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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Running Forward
9/29/2007 | Football
By Jay D'Abramo
Assistant Director of Athletics Media Relations
Over two years have passed since Hurricane Katrina destroyed hundreds of miles of land across the coasts of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana in one full swoop in late August 2005. For Ole Miss running back, and New Orleans, La., native BenJarvus Green-Ellis, recalling the chilling events in the aftermath of the disaster provides a vivid insight of how everything his family had ever worked for was taken away in the blink of an eye.
Green-Ellis, who transferred to Ole Miss from Indiana following the 2004 season, had already reported to campus weeks prior to Katrina. During the storm, Green-Ellis remained in Oxford while some of his family evacuated New Orleans and headed all over the country to seek shelter. Despite the various locations of his family, Green-Ellis recalls not being able to contact his family on their cell phones because of the loss of power in the area.
"Everybody's cell phones weren't working for two weeks to a month," Green-Ellis said. "Every time you tried to pick up the phone and call someone the line was busy. We figured out though that you could use text messaging to get in touch with someone. Everybody had to learn how to use text messaging, old people and young people. It took a while for me to find out that my grandparents were alright because they didn't know how to use text messaging. But my cousins helped them, and they figured it out."
Upon returning back to his community months after the storm, Green-Ellis and his family saw first hand the destruction Katrina had caused to the city of New Orleans.
"My whole area was one of the worst hit areas of New Orleans," Green-Ellis said. "The house and roof were damaged, and everything had to be rebuilt. We had to go to Houston and get apartments. Some of my family went to Atlanta, Miami and California and did the same thing."
Finally able to return to his New Orleans community around Christmas time, Green-Ellis remembers barely even recognizing the neighborhood in which he grew up.
"All I could say was whoa' when I first got back to New Orleans," Green-Ellis said. "It looked like a ghost town when I got back. There wasn't anybody on the block where I used to live. I was actually coming in from Washington D.C., and I was driving on the interstate. Once we got near Slidell, we saw that the interstate had collapsed and it wasn't even there anymore."
Due to NCAA transfer rules, a player who transfers to another division one school must sit out a year before returning to the field of play. This rule turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Green-Ellis. He was able to travel on the weekends to see his family since the NCAA prohibits transfers from traveling or participating in home games.
"During the week I used football as a way to get my mind off what happened, but once practice was finished for the day it was back to the same old thing," Green-Ellis said.
"I would practice during the week with the scout team and then I would head home on the weekends to be with my family. Once my family went back to New Orleans I would go home and help my grandfather and grandmother work on their house. I actually gutted my own house, and then I helped my grandfather gut his whole house."
Although football is an afterthought during tragedies like Hurricane Katrina, Green-Ellis continued to work and train during the week to make himself ready for his junior season (2006). As the 2006 season progressed, Green-Ellis emerged as one of the SEC's top running backs as he rushed for 1,000 yards, becoming just the third player in Ole Miss history to accomplish that feat.
"Last year was more of a step-by-step season, but it was really just another year for me," Green-Ellis said. "It wasn't a season I necessarily dedicated to the hurricane, but once the season was over it was something I looked back on and was proud of what I had accomplished. At the end of the season I looked back at some of the games and figured out what I needed to improve on to have an even better senior season."
Green-Ellis, tabbed as a preseason All-SEC Second Team member, also earned national notice as one of 51 candidates for the 2007 Doak Walker Award, an award given annually to the nation's top running back. Through three games, Green-Ellis has 371 yards rushing, including a career-high 226 yards against Missouri on Sept. 8 at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
"This season we started off good with a big win on the road at Memphis," Green-Ellis said. "Now we are sitting at 1-2, and all we can do is get ready for Florida on Saturday.
"It's great to be a candidate for the Doak Walker Award, but all I can do is prepare my best each week and take it one game at a time. You don't want to be sitting around Friday night and think you could have run harder in practice. You don't want to think you should have picked up that block in practice instead of lollygagging around and then lose your confidence during the game on Saturday."
Even though football is his main concern this season, Green-Ellis still returns home to New Orleans frequently to visit the site that was completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina just over two years ago. Although much of the area is still recovering from the damage that was caused, Green-Ellis believes that New Orleans has come a long way and will continue to press on as a city and a community. In fact, the Green-Ellis family recently moved back to New Orleans, and are living happily in the city they call home.
"It's coming along, but there are still certain areas that are in bad shape," Green-Ellis said. "New Orleans is a strong community, and I know it will make a full recovery."
