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The University of Mississippi Athletics
FEATURE: Two of a Kind
9/30/2015 | Football
By Morgan Goff, Ole Miss Athletics Media Relations
Story Featured in the Ole Miss vs. Vanderbilt Football Game Program (Sept. 26)
When the Ole Miss football team emerges from the tunnel on a fall Saturday in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, each person surrounds the brass Chucky Mullins bust. Some give a gentle nod, while others reach out to touch the memorial engraved with the words, "Never Quit." No matter how, the legacy of Chucky Mullins is acknowledged by each and every coach and student-athlete as they take the field to face the week's opponent.
Today, Mike Hilton, a 5-foot-9, 184-pound senior defensive back from Fayetteville, Georgia dons the number 38 jersey. Thirty-eight represents much more than just a number on a uniform. The precious number encompasses the legacy of the late Chucky Mullins. Mullins also played defensive back for the Ole Miss Rebels, proudly stepping on the turf at an even six-foot tall. Much like Hilton, he was deemed undersized for his position. Despite his supposed lack of size, Mullins was a fierce player who ultimately gave everything to the game he loved. In 1989, as the Rebels took on Vanderbilt in Oxford, Mullins became a quadriplegic after a tragic collision during the game.
Mullins looked the accident in the face and marked it as a battle he would overcome. He impacted the Ole Miss community from that day forward, vowing to "never quit." Mullins lived every part of his vow with a vivacious spirit and always encouraged others, teaching them to be the leader he was. The world lost a hero far too soon when Mullins passed away in 1991.
Former Rebel football player Deterrian Shackelford described the importance of Mullins' slogan, "never quit," when he said, "it is a simple yet complex statement to live out. He never quit. He had a million reasons to throw in the towel, yet he chose to look at life in the most optimistic way, impacting lives that still until this day are hearing the story of a guy that refused to quit."
Mike Hilton will take the field with the number 38 marked across his jersey, knowing what an honor it is.
"Chucky Mullins' legacy means everything to me," Hilton explained. "He was always a leader on and off the field and I try to be as well. I am just really blessed the coaches picked me to wear number 38."
Mullins and Hilton share many similarities. Both can be viewed as too small to be an SEC defensive back, giving them the spirit of a fighter from the very beginning.
Hilton describes the way people's words affected him, saying they were something for him to draw from. He uses that "as motivation to get better each and every day."
Get better, he did. Hilton has notably started at every defensive back position during his football career at Ole Miss (cornerback, Rover, Huskie, free safety), and he is just now into the start of his senior season.
They do not only compare in similar stature, but also in the way they lead their team each and every day. Hilton is a vocal leader. His teammates know that he is always there for them, picking them up and encouraging them to get better - not only after each play, but also off the field and in the classroom.
As a former teammate to Hilton, Shackelford knows exactly why Hilton was chosen by the coaches to garnish the honor of wearing the number 38.
"Mike is a leader," Shackelford said. "Most importantly, not only does he execute by the sound of the lips but rather by the way he displays his life on a daily basis. Mike has always been a leader on the field, in my eyes, but it became much clearer when I saw how he leads when he is not wearing shoulder pads and a helmet."
While Hilton's senior year marches on, the 25th player to win the Chucky Mullins Courage Award will continue striving to live life the way Mullins did.
"I definitely draw on his legacy that calls us to never give up," Hilton said. "You can't quit on anything in life. No matter what it is, you have to do everything to the best of your ability. When you do this, things eventually will work out for you."
Hilton steps out onto Hollingsworth Field as a leader of his team, someone people turn to in times of prosper and in times of turmoil. He gives a nod to the great Chucky Mullins as he emerges from the tunnel. Not because Mullins broke every record in the books, but because of the way he lived his life, because he was, and is, Ole Miss Football.
