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Follow directions on this page.

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Directions: Using the information that you have gathered from your two days of reading, write a newspaper article discussing Mississippi’s own version of Jackie Robinson.  Make a headline (title) for your article and use information to compare the accomplishments of both of these men.

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* Please spend time and put thought into your bellwork today.
*Analyze articles one and two. Remember to make notes in order to complete a surprise assignment on Wednesday.
* Analyze the video and make notes
* Read the final Hattiesburg American Article

Closure: What is one thing about Willie Heidelberg that stood out to you?

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Over the course of your life, there have been those people who have made a positive impact on you. In your journal, write about how people have been inspirational in your life. Why will you never forget it?

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Hattiesburg American Heidelberg Article: 

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Hattiesburg American Heidelberg Article: 

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As it does seemingly every year, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame announced a stellar class of inductees Monday at its museum.

There's Wesley Walls, the two-way All-American star at Ole Miss who was a four-time All Pro in the NFL. Jackie Sherrill led Mississippi State to the 1998 SEC West championship, took the Bulldogs to six bowl games overall and won 180 games at four schools. Larry Smith was maybe the finest basketball player Alcorn State has ever produced and averaged 9.2 rebounds a game during a 13-season NBA career. Kay James won 488 women's basketball games in 27 years as a head coach, 22 of them at Southern Miss. Sean Brewer was a three-time Division III All-American at Millsaps and, like Walls, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame earlier this year.

But no one had the story that Willie Heidelberg did, because who else became the first black player at one of the major college football programs in Mississippi when he enrolled at Southern Miss in 1970? Who else was nominated by a group of students who learned about him as part of a Black History Month project? Heidelberg was.

It was after Heidelberg's death on Oct. 15, 2013, at the age of 63, that Purvis Middle School assistant principal Frank Bunnell got interested in this project. They were teaching a class of accelerated and gifted students about how to conduct real, non copy-and-paste research when, in coordination with Black History Month, they started learning about Heidelberg (who was from Purvis and attended segregated Jefferson High School). The kids found out that even though Heidelberg was 5-foot-5 and 143 pounds, he had played two years at Pearl River Community College, went to Southern Miss and in the Golden Eagles' upset of then-No. 4 Ole Miss in 1970, Heidelberg had run for two touchdowns. He finished up his career, then coached at Murrah and Belhaven up until his death. They also found out this: Not only was he not in the Hall of Fame, he was not even nominated.

"We were blown away by the kind of character he had, and the impact he had on people," said Bunnell, who is now the principal. "It became a passion of ours to see him on this list of nominations. We had no idea he would even be inducted so soon. It was just get him on this list to honor his family and honor what he means to everybody, anybody who has faced obstacles or gone against monumental odds."

So the class got to work. They collected oral histories from everyone they could find that knew Heidelberg and played with him, and then brought all of that information to the Hall of Fame. It became a project for the entire grade of students, which are now high school freshmen. The five who did the heavy lifting were in attendance Monday to see Heidelberg's sister, Tina Holder, stand and be honored on his behalf. Heidelberg and the other six nominees will be officially inducted on July 30.

"None of this would really be possible without them," Holder said.

Said Allen Cameron, one of the students: "It was very exciting, just to have that feeling of everything we worked for to get him recognized as the person he was paid off. It was something he deserved."

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Purvis students get Heidelberg into Hall

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As it does seemingly every year, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame announced a stellar class of inductees Monday at its museum. There's Wesley Walls, the two-way All-American star at Ole Miss who was a four-time All Pro in the NFL.

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Purvis 7th grade students nominate Heidelberg for MS Sports Hall of fame

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Purvis 7th grade students nominate Heidelberg for MS Sports Hall of fame

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Video

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A group of Purvis Middle School students recently took a trip to Jackson, Mississippi to nominate the late Willie Heidelberg for the impact he made during the Civil Rights Movement.

Seventh graders at Purvis Middle School are studying the Civil Rights Era.

"Our history students wanted to bring that period of history into the history classroom," said Carolyn Spiller, seventh grade social studies teacher.

Spiller, staff, and students are working to let it be known that one of the men who changed the course of history in American sports started his career in Lamar County.

"And we discovered that a man named Willie Heidelberg who played high school football here at John Jefferson was the first African American football player in a predominantly white college in the State of Mississippi," Spiller said.

