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MSU football history: game footage from the 1940s-1980s
Normally on Wednesdays we take a look back into MSU football history and examine a past game with this weekend’s opponent.
However, since this is the first ever game between Mississippi State and the University of Massachusetts, there isn’t a past game to write about. All the history in this series will be made Saturday afternoon at Gillette Stadium when the Bulldogs take on the Minutemen.
But fear not. We’re still going to take a look back at Mississippi State football history, but this time we’ll do it in a slightly different way.
Over the past few years, I have learned that there is an incredible amount of Mississippi State football highlights on YouTube. Of course, the overwhelming majority of that material is from recent years. MSU Media relations has a YouTube channel, “HailState”, that I strongly recommend that you subscribe to. Not only will you get highlights of past games, but you’ll receive promotional videos and videos covering all MSU sports. It’s a must-get, and it’s free.
But thanks to the efforts of some really loyal MSU fans and YouTube users like “sparky39762” and “MSUhistory”, there is a nice collection of older videos of past MSU games available for view. The easiest way to find them is to just do a search on YouTube. But here’s some of my personal favorites:
The oldest video that I am aware of that exists involving Mississippi State is this footage from the 1941 Orange Bowl game. Considering that was over 75 years ago, the quality isn’t really that bad. This footage is particularly rare, because a later Bulldog coach decided it would be a good idea to burn all the old film that existed at the time, which sadly destroyed a tremendous amount of history that could have been enjoyed by younger fans today.
You may have heard of Jackie Parker before, but have you ever seen him play? He is regarded as one of MSU’s best football players ever and is recognized in the ring of honor at Davis Wade Stadium. Here’s a video of him scoring a touchdown in the 1950s vs. Auburn:
In 1961, the Bulldogs had not won an SEC game in 22 tries (not all were losses, there was a tie mixed in that streak) when they faced Auburn in Birmingham. Trailing 10-3 in the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs mounted a 7 play 69 yard TD drive to move to within one point. The Bulldogs elected to go for a two point conversion and the win. Johnny Baker made a leaping grab of Charley Furlow’s pass to give the Maroons an 11-10 victory.
In 1963, the Bulldogs were in the midst of their run to the Liberty Bowl and had just come off a 20-19 loss to #7 Alabama when they faced Auburn in Jackson. Tied 10-10 with six minutes to go, Auburn missed a go ahead field goal, giving State the ball at their own 20 yard line. The Bulldogs drove to the Auburn 29 yard line, but facing a fourth down and out of field goal range; MSU opted to go for it on fourth down and came up short.
Auburn took over with just under two minutes to play. But on a third down play, the Bulldogs’ Sonny Fisher intercepted Tiger QB Jimmy Sidle’s pass, returning it 26 yards to the Auburn 21. The Bulldogs ran one play, and then brought in Justin Canale, who kicked the game winning 35 yard FG. Watch the final six minutes of that game here…
One of my favorites from the 70’s was the 98 yard drive led by Rockey Felker against a good Memphis State team in 1974. The video on this is pretty poor, but Jack Cristil’s call is a flashback into my childhood. I remember helping my Daddy in the fields late one Saturday night, and we stopped to listen to the end of this game.
As we move into the 1980s, the video quality definitely improves. I remember attending this game against Florida in Jackson as an MSU student.
Later in that decade came Rockey Felker’s coaching highlight, a come from behind win over Tennessee in Neyland Stadium….
By the time we reach the 1990’s, the quality and quantity of video to choose from increases greatly. Just do a YouTube search and you’ll be amazed what is out there. And if we can get our buddies who collect game video (you know who you are), then we’ll have even more MSU football history available on video to enjoy.
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