George Stevens (1999) - Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame

George Stevens

Induction:
1999

Southern Miss fans were able to watch for two seasons an end that defied description during the 1947 and 1948 season---George Stevens. Although George would catch his share of passes from quarterbacks Zipper Wells and John LeGros, he was a devastating blocker that help open up holes for guys like Bubba Phillips that made the Southern offensive attack one of the most potent in the country. On the defensive side Stevens displayed his talents as well. From his end position he seemed to always be in the opposing backfield, sacking the quarterback or dropping an opposing ball carrier for a loss.
It seems like fate that George Stevens wound up at Southern Miss. After World War II he was headed from his home in Kansas to Fargo, North Dakota to build concrete elevators. But before heading to Fargo he took a two-week vacation to visit old war buddy Carl (Chicken) Howard who was preparing to play tailback for Pearl River Junior College. One thing led to another and Stevens, who never played high school football because he was to skinny, signed a scholarship with Pearl River and became a star. At PRC he played football, basketball, baseball and track and led the 1946 Wildcat football team to an 8-2-2 record. He was also the leading scorer on the 1946-47 basketball team that won the state championship.
From there he came to Southern Miss to be a two-way end for Coach Reed Green. Although there was a strong nucleus back from the year before, Stevens immediately won a starting job at end and quietly started down the path to become one of the school’s finest ends.
As a junior he was one of the team’s leading pass receivers, averaging just over 10-yards a catch. That 1947 team pulled one of the school’s biggest upsets when they traveled to Montgomery, Alabama and defeated Auburn 19-13. Although Stevens’ stellar performance on offense attracted a lot of attention, his aggressive play on defense helped the Southerners to three shutouts that season and six of their opponents scored seven points or less. Southern would go on to finish 7-3 that year.
The 1948 team would also finish 7-3 and with Stevens blocking for Bubba Phillips and company and averaging 12.3 yards per pass reception, the Southern offense was more explosive than the year before. They averaged 27.3 points and well over 300-yards a game. Four times that season they scored more than 38 points in a game and on defense they held five opponents to a touchdown or less and recorded two shutouts.
Stevens also turned out to be a star as well in basketball at Southern Miss. Basketball didn’t enjoy quite the prominence of football at the time and the roster was staffed with mainly football players.
Although he would go to do many other things in his life Stevens had a tough time getting athletics out of his system upon graduation. He was a very successful coach in the Jackson Public School System for many years, officiated on both the high school and junior college levels and was also recognized as an outstanding Southeastern Conference basketball official.