Heidelberg showed his grit in 1970 when The University of Southern Mississippi defeated Ole Miss 30-14 in one of the biggest upsets in Mississippi sports history.

"Mr. Rick Cleveland from the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame recommended that we nominate him to hall of fame," Spiller added.

The group of seventh graders went to Jackson to hand over nominations from Heidelberg's former coaches and peers to Cleveland himself.

One student says she has learned a lot lately, and that she appreciates everything she's learned about Heidelberg.

"And the thought that he broke the barrier and paved the way for others, that's just, it's huge, it really is," said Shelby Reyer, 7 th grade.

Heidelberg was the first black football player to receive a football scholarship at Southern Miss. Heidelberg died in October of an apparent heart attack. He was 63 years old.

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Purvis students nominate Heidelberg for MS Sports Hall of Fame

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A group of Purvis Middle School students recently took a trip to Jackson, Mississippi to nominate the late Willie Heidelberg for the impact he made during the Civil Rights Movement. Seventh graders at Purvis Middle School are studying the Civil Rights Era.

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Willie Heidelberg's impact on Mississippi Sports

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Willie Heidelberg's impact on Mississippi Sports

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Article #2

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The 2016 class of inductees for the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum has plenty of starpower, but it wouldn't be complete without Purvis native Willie Heidelberg.

Southern Miss coach P.W. "Bear" Underwood recruited Heidelberg as a sophomore out of Pearl River Community College in the spring of 1970. He became the first black football player at the University of Southern Mississippi.

At 5-foot-6, 147 pounds soaking wet, he was the smallest player on the Southerners' roster.

On Oct. 17, the Southerners were set to take the field against No. 4 Ole Miss and legendary Rebels coach John Vaught in Oxford.

A week earlier, the Southerners had been thrashed, 41-14, by San Diego State. A headline in the Meridian Star that week bore a picture of Ole Miss senior captain quarterback and Heisman Trophy front-runner Archie Manning putting on his cleats, with a headline that read, "Is this one even worth suiting up for, Archie?"

The Southerners went into Oxford a near 30-point underdog and, early on, it looked like the game might get that ugly.

Manning hit his favorite target, Floyd Franks, for a 51-yard touchdown strike on the opening drive, and made it look as easy as a stroll in the park.

Nothing was easy for the Rebels after that.

The undersized, outclassed Southern Miss team kept plugging away at its high-caliber counterpart and just kept making plays.

Heidelberg carried the ball three times and caught one pass, scoring twice on end-around reverses from 14 yards out.

Retired New Orleans Saints scout Hamp Cook, then the Southern Miss offensive line coach, said he remembers the two scoring plays like they were yesterday.

"Willie scored on the same play, twice," Cook said. "I remember thinking, 'Man, I can't wait to get home and watch some tape to see how great my guys blocked.' But when I got home to look at the tape, we didn't block anybody, Willie just dodged them all."

As the game went on, the Southern Miss players started to believe, and when the Eagles defense stuffed an Ole Miss drive and got the ball back with two minutes remaining, it sunk in.

Southern Miss defeated Ole Miss, 30-14, with Heidelberg scoring the two touchdowns that made up the difference showing on the scoreboard.

Manning said he, too, will never forget that day.

"I remember we had just put in new astro-turf on the playing field," Manning recalls. "We all thought it was cool, but we started to backtrack a little after Willie was just too fast on it for us to stop him."

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Willie Heidelberg was also a long-time score keeper at the state basketball tournament in Jackson. (Photo: Greg Jenson/The Clarion-Ledger, The Clarion-Ledger)

For days after the game, the headlines in the state's newspapers were dominated by recounts of the game. Some called it the greatest upset in football history, some the "shot heard 'round the football world."

The repercussions from the game have spanned the decades in the state of Mississippi.

Heidelberg went on to get a degree in education, and taught and coached at Jackson's Murrah High School for 25 years.

He coached at Belhaven for 11 years before his death in 2013. He was known locally as much for his diligent work as scorekeeper at the MHSAA state basketball tournament as he was for his on-field heroics.

Heidelberg was nominated for induction by a class at Purvis Middle School who learned about him while conducting an independent study that coincided with Black History Month.

"We were blown away by the kind of character he had, and the impact he had on people," said Frank Bunnell, who is now the principal. "It became a passion of ours to see him on this list of nominations. We had no idea he would even be inducted so soon. It was just get him on this list to honor his family and honor what he means to everybody, anybody who has faced obstacles or gone against monumental odds."
Contact Tyler Cleveland at tcleveland@gannett.com. Follow @tylercleveland on Twitter.

