University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 1965
Richard (Dick) Thames was one of the truly outstanding two-way guards in the history of Southern Miss football. While playing for the Coach Reed Green teams of 1941 and 1946 Thames turned in two sensational seasons that eventually gave him a chance to play in the National Football League.
Like a lot of the outstanding linemen that the school produced during that era, Thames had a style of playing in the trenches that made him extremely difficult to stop or contain. One of his greatest assets was his speed and quickness that allowed him on offense to get to a defender and stop him from getting into a hole or sliding into the Southern Miss backfield and dropping the ball carrier for a loss.
On defense he was able to use that same speed and quickness to shoot the gaps, knife through the line and make those same tackles for losses and quarterback sacks.
Linemen are suppose to be tough and Thames was probably just as tough as any of them, but he also played with a great deal of intelligence to overpower an opponent, not just his strength.
Another thing that made Thames so special was he was able to compete and compete successfully in two different eras. As a youngster in 1941 he was in the prime of his athletic career and full of potential, as he developed that season into one of the team’s best linemen. But he was able to come back five years later after a hitch in the military and perform just as well, maybe better.
While playing on the 1941 team, Thames was able to be a part of one of the truly magical teams in school history. With the start of World War II, just a few months away, and everyone realizing this was probably the final season for a while, the team would record an undefeated season, finishing 9-0-1. The only blemish on an otherwise perfect season was a 0-0 tie with Southwestern Louisiana in the eighth game of the year.
That 1941 team would win its season opener 70-0 over Georgia State Teachers and never slow down. Other than the tie only two other teams would even come within a touchdown of them that year and on defense no one would score more than a single touchdown on them and four would fail to score at all.
After World War II, Thames would join some returning veterans and some fresh-faced kids to form the 1946 team. With Coach Green mixing in the war hardened vets with the young kids, the team would finish the year 7-3. They would lose a heartbreaking 13-12 decision to Auburn and a 7-6 game to Northwestern Louisiana, but for the most part didn’t appear to have lost much from the 1941 squad.
Thames would be drafted by the New York Giants in the 1947 NFL draft in the 23rd round and would go on to enjoy a brief career in pro football.
As one of the school’s most magnificent lineman, Thames has certainly earned his way into the Southern Miss Sports Hall of Fame.
