Chucky

30 INVITATION OXFORD | Football and Fashion 2014

Football and Fashion 2014 | INVITATION OXFORD 31
by Caitlin Adams
A new book and documentary, both out in September, explore the legacy of University of Mississippi
football player Chucky Mullins on the 25th anniversary of his fatal hit.
Remembering
CHUCKY
ON OCT. 28, 1989, Roy Lee “Chucky” Mullins
walked onto the field at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium for a homecoming game against
Vanderbilt University. Those steps were the last he would ever take.
As the 25th anniversary of the hit that left Mullins paralyzed and proved ultimately
fatal draws near, friends, teammates and University of Mississippi fans remember
the young defensive back who faced adversity with bravery. Coliseum Drive will be
renamed Roy Lee “Chucky” Mullins Drive on Sept. 27, when Ole Miss takes on the
University of Memphis. A new book written by a former teammate and a documentary
airing on ESPN’s new SEC Network will both be released this month.
PHOTOGRAPHCOURTESYOFOLEMISSATHLETICS

On Sept. 6, the Ole Miss Rebels kick off
the second game of the season in Nashville
against the Vanderbilt Commodores. Two days
prior, on Sept. 4, old wounds will be revisited
when ESPN airs a documentary centered on
the events that happened while playing the
same opponent 25 years earlier.
The 90-minute documentary It’s Time,
produced by Emmy-winning director Fritz
Mitchell, tells the story of the two young men
whose lives were forever changed on Oct. 28,
1989: Rebel Chucky Mullins and Commodore
Brad Gaines.
Mullins died 18 months after the hit that
left him a quadriplegic, and Gaines has lived
with the burden of that day for a quarter cen-
tury. The film follows Gaines as he continues
to struggle with Mullins’ fate, years after his
death.
“Even though they didn’t know each other
before Oct. 28, for a year and a half they ended
up becoming good friends,” Mitchell said. “In
a way they’re inseparable. They were almost
fused together that day on the field.”
IT’S TIME
Inspired by an unlikely friendship born out of tragedy, It’s Time, a new ESPN documentary, explains what happened after a
1989 play in which Chucky Mullins suffered a broken neck while hitting Vanderbilt running back Brad Gaines.

The film, named for the two words Mullins
spoke to his teammates in an emotional locker
room reunion seconds before they played the
Liberty Bowl that same season, centers around
both Mullins’ legacy and Gaines’ life.
A portion of the documentary was filmed
in Oxford, and viewers will see snippets of
Vaught-Hemingway Stadium and an interview
with Billy Brewer.
Brewer, who was standing next to Mullins
seconds before he ran onto the field that day,
said the milestone anniversary is hard for him.
“It almost seemed like it happened last
week,” he said.
Brewer recalled Mullins’ initial visit to Ole
Miss and how the now-retired coach had no
plans of signing the small player.
“He was different,” Brewer said. “When he
came into my office, he was selling me instead
of me selling him.”
Brewer told Mullins that in his opinion,
he wasn’t strong enough, fast enough or big
enough. But what Mullins said next led Brewer
to offer him a scholarship.
“His reply was, ‘But I’ve got heart,’”
Brewer said.
It’s that attitude, Brewer said, that kept
Mullins mentally strong after his body became
a prison.
Before filming began, Mitchell said he
knew of Mullins’ story surrounding the hit, but
he was unfamiliar with Gaines and the impact
Mullins had on the Vanderbilt player’s life. But
once the cameras began rolling last fall, the
connection was undeniable.
The documentary follows Gaines in
Nashville as he tailgates with family and reflects
on the sport that he lost an appetite for after
Mullins’ hit.
“Here’s this guy who shouldn’t have
felt any guilt after that day,” Mitchell said of
Gaines. “It’s an interesting exploration about
why a guy felt so personally attached and why
he felt so guilty.”
Mitchell then followed Gaines as he made
two of four annual pilgrimages in Mullins’
honor. Cameras captured Gaines May 6, the
anniversary of Mullins’ death, as Gaines picked
weeds and cleaned Mullins’ Russellville, Ala.,
gravesite with a toothbrush and rags.
The last trip brought Gaines, along with
Mitchell’s camera crew, to Oxford for his yearly
trip to the Chucky Mullins Courage Award
banquet. This year, the film crew captured
linebacker Deterrian Shackelford becoming
the first player to win the award twice.
After talking to former teammates Deano
Orr and Trea Southerland, Mullins’ guard-
ians Karen and Carver Phillips and Ole Miss
football trainer Leroy Mullins (no relation),
Mitchell was surprised by how eager people
were to talk about Mullins on camera.
“People came to it very open and willing
to discuss Chucky,” Mitchell said. “In a way it’s
therapeutic for them.”
But even after all these years, emotions
were still raw.
“There are a lot of tears shed,” he said of
the film. “It’s not that they haven’t gotten over
it; it’s just that they still can’t believe this many
years later that a guy died at 21 who appreciated
life so deeply. It sticks with people.”
It’s Time debuts Sept. 4 at 7 p.m. (CST)
on the SEC Network.
The Southeastern Conference and ESPN have
signed a 20-year agreement, through 2034,
to create the SEC Network, which launched in
August. The new network airs SEC games and
SEC-specific content 24 hours a day, seven
days a week. The Mullins documentary It’s
Time debuts on the new channel. Visit
espnsecnetwork.com for more information.
Opposite page, Mullins with coach Billy Brewer in 1989. Left, Brad Gaines (pictured far right) helps carry Mullins’ casket in 1991. After the hit, Mullins died of complications from a blood
clot in his lungs. Right, in a still from It’s Time, Gaines sits in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in a moment of quiet reflection. The film explores the connection that Gaines still feels to Mullins.
PHOTOGRAPHCOURTESYOFESPN

