University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
'62 National Championship Team Holding Reunion
11/20/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
'62 National Championship Team Holding Reunion
Hattiesburg, Miss. -- The 1962 National Championship football team will hold a reunion in conjunction with the upcoming Southern Miss-East Carolina game, Nov. 30.
Team headquarters for the two-day event will be the Hampton Inn in Hattiesburg, where team members will kick off the reunion with a 6 p.m., social, Nov. 29. The team also will meet in the M-Club Room at 10:30 a.m., the following day, a team photo is scheduled for that morning, and members of the team will be introduced at halftime of the Golden Eagle-Pirate game that starts at 2 p.m.
The reunion will mark the 40th anniversary of the 1962 team that posted a 9-1 record under Head Coach Thad (Pie) Vann. The (then) Southerners from (then) Mississippi Southern College were declared College Division National Champions by United Press International, following in the footsteps of the 1958 team that also claimed a national title.
The 1962 team was coached by Vann, whose assistants included Maxie Lambright, Morris Meador, Tom Pratt and Pete Taylor. Larry (Doc) Harrington was the trainer and Joe McDavid was the student trainer.
Players expected to attend include (seniors) Marvin Breazeale, John Brechtel, Billy Coleman, Harold Hale, Jimmy Havard, Don Hultz, Ben Willoughby and Jerrel Wilson; (juniors) Sam Bella, Jim Berry, Tony DeFranco, Larry Hancock, Nick Kolinsky, Dwayne Martin, Joe Owen, Bud Pigott, Wiley Rice and Tommy Walters; and, (sophomores) Andy Armstrong, Berenger Brechtel, Larry Ecuyer, Jim King, Ken Martin, John Melton, Herman Nall, Vic Purvis, Doug Satcher, George Sumrall, Skeeter Waites and Will Willoughby.
The '62 team won its first four games, before dropping a controversial 8-6 decision in a downpour at Memphis, and then came back to win the final five games of the season, including a 30-0 victory over North Carolina State, in a game played in Mobile, Ala. In 10 games, the '62 team gave up just 55 points, and recorded three shutouts.
