The University of Mississippi Athletics
Casey Stengel - The Rebs' Professor
2/7/2005 | Baseball
by Raoul Carlisle,
Forrest City, Ark., Times-Herald
Casey Stengel is a man of teaching ability on the field and off the field ... A story in The Sporting News the other day, had a story on why Stengel is called "Professor." Says Stengel, "Nobody has written this, as yet. But I once was the baseball coach at the University of Mississippi. And I did mighty well. In fact, at the time I had ambitions to devote my career to coaching college baseball and basketball." He goes on to say in the article that it was back in 1914 when he hit only .272 and received an injury with Brooklyn. He states he felt insecure and the idea of going into coaching appealed to him. Said Stengel, "I got in touch with Bill Driver, my old baseball and football coach from Central High at Kansas City, who had the basketball and football job at Mississippi. I asked if he needed a coach and he answered, `Yes, come on down." So Stengel went down to Oxford, Miss., to become the Professor of Baseball- "in a very fine atmosphere in a grand old university.'" Says Stengel, "Maybe I should have stayed there, I did okay, had a fine team, and when I left they gave me a gold-headed cane. My sister has it in Kansas City. Maybe it belongs in the Cooperstown Museum. Yes, sir, when they call me the Professor, they ain't kidding. There's a good reason."
