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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss Athletics Lands Three in Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2026
11/5/2025 | Football, Track and Field
JACKSON, Miss. – Four-time Olympian and Ole Miss track & field legend Brittney Reese, as well as Rebel football great Louis Guy and former strength coach Johnny Parker, have all been announced as members of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2026 on Wednesday afternoon.
Aside from those three, the induction class for 2026 will include: Mississippi State All-American defensive lineman Glen Collins; Mississippi State All-SEC running back Michael Haddix; William Carey baseball coach Bobby Halford; and Delta State swimming & diving coach and athletic director Ronnie Mayers.
The Class of 2026 will be formally enshrined during the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame Induction Weekend on July 31-August 1, 2026.
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Brittney Reese • Track & Field • 2007-08
Born in Inglewood, California but raised in Gulfport, Mississippi, Reese not only was a transformational athlete for the history of the Ole Miss track & field program, but she went on to become one of the most decorated women's athletes in the history of the United States and one of the most consistent long jumpers in world history.
Reese made Team USA for the Olympic Games four times in 2008 (Beijing), 2012 (London), 2016 (Rio) and 2021 (Tokyo), winning silver twice (2016, '21) and taking gold during her career-defining performance at the London Games in 2012. At the end of her career, Reese was one of only 16 women in U.S. track & field history to qualify for the Olympics four separate times, one of only four to do so in the long jump and one of only three to win three Olympic medals in the event.
Outside of her Olympic accolades, Reese was an 11-time qualifier for the World Championships, where she shined brilliantly as an eight-time medalist and seven-time World champion. Combined with her Olympic appearances, Reese only missed a global long jump final twice in 15 tries from her first professional season in 2008 until her final competition in Tokyo in 2021.
Named Track & Field News' No. 1 American women's athlete of the 2010s, Reese was a force to reckon with domestically in the long jump. She won 13 U.S. titles and 18 total medals, with nine of her national titles coming outdoors alone. Her career-best leap of 7.31m/23-11.75 (+1.7) from the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials still ranks second in American history and ninth in world history, while her indoor best of 7.23m/23-08.75 also still stands as the U.S. record and rests fourth on the world list all-time.
Reese came to Ole Miss from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, where she shined on the basketball court, leading MGCCC to two postseason berths while earning honorable mention All-America status.
But Reese was spectacular on the track during her two years in Oxford, winning two NCAA long jump titles in 2008 while earning five All-America honors, five SEC titles, three SEC Athlete of the Year awards and the 2008 USTFCCCA National Women's Field Athlete of the Year award. She still holds Ole Miss records in the high jump, long jump and triple jump, while her bests in the long jump both indoors (6.87m/22-06.50) and outdoors (6.93m/22-9) both still rank within the top-10 in collegiate history.
This is the fourth Hall of Fame already for Reese, who is also a member of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Hall of Fame (2011), the Ole Miss M-Club Hall of Fame (2018) and the Mississippi Community College Sports Hall of Fame (2021). Since her retirement, Reese has spent her time coaching young track athletes, as an ambassador for the sport for both TrackTown USA and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, and as a philanthropist, holding numerous community events while also being named the Ole Miss Women's Council's Emerging Young Philanthropist for 2022.
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Louis Guy • Ole Miss Football (wingback) • 1960-62
Guy – a native of McComb, Mississippi – was a key member of John Vaught's historic Rebel football teams from the early 1960s, playing wingback for Vaught from 1960-62 and serving as team co-captain for the perfect 10-0 national champion 1962 campaign that ended with a 17-13 Sugar Bowl win for Ole Miss over Arkansas.
Guy was an Honorable Mention All-American by the AP and third-team All-SEC that season by both the AP and UPI, leading Ole Miss in scoring with 48 points. Guy was also an Academic All-SEC member, and that season he was named UPI's National Back of the Week following an excellent game against Tennessee in which he tied the SEC and national record for longest interception return at a 100-yard score.
Guy finished his Ole Miss career with 37 receptions for 440 yards and six touchdowns, while rushing for 424 yards on 90 carries. His five touchdown catches led the SEC in 1962. He played in three total bowl games – two Sugar Bowls and one Cotton Bowl – with a crucial 33-yard score in the 1963 Sugar Bowl that won Ole Miss the national crown. Guy also set what was then an Ole Miss single-game record with three receiving touchdowns against Houston earlier in the 1962 season. Guy was also on the 1960 national champion Ole Miss football team, and was part of two SEC Champion squads in 1960 and 1962.
