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The University of Mississippi Athletics
1959 Team Honored This Evening; Free Webcast Online
10/23/2009 | Football
OXFORD, Miss. - Considered by many to be the best team in Ole Miss football history, the legendary 1959 Rebels are being celebrated in a panel discussion Friday at 5 p.m. in the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics.
The free program, which is open to the public, also includes a screening of film footage from the season. For those unable to attend, a free webcast is available by clicking here.
The team won 10 games and produced six first-team All-Americans, two members of the College Football Hall of Fame and a graduating class that included distinguished physicians, business and professional leaders and a future athletics director and UM chancellor.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the season, David Kellum, radio "Voice of the Rebels," leads a discussion with Hall of Fame members Jake Gibbs and Charlie Flowers and their teammates Warner Alford, Bobby Franklin and Robert Khayat.
Ole Miss capped that season with a 21-0 victory over LSU in the Sugar Bowl and was named the SEC "Team of the Decade."
"They finished 10-1 and gave up only 21 points all year and shut out eight opponents," said Langston Rogers, Senior Associate Athletics Director. "Four different ratings systems declared them national champions. In fact, Sagarin selected the 1959 Rebels as its No. 3 all-time, highest-rated college team from 1956 to 1995, trailing only Nebraska's 1995 and 1971 teams."
The leader of the team, Coach Johnny Vaught, was later named to the College Football Hall of Fame, and six members of the team - Flowers, Gibbs, Marvin Terrell, Johnny Brewer, Doug Elmore and Billy Ray Adams - earned first team All-American honors during their careers.
All surviving members of the team have been invited to the program. A reception in the Overby Center follows.
The salute to the Ole Miss team is the fourth in a series this fall called "Gatherings Before the Grove" on Friday afternoons before home football games.
For more information about "Gatherings Before the Grove," visit http://www.overbycenter.org.
