C.J. "Pete" Taylor (1974) - Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame

C.J. "Pete" Taylor

Induction:
1974

If ever a man wore several different hats at the University of Southern Mississippi, that man would be C.J. (Pete) Taylor, who spent time as an athlete on the football team for Coach Reed Green, served as an assistant football coach on the staff of Coach Pie Vann, served as the school’s track coach, helped develop the school’s successful baseball program as its longtime head coach and helped guide the school’s overall athletic program through its most exciting times as assistant athletic director.
   Taylor began his association with Southern Miss as a talented two way end on Green’s 1941 football team that recorded a 9-0-1 record. That team was one of the most explosive in school history scoring 70 points in the season opener that year against Georgia State. Defensively that team recorded four shutouts.
   He left Southern Miss following the 1941 season to enter the military and fight in World War II. During the war he was awarded the Bronze Star and a presidential citation with cluster.
   He returned to Southern Miss after the war and played football again for Coach Green in 1946 helping to lead the team to a 7-3 record. Taylor also saw action on the baseball and basketball teams and in his final year as a student at what was then Mississippi Southern College, was named Mr. MSC.
   Taylor was an end who proved time and time again that he could catch the football, but at the same time he was a talented blocker who was vital in making the team’s running attack work. On defense he was able to use his speed and quickness to cause all kinds of problems to the other team.
   Taylor enjoyed a successful career as a high school coach first at Holy Cross high School in New Orleans where his football teams produced a 19-3 record. He then moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where his University High School teams had a 41-7-1 record and won three city championships.
   He returned to Southern Miss in 1955 as end coach for Coach Pie Vann and remained in that position until 1965. During that time the school had some of its greatest football teams including the 1958 and 1962 teams that won the UPI College Division National Championship.
   Taylor also spent a few years coaching the Southern Miss track team until that program was dropped and took over as head baseball coach when Coach Clyde (Heifer) Stuart left following the 1958 football season.
   Taylor coached the Southern Miss baseball team from 1959 until 1983 and during that time won games. The school’s beautiful baseball facility which opened in 1985 is appropriately named Pete Taylor Park.
   He became the school’s first ever assistant athletic director in December of 1965 and was involved in many of the projects that helped move the school in among the elite colleges and universities. Taylor was actively involved in the renovation of what is now Rob