Wiggle Green (1979) - Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame

Wiggle Green

Induction:
1979

There aren’t many people that know that Southern Miss had a boxing team and it was a sport that was very popular at the school, especially in the years leading up to World War II. It also had a brief spurt of popularity after the war and into the 1950s.
   The boxing teams at Southern Miss were made up of various athletes from the different sports the school offered at the time, but as you would expect the majority of the boxers came from the football team.
   Although Southern Miss had many outstanding boxers during the time the sport was a varsity sport, there is only one athlete who is in the Sports Hall of Fame for his boxing skills and that is Wiggle Green.
   Green would letter in boxing over a four year period from 1935 to 1938 and be a part of some successful campaigns.
   Although Green wasn’t a big fighter, one that could overwhelm you with his size and strength, he was successful because he was an intelligent fighter. He was able to utilize his speed and quickness to move around the ring and make it difficult for his opponents to get a clean shot at him.
   Green was also a boxer who was in superb physical condition and while moving around the ring, he was able at times to wear his opponents down, tire them out, and then move in for a knockout punch.
   Although Green would record his share of knockouts during his four year career, he was better known for being able to apply a series of short powerful punches to an opponent once he wore them down. Despite his lack of size opponents were caught off guard   by the power in his punches.
   One thing that people would also notice about Green was the confidence with which he fought. In today’s boxing matches we are use to seeing a boxer come out and parade around the ring and announce to everyone how talented there are, but that was not Green’s style. He was able to get that same message across to opponent, just by the way he entered the ring and stared across the ring. You could see it in his eyes. Green was confident in his ability and you knew you were in for the fight of your life.
   Green used an attacking style of boxing. He wasn’t about to stay back and let you come after him. From the opening bell to the final bell, if the bout lasted that long, Green was coming after you. It was a style that caught some opponents off guard, and that allowed Green to gain the upper hand early in a bout.
   The boxing matches would draw enormous crowds to the Southern Miss campus in the late 1930s and Green was undoubtedly one of the most popular boxers fighting for the school.
   Green also doubled as the manager of the Southern Miss football team, a job that in those days was a combination of equipment manager, trainer and at times assistant coach.