Losing Good Friends

The passing of Bobby Wilson, a baseball and football star at Ole Miss and the death of Nick (The Cat) Revon of Southern Mississippi was a shocker. Both had been ill for some time. I wish I could have seen them one more time. The All-American Football Foundation wanted to honor Bobby at our Mid-South Banquet of Champions in Tunica in early June with our President Gerald R. Ford All-America High School Coach award for the outstanding job he had done over the years as a coach after his pro baseball days were over.

Bobby's declining health kept him from being with us. We will honor him posthumously in 2009 and will invite his dear wife, Martha, to accept the award.

Nick Revon played at Hinds before he went to Southern. Bucky McElroy, the Black Knight, was there at the same time and we called Bucky to tell him of the sad news. Revon was a star in basketball, baseball and track. He is Southern's all-time basketball scoring leader. He played for the Phillips 66 semi-pro team after leaving Hattiesburg.

Lee Floyd recruited Nick for Southern, where he joined Tom (Whiz) Bishop, Jack Gallagher, Jeep Clark, Mutt Watts, Mickey Harrington, Bobby (Stormy) Weathers and Jersey John O'Keefe in giving Southern some of the all-time great basketball teams.

Floyd had coached at Pensacola Navy before coming to Southern. He brought Gallagher and Bishop with him. Bishop was also a big league prospect as a shortstop before he was beaned and lost the central vision in an eye. That ended his baseball career, but years later he hit the Lottery for five or six million dollars in his native Pennsylvania, where he was an outstanding high school basketball coach.

Revon coached in his native Louisiana and was very successful. We still recall one night a few of us joined Nick in the French Quarter where everyone knew Nick. We caught a few shows including the legendary Lilly (The Cat Girl) Christine. I wrote a column about the Cat Girl and Nick the Cat sharing a stage in ole New Orleans.

Bobby Wilson was an outstanding defensive football player as well as a backup to Charlie Conerly as a single wing tailback along with Will Glover. Wilson could have made it in the NFL or Canadian League, but he was even better prospect in Baseball. Like Hugh Laurin Pepper Bobby did not make it as a major leaguer, but he felt he had to give it his best shot.

Pepper had signed a $40,000 bonus after his junior year at Southern where he was a Little All-America running back with McElroy in a one-two punch which reminded some of Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis. In those days bonus players had to stay with the big league team for two years, spending most of the time on the bench.

This was a bad rule bonus players should have been playing in the minors,particularly pitchers who could be on the mound every four days competing rather than sitting on a bench in the majors. Pepper thought about playing Pro Football after a few years but Pro Football did not have a retirement program at that time as did Baseball.

Chuck Finley succeeded Lee Floyd when Floyd went back to El Paso to enter business with a boyhood pal. He later returned to Southern but that is another story. One day in the gym club and fraternity players were practicing. I asked Finley did he ever watch youngsters like this practice, suggesting some might be sleepers. Finley looked at me like I was nuts. I told him , for instance, look at that little fellow down at the far end of the court. The little guy was popping the basket relentlessly. Finley looked closer and closer, figuring I might have hit the jackpot. Then I told him that lad was not a Frat player or a club player but the great Nick Revon.
Finley looked at me again. He knew he had been victimized by his own press agent.
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