Rep. Robert Johnson, the minority leader in the Mississippi House of Representatives whose measured and respectful demeanor has brought recent policy success to Democrats in a ruby red state, is disgusted.
He’s disgusted that months after lawmakers voted to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag after 126 years, Mississippi is once again celebrating Confederate Memorial Day.
He’s disgusted that Mississippi is — once again — garnering a negative image on front pages and in news broadcasts across the nation because some prominent leaders continue to embrace the ugliest parts of the state’s history.
He’s disgusted by Tate Reeves, the governor who codified the official state holiday after claiming during the 2020 flag debate that he wants to unite Mississippians.
Rep. Robert Johnson III speaks to media on Tuesday, March 17, 2020. Credit: Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America
“I don’t understand how a man with a reputation of being reasonably intelligent who says he wants to move Mississippi forward keeps wrapping his arms around these things that make us all look so bad,” Johnson told Mississippi Today on Monday. “We have so much to be proud of and to love. The relationships we’ve built have done wonders for us, especially this past year. Removing the flag was a seminal moment for this state, and it signaled to the world who we really can be.
“Is this really what Tate believes is important?” Johnson continued. “It does nothing to build relationships or foster unity. It unravels it in many ways.”
The states of Mississippi and Alabama are officially observing Confederate Memorial Day on Monday, perpetuating a decades-long practice even as government-sanctioned adulation of The Lost Cause has been reversed in recent months. The day marks an official state holiday, meaning most state employees have the day off.
The holiday is the first since most Mississippi statewide elected officials supported the June 2020 legislative effort to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag — a move most of them rightfully touted as morally responsible in the state home to the highest percentage of Black residents.
Depending on the venue, Reeves has been quick to take credit for the flag change even though he did not publicly support the legislative effort until the morning lawmakers banked the necessary votes. He said at the time he would work to bring Mississippians together: “… the job before us is to bring the state together, and I intend to work night and day to do it.”
But close observers of the governor knew, even at the time of the flag change, that he was not in the morally responsible camp.
“I know there are people of goodwill who are not happy to see this flag change,” he said shortly before signing the flag bill into law in early July 2020. “They fear a chain reaction of events erasing our history — a history that is no doubt complicated and imperfect. I understand those concerns and am determined to protect Mississippi from that dangerous outcome.”
Earlier that day, Reeves posted to social media: “No matter where you are … I love you, Mississippi.”
Confederate Memorial Day is the hallmark of Confederate Heritage Month, which Reeves tried to quietly declare this year after the state’s governors did the same in each year dating back to Kirk Fordice in 1993. Mississippi is the only state in the nation that officially designates an entire month for the confederacy.
The initial proclamation in 1993 — the language of which was mirrored nearly word-for-word in this year’s document signed by Reeves — was signed by former Gov. Fordice at the request of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the Military Order of the Stars and Bars and the Order of the Confederate Rose, Mississippi Today reporting and an analysis of public records shows.
These groups have worked for decades to whitewash the horrors of the time and the reality that the Civil War was fought by the Southern states to uphold slavery. The second line of Mississippi 1861 secession papers says it all: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world.”
The continued romanticizing of that era through state-sanctioned celebrations like Confederate Memorial Day exposes the deep gulf between those who are working to perpetuate Lost Cause narratives and those who are fighting for a better future for Mississippi.
“I believe that any mention or observance of Confederate Memorial Day flies in the face of the unity that lawmakers — Black and white — intended to create when we took the historic step of ridding Mississippi of the old Confederate battle flag that had so long represented insults, shame and division among races in our state,” said Sen. Derrick Simmons, the Democratic leader in the Senate. “I would like to see all references to that evil past dropped as would many other lawmakers, both silent and vocal. Let’s pray that in the future we all can learn better and do better and drop all references to the confederacy and the evil that it represents.”
Johnson, a critical ally of Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn’s as they whipped votes to change the flag in 2020, said that Confederate Memorial Day serves as “a stumbling block” for those who are truly fighting for that continued progress.
“There are so many things that we could unify around right now — anything that doesn’t elicit feelings of hate or intimidation for at least half the state’s population,” Johnson said. “We felt so much hope for progress after the flag changed. This man (Reeves) is undoing that, and he can’t even see it.
“Worse than that, it signals to all of those people across the country and world who want to believe that Mississippi is this backwards, racist place that they’re right,” Johnson continued. “All he’s doing is giving that to them.”
The number of COVID-19 vaccines being administered in Mississippi has decreased 35% over the last two weeks, marking a growing rift between the state’s supply of vaccines and the population’s demand for them.