Also a two-time letterwinner of the Ole Miss track team, Guy participated in the Chicago All-Star Game in 1963 and played two seasons professionally, first with the New York Giants in 1963 and then the Oakland Raiders in 1964. Guy was a third round selection (40th overall) in the 1963 NFL Draft by the Giants, as well as a seventh-round pick by the AFL's New York Titans.
Previously, Guy was inducted into the Ole Miss M-Club Hall of Fame in 1994 and was given the Distinguished American Award by the Ole Miss chapter of the National Football Foundation in 2000.
Prior to Ole Miss, Guy was a standout at McComb High School, earning third-team All-America prep honors while also being named All-Southern and All-Big Eight and playing in the 1959 All-America High School game. Guy graduated from Ole Miss in 1963 before earning his D.D.S. and M.S. in orthodontics from UT Medical school.
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Johnny Parker • Ole Miss Football (strength coach) • 1980-83
Johnny Parker served as a strength coach for the Rebel football program from 1980-83, but it was in the professional ranks where he made a name for himself as one of the top strength coaches in the sport for more than 35 years.
A native of Shaw, Mississippi, Parker graduated from Ole Miss in 1969 with a history degree, but did not play football. But throughout his early coaching career in the middle and high school ranks he became part of the weight-training revolution that would shape the sports world for decades to come. Parker's first major college football job came at South Carolina before serving under Lee Corso at Indiana in 1977 as the first strength coach in the history of the Big Ten Conference.
Parker left for LSU two seasons later, but eventually returned to his alma mater and helped Billy Brewer's 1983 Rebels reach the Independence Bowl – Ole Miss' first bowl game since 1971. Throughout the decade, Parker continued to hone his craft, earning a master's from Delta State and traveling abroad to learn from weightlifting coaches in the Soviet Union.
Parker's first NFL job came in 1984, when Bill Parcells hired him to mold what would become one of the most fearsome defenses in league history with the 1980s New York Giants. There, Parker coached Hall of Fame linebackers Lawrence Taylor and Harry Carson among many others, and was a key part of Parcell's two Super Bowl winning teams in 1986 and 1990.
Parker would follow Parcells to New England, where the duo would advance to another Super Bowl after going 11-5 in 1996 before falling to Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers. His final Super Bowl trip came as part of Jon Gruden's staff on the champion 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he helped build yet another defense that ranks among the most powerful in NFL history.
Aside from those three, the induction class for 2026 will include: Mississippi State All-American defensive lineman Glen Collins; Mississippi State All-SEC running back Michael Haddix; William Carey baseball coach Bobby Halford; and Delta State swimming & diving coach and athletic director Ronnie Mayers.
The Class of 2026 will be formally enshrined during the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame Induction Weekend on July 31-August 1, 2026.
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Brittney Reese • Track & Field • 2007-08
Born in Inglewood, California but raised in Gulfport, Mississippi, Reese not only was a transformational athlete for the history of the Ole Miss track & field program, but she went on to become one of the most decorated women's athletes in the history of the United States and one of the most consistent long jumpers in world history.
Reese made Team USA for the Olympic Games four times in 2008 (Beijing), 2012 (London), 2016 (Rio) and 2021 (Tokyo), winning silver twice (2016, '21) and taking gold during her career-defining performance at the London Games in 2012. At the end of her career, Reese was one of only 16 women in U.S. track & field history to qualify for the Olympics four separate times, one of only four to do so in the long jump and one of only three to win three Olympic medals in the event.
Outside of her Olympic accolades, Reese was an 11-time qualifier for the World Championships, where she shined brilliantly as an eight-time medalist and seven-time World champion. Combined with her Olympic appearances, Reese only missed a global long jump final twice in 15 tries from her first professional season in 2008 until her final competition in Tokyo in 2021.
Named Track & Field News' No. 1 American women's athlete of the 2010s, Reese was a force to reckon with domestically in the long jump. She won 13 U.S. titles and 18 total medals, with nine of her national titles coming outdoors alone. Her career-best leap of 7.31m/23-11.75 (+1.7) from the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials still ranks second in American history and ninth in world history, while her indoor best of 7.23m/23-08.75 also still stands as the U.S. record and rests fourth on the world list all-time.
Reese came to Ole Miss from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, where she shined on the basketball court, leading MGCCC to two postseason berths while earning honorable mention All-America status.
