icon. He’s so revered at Ole Miss that the campus speed limit is 18 miles an hour, the uniform number he wore when he played quarterback. He and his wife, Olivia, a former Ole Miss homecoming queen, live in New Orleans and own a condo in Oxford. Manning, unfortunately, isn’t at the
game, but it’s hard not to feel his pres- ence. A towering action photo of him taken during his Ole Miss playing days dominates the press box lobby where sportswriters continue to follow his every move. He’s in New York, one writ- er says, to watch his son Eli quarterback the Giants. Eli played college football at Ole Miss. His older brother Peyton, who broke with family tradition to play at Tennessee, quarterbacks the India- napolis Colts. Alabama lives up to its national
ranking, dominating Ole Miss during the first half. When Eastland hears that Archie Manning’s not in town, he sug- gests I give him a call. The two grew up
together in the Mississippi Delta. Man- ning was a high school phenom sought by colleges in the North and South, but everyone who knew him was sure he’d end up a Rebel. “The only dream I ever had was to
play quarterback for Ole Miss,” Man- ning tells me later by phone. He got the job at age 19, the first time coach Johnny Vaught had ever started a soph- omore signal caller. The decision paid off. Manning went on to set school re- cords for running and passing, and in 1969 was named the most valuable player in the Southeastern Conference. Now a football analyst on television,
Manning’s never regretted spending most of his 14-year professional career with the once-lowly New Orleans Saints. It’s hard to compile Hall of Fame statis- tics with a lackluster team. “I know my heart was there to accomplish success,” he said in an interview when he retired from the game in 1985. “I’m not scared by the lack of winning.” And there’s no denying he’s begotten winners. Man- ning’s greatest contribution to the NFL could be his two sons, Peyton and Eli, each of whom has quarterbacked victo- rious Super Bowl teams. “I love Ole Miss,” Manning says,
adding he’s sorry he couldn’t make the Alabama game, which may be just as well. His alma mater lost 22-3. “Meredith and Manning helped re-
define Ole Miss — one in civil rights, the other on the football field,” David Sansing says after the game. “What makes them unique is that they aren’t celebrities. They’re folk heroes. There’s even a folk song about Archie Manning. But the point is they never sought the limelight, never pretend to be anything other than what they are. Two totally normal people who gave the universi- ty an authenticity it wouldn’t have had otherwise.” Eastland and Meredith are back at
Eastland’s tent near the Lyceum. The sky is overcast, and there’s a fall chill in the air. Reason enough for a final round of bourbon and water, accompanied by what’s left of a plate of Abner’s fried chicken. James and Judy Meredith have to leave for Jackson, and Eastland and I walk them part of the way to their car. “James really enjoyed himself,” Judy
34 The WashingTon PosT Magazine | september 12, 2010
a version of ole Miss’s former mascot, Colonel Reb, appears with an elvis impersonator before the Mississippi- arkansas game last october.
says. Eastland promises to see them again over Christmas.
■
Walking around in the Grove, East- land spots his Greenwood neighbors the Freemans talking to Jeannie Falkner. “Jeannie’s related to William Faulkner,” he says. “And spells her name the old way without the ‘u’ that Faulkner added.” Falkner, who teaches social work at
Delta State University, explains that her grandfather and Faulkner’s father were brothers, which makes her part of the most celebrated literary family in the state. “I hate to admit it,” she says. “I just haven’t read that much Faulkner. And I majored in English at Ole Miss, too.” This year, she provided an elabo-
rate cotton-branch centerpiece for the Greenville tent. “With everybody grow- ing corn and soybeans these days, it gets harder and harder to find nice white Mississippi cotton. I found this bunch in Sunflower County.” The next morning before I fly back
to Washington, Eastland wants to show me Rowan Oak, William Faulkner’s house. The drive takes us past another famous Oxford residence, an imposing white mansion that inspired the Comp- son home in “The Sound and the Fury,” Faulkner’s 1929 novel whose theme of spiritual strength would recur through- out his fiction. Rowan Oak, three blocks away, is a
Savings For Ever
SAVE Up To $500 Complete Garage Call Now For D
museum owned by the university. It looks so Faulknerian, it could have materialized out of one of the former home owner’s
FREE
In Home Consultations!
In Home Consultations!
C
Washington Families L For Things They K
Our Closets Are Designed To Save
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166