Jody Hill grew up playing football, dreaming that one day he would
get to wear a red and blue Rebel jersey. When the Falkner, Miss., native
earned a walk-on spot on the 1989 University of Mississippi football
team, he thought he had finally arrived.
As fate would have it, Hill was sidelined a week before the season
opener with torn cartilage in his knee. He watched from the sidelines
as his teammates rushed out onto the field. One player in particular,
wearing No. 38, took his spot on the kick-return team.
During the midseason homecoming game against Vanderbilt, No.
38, Chucky Mullins, dove headfirst into a Vanderbilt player on the 12-
yard line.
In an instant, everything changed.
“I can’t really tell you the hush that was in the stadium at that in-
stant,” former Ole Miss head coach Billy Brewer said. “It was dead quiet.
You couldn’t hear a single conversation.”
The collision sent an explosion through Mullins’ spine, instantly
paralyzing him from the neck down. Nineteen-year-old Hill watched in
horror as his teammate and friend was carried motionless off the field.
Now, years after hanging up his cleats, Hill returns to his Ole Miss
football days with a book about his teammate. Named after Mullins’ foot-
ball jersey number, the book of personal stories and memories explores
the short life and lasting legacy of Rebel football player Chucky Mullins.
It wasn’t on a whim that Hill, a Presbyterian minister, decided to
delve into new territory and write the story of a teammate he knew a
quarter century ago.
“It was a hunger, a passion to understand what made Chucky tick,”
Hill said.
Hill’s son, Noah, had just celebrated his first birthday in 2007 when
doctors told the family he was deaf. Hill and his wife, Monya, were
trying to come to grips with the news. In his time of grief, Hill recalled
Mullins smiling from his hospital bed amid tubes, wires and a ventilator.
He couldn’t wrap his mind around how a young Mullins maintained an
undefeatable spirit, even after he was told he would never walk again.
“I was trying to get to the why and how,” Hill said. “He responded
to hardship with such grace. Fate frowned upon Chucky, and he gave it
back a smile.”
Hill didn’t want the book to be just his opinion, so he spent two years
traveling the country interviewing friends, family and fans of Mullins’.
He found out that Mullins may not have had a long life, but he touched
so many people along the way.
“What I wasn’t prepared for was the far-reaching effect he had
beyond the football field that is felt and seen even today,” Hill said. “Here
38: THE CHUCKY MULLINS EFFECT
A new book by Jody Hill, a former teammate of Mullins’, explores Mullins’ life and legacy.
PHOTOGRAPHEDBYPAULGANDY

