University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Long-Time Southern Miss Radio Color Analyst Vic Purvis Retires After 41 Seasons
12/5/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Vic Purvis, who served as the radio color analyst on what is now the Southern Mississippi IMG Sports Network for 41 football seasons, retired from the broadcast booth following last Saturday's game between the Golden Eagles and UAB after being a part of 471 broadcasts during his announcing career.
Purvis, from Puckett, Miss., also played in 28 games as a quarterback for the Golden Eagles from 1961-1965, and has been a part of just over 50 percent of all the games that the school has ever played.
Purvis' insight and knowledge on Golden Eagle football and his ability to dissect plays and the action makes him regarded as one of the premier analysts in the country and he has one of the longest tenures in the country in his role on the radio network.
"I personally will miss having Vic as a part of our radio broadcasts as I know all of our fans will as well," said John Cox, the Voice of the Golden Eagles who has worked 353 football games alongside Purvis. "He has been a great friend and a great partner who welcomed me into the booth many years ago and took me under his wing and taught me about the game of football. It just won't seem the same without him alongside. There have been generations of Golden Eagle fans and football fans that have listened to him and learned about the game and the Golden Eagles with his keen insight, his amazing knowledge of the game and his uncanny ability to describe what is going on, on the field. He is unique and without a doubt a true Southern Miss legend with his exploits on the football field and his career in the broadcast booth."
Purvis, joined the school's radio network in 1974 as one of several guest announcers joining then play-by-play man Bill Goodrich in the booth that season. After an early season appearance on the network that year, he was asked back to work another contest that season and then moved into the booth on a full-time the following year, where he has remained ever since.
Purvis has been a part of describing some of the greatest moments in school history that has included all five Conference USA championships, 17 bowl games and key victories over ranked teams like Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Florida State, Louisville, East Carolina and TCU. He has also been a part of describing the exploits of some of the all-time greatest players at Southern Miss.
He was an all-star high school football standout at Puckett High School, who excelled in all sports and following then Mississippi Southern College. He signed with the college following his high school career and that association has last over 50 years.
He played for five seasons for legendary coach Thad "Pie" Vann at Southern Miss, seeing brief action as a freshman during the 1961 season, before red-shirting in 1962. He started all but one the 27 games the school played from 1963 to 1965. In addition, Purvis led the team in rushing in 1964 and 1965 with 422 yards and 663 yards, respectively, and led the team in passing from 1963-1965 with 460 yards and a touchdown in 1963, 802 yards and five touchdowns in 1964 and 465 yards and two touchdowns in 1965. He still has the third-most yards rushing in school history with 238 against Memphis in 1965 and then ran for 203 yards the following week against Richmond. Those teams had a record of 19-8-1 in the games he played in.
Following his career at Southern Miss, he had a two-year stint with the now New England Patriots (then Boston Patriots) as a defensive back and kick returner in 1966 and 1967 before injury cut short his career.
Purvis graduated from Southern Miss in 1967 with a bachelors degree in accounting and a minor in math. He was inducted into the Southern Miss M-Club Alumni Association Sports Hall of Fame in 1972, and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 2007.
He is married to the former Gaye McBee of Vicksburg, Miss., and he has four daughters.
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