But Reese was spectacular on the track during her two years in Oxford, winning two NCAA long jump titles in 2008 while earning five All-America honors, five SEC titles, three SEC Athlete of the Year awards and the 2008 USTFCCCA National Women's Field Athlete of the Year award. She still holds Ole Miss records in the high jump, long jump and triple jump, while her bests in the long jump both indoors (6.87m/22-06.50) and outdoors (6.93m/22-9) both still rank within the top-10 in collegiate history.
This is the fourth Hall of Fame already for Reese, who is also a member of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Hall of Fame (2011), the Ole Miss M-Club Hall of Fame (2018) and the Mississippi Community College Sports Hall of Fame (2021). Since her retirement, Reese has spent her time coaching young track athletes, as an ambassador for the sport for both TrackTown USA and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, and as a philanthropist, holding numerous community events while also being named the Ole Miss Women's Council's Emerging Young Philanthropist for 2022.
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Louis Guy • Ole Miss Football (wingback) • 1960-62
Guy – a native of McComb, Mississippi – was a key member of John Vaught's historic Rebel football teams from the early 1960s, playing wingback for Vaught from 1960-62 and serving as team co-captain for the perfect 10-0 national champion 1962 campaign that ended with a 17-13 Sugar Bowl win for Ole Miss over Arkansas.
Guy was an Honorable Mention All-American by the AP and third-team All-SEC that season by both the AP and UPI, leading Ole Miss in scoring with 48 points. Guy was also an Academic All-SEC member, and that season he was named UPI's National Back of the Week following an excellent game against Tennessee in which he tied the SEC and national record for longest interception return at a 100-yard score.
Guy finished his Ole Miss career with 37 receptions for 440 yards and six touchdowns, while rushing for 424 yards on 90 carries. His five touchdown catches led the SEC in 1962. He played in three total bowl games – two Sugar Bowls and one Cotton Bowl – with a crucial 33-yard score in the 1963 Sugar Bowl that won Ole Miss the national crown. Guy also set what was then an Ole Miss single-game record with three receiving touchdowns against Houston earlier in the 1962 season. Guy was also on the 1960 national champion Ole Miss football team, and was part of two SEC Champion squads in 1960 and 1962.
Also a two-time letterwinner of the Ole Miss track team, Guy participated in the Chicago All-Star Game in 1963 and played two seasons professionally, first with the New York Giants in 1963 and then the Oakland Raiders in 1964. Guy was a third round selection (40th overall) in the 1963 NFL Draft by the Giants, as well as a seventh-round pick by the AFL's New York Titans.
Previously, Guy was inducted into the Ole Miss M-Club Hall of Fame in 1994 and was given the Distinguished American Award by the Ole Miss chapter of the National Football Foundation in 2000.
Prior to Ole Miss, Guy was a standout at McComb High School, earning third-team All-America prep honors while also being named All-Southern and All-Big Eight and playing in the 1959 All-America High School game. Guy graduated from Ole Miss in 1963 before earning his D.D.S. and M.S. in orthodontics from UT Medical school.
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Johnny Parker • Ole Miss Football (strength coach) • 1980-83
Johnny Parker served as a strength coach for the Rebel football program from 1980-83, but it was in the professional ranks where he made a name for himself as one of the top strength coaches in the sport for more than 35 years.
A native of Shaw, Mississippi, Parker graduated from Ole Miss in 1969 with a history degree, but did not play football. But throughout his early coaching career in the middle and high school ranks he became part of the weight-training revolution that would shape the sports world for decades to come. Parker's first major college football job came at South Carolina before serving under Lee Corso at Indiana in 1977 as the first strength coach in the history of the Big Ten Conference.
Parker left for LSU two seasons later, but eventually returned to his alma mater and helped Billy Brewer's 1983 Rebels reach the Independence Bowl – Ole Miss' first bowl game since 1971. Throughout the decade, Parker continued to hone his craft, earning a master's from Delta State and traveling abroad to learn from weightlifting coaches in the Soviet Union.
Parker's first NFL job came in 1984, when Bill Parcells hired him to mold what would become one of the most fearsome defenses in league history with the 1980s New York Giants. There, Parker coached Hall of Fame linebackers Lawrence Taylor and Harry Carson among many others, and was a key part of Parcell's two Super Bowl winning teams in 1986 and 1990.
Parker would follow Parcells to New England, where the duo would advance to another Super Bowl after going 11-5 in 1996 before falling to Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers. His final Super Bowl trip came as part of Jon Gruden's staff on the champion 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he helped build yet another defense that ranks among the most powerful in NFL history.
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