A declining vaccination rate does not bode well for Mississippi improving its national standing in vaccine rollout. The state continues to rank last in the nation for the share of its population that has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to CDC data. As of Monday morning, 30% of Mississippians had received at least one dose, much lower than the United States total of 42%.
As of Monday morning, more than 67,000 vaccination appointments were available in Mississippi through the MSDH vaccine scheduler.
It is still unclear how the temporary pause in administering the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine will affect Mississippi’s already high rate of vaccine hesitancy. Federal health agencies ended the pause on Friday after an extensive safety review by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.
Dr. Janet Woodcock, acting FDA commissioner said in a press release: “We have concluded that the known and potential benefits of the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine outweigh its known and potential risks in individuals 18 years of age and older. We are confident that this vaccine continues to meet our standards for safety, effectiveness and quality. We recommend people with questions about which vaccine is right for them have those discussions with their health care provider.”
The pause recommendation was issued out of an abundance of caution after six people developed a rare blood clot, known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The review by health agencies found that 15 of the nearly 8 million people that have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the United States developed the rare blood clot.
A new warning will now be placed on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine label, and healthcare providers administering the shot have been instructed to inform patients of the associated risks.
After the pause recommendation was issued on April 13, The Mississippi State Department of Health instructed vaccine providers to refrain from using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. MSDH has not yet updated these instructions, and did not respond to questions on if the agency planned to do so.
Less than 5% of Mississippians who have received a COVID-19 vaccine received Johnson & Johnson, so the pause in its use had little impact on the state’s overall vaccine supply-chain. Still, the effects of its absence will likely be more pronounced in rural areas, where the shot’s more lax storage requirements and singular dose requirement have helped ease logistical issues in vaccine distribution.
When COVID-19 hit Mississippi last spring, students at Northeast Mississippi Community College in Booneville flooded Michelle Baragona’s office to withdraw from their classes.
They cited similar reasons, said Baragona, the college’s vice president of instruction. Their parents were laid off, so they needed to work. They no longer felt safe attending class in-person.
As the year wore on, withdrawal requests kept coming in as students struggled to overcome pandemic-related academic challenges. In the fall semester, Baragona said one student requested to withdraw because his grades had suffered after he was exposed to COVID and quarantined four times.
In a bid to get these students back, several community colleges across the state are doing something they’ve never done before: making summer classes free.
The colleges are paying for the free summer classes with money from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF), the portion of the federal stimulus package that’s set aside for colleges and universities.
Nearly $150 million in HEERF funding has poured into the coffers of Mississippi colleges and universities since last March. At least half of the funds must be spent on emergency financial aid grants for students. The rest is meant to cover institutional expenses related to the pandemic, like upgrading computers for distance learning or purchasing hand sanitizer stations and masks.
So far, three community colleges are using HEERF funds to cover summer tuition and some other expenses for students: East Mississippi Community College (EMCC), Northeast Mississippi Community College (NEMCC) and Hinds Community College.
Baragona hopes the free classes will provide a do-over to the students who left the college due to COVID-19. So far, that appears to be happening. NEMCC has seen 957 students register for summer classes since it opened enrollment on April 1 — about 200 more than they’d normally expect this time of year, Baragona said.
EMCC also saw its enrollment tumble after COVID-19 hit. Last fall, the college’s executive cabinet used some of its HEERF funds to try and fortify its three campuses against the virus, investing heavily in sanitation supplies, masks, plastic dividers and hands-free door handles. The executive cabinet hoped these safety measures would bring students back to campus, but enrollment “did not rebound as much as we had hoped,” said Julia Morrison, EMCC’s director of external relations.
Morrison and other EMCC cabinet members looked for other ways stimulus funding could be used to increase enrollment and eventually settled on offering free classes.
“Historically, community college students are facing some financial barriers, and that has all been heightened by the pandemic,” Morrison said. “We wanted to craft an initiative that helps students where they’re at.”
The increased financial aid is also removing barriers that existed for some before the pandemic. Candace Bradley, a single mother, dropped out of community college in 2015 because she didn’t have enough time or money to be a full-time student and provide for her son.
Bradley has wanted to finish earning her associate’s degree ever since, but going back to school meant taking out loans. Bradley had already paid off the student debt from her first go at college, but the process was so stressful that she wasn’t willing to put herself in debt again.
The combined boons of the direct payments from the stimulus bills and the HEERF financial aid have changed that. She’s applied for admission at Hinds and plans to register for the maximum 12 credit hours of HEERF covered courses to get the most bang for her buck.
