Education

Ole Miss officials unable to verify athletes disrupted campus play with homophobic slurs

OXFORD, Mississippi (AP) — The University of Mississippi says it has not been able to verify reports that athletes led the disruption of a campus play with gay slurs and inappropriate laughter. University officials said earlier that some freshman athletes participated.

Nobody gave names or accused specific students of misbehaving during “The Laramie Project,” a play about the beating death of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyo., the six-person Bias Incident Response Team reported Friday… […]

News

No. 25 Ole Miss gets big road win at Texas

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Jeff Scott ran for 164 yards and a touchdown and also scored on a 73-yard punt return, helping No. 25 Mississippi roll over reeling Texas 44-23 on Saturday night.

Bo Wallace passed for two touchdowns and ran for another for the Rebels (3-0), who led 14-0 midway through the first quarter before Texas scored 23 straight points.

The Rebels rallied when Andrew Ritter kicked a 52-yard field goal on the last play of the first half and Wallace directed consecutive touchdown drives in the third quarter… […]

Local Sports

Hickerson’s bust presented to Ole Miss

The Pro Football Hall of Fame bust of the late Gene Hickerson has found a permanent home at University of Mississippi.

The Oxford Eagle reports that the bust was presented to Ole Miss by Hickerson’s family. Hickerson helped the Rebels to the 1955 SEC title and a 1956 Cotton Bowl win over TCU, plus a victory over Texas in the 1958 Sugar Bowl.

Hickerson went on to play 15 seasons for the Cleveland Browns as the lead blocker for three Hall of Famers – Jim Brown, Leroy Kelly and Bobby Mitchell. […]

Local Sports

Settlement reached in death of Mississippi player

The family of a Mississippi football player who died following a workout in 2010 has reached a settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit against the university and the NCAA.

Bennie Abram III, a 20-year-old non-scholarship player from Southaven, collapsed during an offseason workout and later died at a hospital in Oxford. An autopsy determined Abram’s death was caused by complications from sickle cell trait, which can alter red blood cells after strenuous exercise.

According to settlement documents, the family will receive $50,000 from the insurance company for the university’s athletic foundation. The Abrams’ attorney, Gene Egdorf of Houston, Texas, says the family also will receive $275,000 from the NCAA’s insurance policy. […]

Local Sports

Rebels’ Henderson reprimanded by NCAA

The NCAA has issued an official reprimand to University of Mississippi basketball player Marshall Henderson for his conduct following the Rebels’ third-round NCAA tournament game.

After Ole Miss’ season-ending 76-74 loss to La Salle in Kansas City on March 24, Henderson reportedly extended both middle fingers to the crowd as he left the court. Henderson later apologized in a letter posted on Ole Miss’ website.

The NCAA issued the reprimand Wednesday, June 26, saying Henderson’s actions failed to represent the “highest standards of sportsmanship.” The reprimand letter came from Ron Wellman, chairman of the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee and athletic director at Wake Forest. […]

Education

Myrlie Evers-Williams encourages UM Graduates to ‘Soar and Be Free’

Evers-Williams, who worked for more than 30 years to seek justice for the 1963 murder of her well-known civil rights activist husband, Medgar Evers, is a former chairwoman of the NAACP and is widely credited with restoring the organization’s reputation and saving it from bankruptcy. Most recently, she delivered the invocation at the second inauguration of President Barack Obama, becoming the first woman to deliver a prayer at a presidential inauguration.

“The lifelong work of Dr. Evers-Williams to keep her husband’s memory alive and to progress his dream has been pivotal in the pathway from adoption of laws calling for fairness to the adoption of fairness into our societal expectations and interpersonal relationships,” said Chancellor Dan Jones, who presented the third University of Mississippi Humanitarian Award to the speaker, honoring her and her slain husband’s memory. […]

Top Stories

Ole Miss trailblazer, James Meredith to receive Harvard award

Dean Kathleen McCartney has announced that Civil Rights activist, author, and political adviser James Meredith will receive the Harvard Graduate School of Education Medal for Education Impact, the highest honor given by the school, and speak at the 2013 Convocationceremony on May 29.

“Just over 50 years ago, Mr. Meredith walked through the doors of the University of Mississippi, becoming the first African American to enroll in the previously segregated school. In doing so, he forced America to look in the mirror and become a better nation. Fifty years later, he is still working to address inequality in America’s schools,” McCartney said. “At HGSE we know that education is a civil right. James Meredith endured beatings and bullets to fight for that right. His courage and determination cannot be overstated. Today, we all walk in his footsteps and through the doors he opened.”

According to Meredith, the award will be the first he has accepted in 50 years. […]

Education

Ole Miss starts writing fines for smoking ban

Smokers on the University of Mississippi campus have received their last warning.

After several years of limiting smoking to designated outdoor areas, Ole Miss officials last August banned all smoking on university property. The smoke-free policy was introduced during the fall semester with warning-only citations, but fines have now begun, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reports. […]

News

Two Ole Miss students killed in head-on collision

Two University of Mississippi students, a brother and sister, were killed Saturday morning in a car accident near the intersection of U.S. Highway 278 and State Highway 7 in Oxford.

The car carrying Katherine Sarah Wheat, a communication science and disorders major, and her brother William John Wheat, an accountancy major, was reportedly traveling westbound when it was hit by another vehicle. […]

Entertainment

Belafonte: Civil rights is a way of life

Entertainer Harry Belafonte says civil rights is a way of life, not just a moment in history.

The 85-year-old singer spoke Monday night at a convocation marking the 50th anniversary of James Meredith’s enrollment as the first black student at the University of Mississippi. […]