[2/10/02]More than a dozen Mississippi Sports Hall of Famers will be at Vicksburg Country Club for a benefit golf tournament April 19.

Still, one who won’t be there will be on everyone’s mind.

The Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame Celebrity Golf Tournament, which will precede the Class of 2002 induction banquet at the Vicksburg Convention Center, will be played in memory of longtime Vicksburg resident Crawford Mims.

Mims, who starred at Ole Miss in the 1950s, was inducted in 1995. He died last spring.

“We need everyone to help make this a super turnout because of Crawford,” said tournament organizer Kayo Dottley, a Hall of Famer from Vicksburg who was Mims’ brother-in-law. “The Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame was very important to Crawford.”

Ex-NFL stars Lance Alworth, D.D. Lewis, Willie Richardson and Bailey Howell, who won an NBA championship with the Boston Celtics, are among the most notable Mississippi Hall of Famers who will play in the scramble, which tees off at 11 a.m.

Four-man teams will be paired with a Hall of Famer or sports celebrity. Sponsors will get first choice, MSHOF administrator Margaret Ferriss said, and the rest will be decided by a drawing.

At least four of this year’s eight new Hall of Famers Culkin native Glynn Griffing, Ralph “Catfish” Smith, George Sekul and Samye Johnson will also play.

Other notable football stars who have confirmed they will play are: Barney Poole (Ole Miss), Vicksburg native George Morris (Georgia Tech), Ken Lindsey (Ole Miss), Bobby Collins (Southern Miss coach), Hugh Pepper (Southern Miss), Dottley (Ole Miss), Harper Davis (Miss. State) and Southern Mississippi coach Jeff Bower.

Ex-basketball stars include Howell (Miss. State), Denver Brackeen (Ole Miss) and Doug Hutton (Miss. State).

More will probably sign up, Ferriss said.

A limit of 120 individuals can enter. The fee is $150 per person, which includes lunch, a gift bag and a party that follows the tournament in the clubhouse. There will be prizes on some of the holes for the longest drive, closest to the pin and holes-in-one.

It will be the first of the MSHOF’s three spring golf tournaments. There will be a stop in West Point April 28-29 and Tunica May 22.

This is the first year the Hall will host three tournaments and it will be the first in Vicksburg since 1998, when only 80 of the 120 spots were filled.

The golf tournaments are some of the top fund-raisers for the MSHOF, which receives no money from the government or any other source except “for personal donations,” Dottley said.

“Crawford had three loves: his family, hunting and golf,” Dottley said, encouraging Mims’ friends to sponsor a hole or donate door prizes. “I would like to make this exceptional in his memory.”

Griffing, who went on to Ole Miss and was Sugar Bowl MVP in 1963, and Earl Leggett, who went to Hinds Junior College before starring at LSU and playing and coaching in the pros, head up this year’s class of eight inductees.

Sekul, who quarterbacked Southern Miss to a national championship and coached Gulf Coast JC to two national titles, and Smith, who was a college teammate of Griffing’s before going on to an eight-year NFL career, will also be honored that night.

Johnson, who coached volleyball at Mississippi State and MUW, will also play.

Other inductees are Carolyn Henry, a star tennis player from Crystal Springs, Moss Point native Verlon Biggs, who starred at Jackson State and in the NFL, and former Jackson State athletic director T.B. Ellis, known at “The Father of Jackson State athletics.” Biggs and Ellis will be posthumous inductions.

The banquet, which is hosted by the Jackson Touchdown Club, will be in Vicksburg for the first time.

“If it is well supported, they’re going to try to do it like the (Miss Mississippi) pageant and have it here every year,” Dottley said. “This is important for the city.”

Dottley expects a big turnout, especially because of Griffing.

“He is one of the great players in the history of Warren County,” Dottley said. “He was a fantastic passer and a tremendous defensive player, too.”

Ferriss said: “It’s just going to be a great sports day.”