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Heidelberg's impact on Mississippi football unmistakable

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The 2016 class of inductees for the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum has plenty of starpower, but it wouldn't be complete without Purvis native Willie Heidelberg. Southern Miss coach P.W. "Bear" Underwood recruited Heidelberg as a sophomore out of Pearl River Community College in the spring of 1970.

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Willie Heidelberg: Mississippi's own version of Jackie Robinson

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Willie Heidelberg: Mississippi's own version of Jackie Robinson

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ARTICLE #1

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"Willie was humble. He was caring. He was thoughtful. He was loyal. He loved young people and cared deeply about the young people he taught and coached ... Above all else-and this goes back to his days as a 140-pound halfback-Willie was courageous," Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum Director Rick Cleveland said this morning at the funeral of his friend, Willie Heidelberg.

Heidelberg died Tuesday, Oct. 15, in Jackson of an apparent heart attack. In some ways, Heidelberg's courage is best exemplified by an event in 1970 when the University of Southern Mississippi defeated Ole Miss 30-14 in what stands to this day as one of the biggest upsets in Mississippi history.

It had been a tumultuous season up to that point. San Diego State University thrashed Southern Miss the week before, and Mississippi State University tore the team to pieces the next week. Heidelberg and Southern Miss managed to beat Archie Manning and the No. 4-ranked Rebels.

The then-20-year-old Heidelberg was the only black player on either team. In fact, he was the first African American football player at any of the Mississippi's three historically white major college football programs.

Heidelberg eventually moved to Jackson and took a job coaching at Belhaven College. Many Jacksonians will remember him as the official scorekeeper for the high school basketball championships at "the big house."

"Willie Heidelberg was a football pioneer," Cleveland-who spoke at Heidelberg's funeral-said. "He paved the way for others, for future generations. He showed white and black folks alike that they could play and work together and be better off for it."

Dr. Roger Parrott, president of Belhaven University-where Heidelberg was the running back coach for the Blazers-said in a press release that it would be hard to imagine Belhaven football without Heidelberg.

"He's been there since the beginning, and has been a voice of significance in the life of every Belhaven football player," Parrott said. "I always knew we could lean on Willie because he honored the Lord in everything he did as he cared for our players. He was a winner every single day."

Rick Cleveland said he once asked Heidelberg, forty years after the big game against Ole Miss, whether he understood the kind of history he made that day in Oxford.

"No," Heidelberg replied. "All I wanted was a good education and a chance to run the football."
Tyler Cleveland-Rick Cleveland's son-contributed to this story. Correction 10/21/2013: This story has been updated to reflect a correction. A previous version incorrectly stated that Rick Cleveland delivered Willie Heidelberg's eulogy. Heidelberg's pastor, Joseph Taylor, gave the eulogy. The Jackson Free Press apologizes for the error.

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"Willie was humble. He was caring. He was thoughtful. He was loyal. He loved young people and cared deeply about the young people he taught and coached ... Above all else-and this goes back to his days as a 140-pound halfback-Willie was courageous," Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum Director Rick Cleveland said this morning at the funeral of his friend, Willie Heidelberg.

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* Bellwork & Discuss
* Watch video and have students discuss the big things that they noticed during the video.
* Analyze article and answer questions. Be sure to answer thoroughly for a surprise assignment on Wednesday!
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What events stuck out to you in the the way Jackie Robinson handled adversity in his life?

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Monday: Prior to reading today's article you will watch a video to introduce you to Jackie Robinson.On a sheet of paper, jot down things that peak your interest regarding Jackie Robinson.  We will discuss this later in class.  

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Monday: Prior to reading today's article you will watch a video to introduce you to Jackie Robinson.On a sheet of paper, jot down things that peak your interest regarding Jackie Robinson.  We will discuss this later in class.  

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Answer the following questions.

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Monday Bellwork: Answer in the document that is shared on google classroom.  

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Monday Bellwork: Answer in the document that is shared on google classroom.  

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"Social change comes through non-violence and personal courage in the face of adversity." What does this quote mean to you? Think back over the past few weeks and the discussions of Dr. King's ideas and analyze this quote. What does the author mean by these words?

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Read this article and answer/discuss the questions on the google doc that has been shared in google classroom.