we are so many years later and this university, people who knew him and
love him, refuse to let his spirit die.”
The result is a story of resilience and how one man’s journey – cut
too short by one fatal game – changed an entire university.
The book, consisting of 38 short chapters, is a series of short personal
anecdotes as told to Hill, providing an inside view into the life of Mullins
through never-before-shared stories.
Many people share their personal experiences, from a 9-year-old
whose artwork decorated Mullins’ hospital room to the first teammate
to wear No. 38 after Mullins’ accident. Hill takes readers inside Mullins’
hospital room, including a visit from President George H.W. Bush.
Teammates paint a picture of Mullins in the year before the accident
as a teen clowning around during late nights in the dorm, and after,
recuperating in a windowless room at an Alabama rehabilitation facility.
Beyond one man’s life, Hill uses the book to shine light on the bigger
picture: how a young football player, confined to a hospital bed, shattered
racial barriers in a place marred continuously by racial tensions.
“Without moving a muscle, he moved our world,” Hill said. “He
was a black kid from Alabama, not a white boy from Jackson. Yet our uni-
versity united behind his needs in response to his enduring personality.”
In the aftermath of the accident, Oxford – and the nation – sprung
Opposite page, Jody Hill, the author of 38: The Chucky Mullins Effect.
Above, President George H.W. Bush visits Chucky Mullins in the hospital.

to action. Kentucky Fried Chicken buckets
passed around the stands of Vaught-Hemingway
stadium collected thousands of dollars for
Mullins’ medical bills; scholarships were
established in his honor; and Ole Miss students
and staff and Oxford residents came together
to build a wheelchair-accessible house for
Mullins and his family.
“Black, white, yellow … the whole bit,”
Brewer said. “If there was any fringe out there,
he closed the gap. His accident showed the
true heart of the Mississippi people and the
University of Mississippi.”
Hill sees the book as a reminder to live life
fully, no matter the circumstances.
“Now the question is ‘What?’” Hill said.
“What can I do to live in the spirit of 38?
We should all be as lucky to live life the way
Chucky lived his 21 years.”
Hill signs copies of his book at 5 p.m. on
Sept. 12 at Off Square Books.
Left, an Ole Miss team photo. Right, (pictured from left) Jody Hill and his wife, Monya, with Karen and Carver Phillips, who were Chucky Mullins’ caretakers and guardians.
“Here we are so many years later
and this university, people who
knew him and love him, refuse to
let his spirit die.”
– Jody Hill, author of 38: The Chucky Mullins Effect
PHOTOGRAPHCOURTESYOFJODYHILL

Chucky Mullins Courage Award winner Deterrian Shackelford, left,
with coach Hugh Freeze. Shackelford wears No. 38 this fall.
CHUCKY MULLINS COURAGE AWARD
After Chucky Mullins’ accident, the Ole Miss football
program decided not to retire the No. 38. Instead, coach Billy
Brewer insisted that the number become an armor of honor,
given to the defensive player whose attitude on and off the field
celebrates the legacy of Chucky Mullins.
Each spring, the Ole Miss football program hosts the
Chucky Mullins Courage Award banquet. At this year’s breakfast
on April 5, marking the 25th anniversary of Mullins’ accident,
coach Hugh Freeze named graduate student and linebacker
Deterrian “DT” Shackelford as the award’s recipient.
Shackelford is the first-ever two-time recipient. The
Decatur, Ala., native, who was first awarded No. 38 in 2011,
ended up sitting on the bench for the 2011 and 2012 seasons
with a knee injury.
“The impact that those two knee surgeries had on me, I kind
of took on that spirit that Chucky displayed every day in the
training room and different things I did,” Shackelford said after
accepting his award. “I never knew I would have that kind of
connection with him.”
Shackelford wears the No. 38 jersey this fall, his last season
with the Rebels.

Chucky

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Chucky