Barbara Taylor Gandy (2001) - Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame

Barbara Taylor Gandy

Induction:
2001

Through the years Southern Miss athletics has always been about family. About teams that grew together as families and won championships. About relationships between coaches and players that made them like family. And about true family connections between fathers and sons, or generations of athletes that have followed in each other’s footsteps to perpetuate the legacy of Southern Miss athletics.
   From her father C.J. (Pete) Taylor, who earned a spot in the hall of Fame as a two-way football end, assistant football coach, head baseball coach and head track coach. To her mother Gloria who taught several thousand students at Southern Miss throughout a career in which she was a valuable member of the faculty. To her brother Doug who was a standout catcher on the baseball team in the mid 1970s. And all the other members of the Taylor family who made Southern Miss a part of their life.
   Barbara Taylor-Gandy was there at the start of something special. When Southern Miss added slow-pitch women’s softball in 1980, Barbara was one of key performers on the school’s first three teams.
   Those initial softball teams at Southern Miss were not about a whole lot more than the love of the game. The crowds were small, the media exposure non-existent, scholarships were a thing of the future, yet those who elected initially to be a part of those Lady Eagle softball teams did it because they loved the competition and they loved Southern Miss. Although statistics are sketchy from those early days, Barbara was without a doubt one of the most versatile players of her era. Primarily an outfielder, she was capable of playing virtually anywhere on the field and sometimes did. As a hitter she hit for both average and power and with the glove those who watched her play termed what she could do in the field “magical”.
But those who watch her play will tell you that the special ingredient that made her so good was not necessarily the thing she did in the game, but her approach to the game. Lots of people know how to hit, or field or play the game of softball, but few have the heart, dedication and personal pride that can make you into someone special.
Talk with those that played with her or against her or watched her play and they will tell you that she loved the competition. The contest of the opposing pitcher challenging her as a hitter, of being in the field hoping that you just got a chance to make the play that could break the back of the opposition. The competition was in her blood, a family tradition you might say, and she hated to lose more than anyone that ever played here at Southern Miss does.