“I didn’t believe it at first,” Bradley said. “Something like this just doesn’t happen for people like me.”
Registration is still open at NEMCC and EMCC; neither schools are limiting the number of students they accept this summer term. Cathy Hayden, the director of publications and media liaison at Hinds, said the college has signed up “all the students we want right now” after opening summer registration on April 12.
At EMCC, Morrison is looking forward to seeing students back on campus. Teachers have reported being stopped at church or in meetings by community members asking about classes. The excitement around free classes has created “a new energy” after a traumatic year, she said.
“It almost feels a little bit like a rebirth,” Morrison said.
State Rep. Chris Bell, a Democrat from Jackson who filed an unsuccessful suffrage bill in 2021, joins Mississippi Today Editor-in-Chief Adam Ganucheau to discuss how Mississippi continues to keep people convicted of certain felonies from voting.
On the final day of the 2021 legislative session in early April, Speaker Philip Gunn spoke of the “good spirit of cooperation” that had permeated the House.
“This (cooperation) is something I am very proud of..,” said the Republican who is in his third term as speaker. “That did not mean we agreed on everything. But working with my House colleagues there was a great spirit of trying to do the business of the people.”
On the other side of the Capitol, Delbert Hosemann, who is in his first term as lieutenant governor presiding over the Senate, made similar claims.
Those claims by the presiding officers could be viewed as self-serving. After all, being able to bring people together is one of the characteristics of a successful presiding officer. But by most objective measures, it can be argued the 2021 session had less conflict and more cooperation than most recent sessions.
Remember back to 2016, for instance, when conflict dominated the session as Republicans, holding a three-fifths super majority in both chambers for the first time in modern history, rammed through their agenda. They passed legislation, sponsored by Gunn, that allowed governmental employees and private businesses to deny services to same sex couples based on religious objections. The Legislature stripped some authority of Democratic-controlled Jackson over the city-owned airport. The largest tax cut in the state’s history — a significant part aimed to benefit large, out-of-state companies — was also pushed through, as was school choice and many other staples of GOP philosophy.
In the House, in particular, Gunn battled with the Democratic minority over rules and procedures. Democrats turned to requiring bills to be read word-for-word — as is allowed in the Constitution — to slow the process. Gunn countered with what was tabbed “the demon chipmunk,” a computer reading application turned up to a super-fast level. Then-Rep. Jay Hughes, D-Oxford, sued Gunn, arguing the demon chipmunk violated the spirit of the Constitution. The demon chipmunk case made it all the way to the Mississippi Supreme Court, where Gunn prevailed.
During the 2021 session, there was no bill reading. Instead, Gunn often joked with members from the speaker’s podium, even playing elaborate practical jokes. There were less “red meat” bills that often seem to be passed by the Legislature to make conservative social statements instead of dealing with issues actually impacting the state.
It should be clear, though, that 2021 was not controversy free. Anti-transgender legislation was passed. There were other disagreements, too, but in general the Democrat leadership also confirmed the cooperative spirit.
“Two years into the new term, there has been less controversy than there has been in a long time,” said Derrick Simmons of Greenville, the Senate Democratic leader. “That does not mean we agreed on everything.” Simmons gives Hosemann credit for keeping lines of communication open with Senate Democrats.
The cooperation that highlighted the 2021 session most likely started in 2020. While Republicans and Democrats on the federal level continue to fight like cats and dogs, House Democratic Leader Robert Johnson of Natchez said it seemed COVID-19 brought the parties together in the Mississippi Legislature.
That cooperation started in 2020 with a common goal: prevent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves from unilaterally spending more than $1 billion in federal coronavirus relief money, as he claimed he had sole authority to do. Both Gunn and Hosemann believed strongly that the Legislature had the constitutional authority to spend the funds. But to pass veto-proof legislation to ensure that authority, Republican leaders needed Democratic support.
To get that support, Republican leadership guaranteed Democrats a seat at the table in spending the funds. Johnson said Democrats and Republicans “felt we had to be effective in spending the (coronavirus-relief) funds and to get it to the people who needed it. That brought us together.”
Then later in the year, that cooperative spirit reached a new, perhaps unprecedented level when Republican legislative leaders worked with Democrats to retire the state flag that contained the Confederate battle emblem in its design.
That move created an era of good will, especially for Gunn, who for years had been the most prominent Republican politician in favor of changing the controversial flag. Gunn did not initiate the move to change the flag in 2020. That was done by a bipartisan group of primarily younger House members, spurred by the video-taped killing of George Floyd, an African American, at the hands of white Minneapolis police officers.
But Gunn, who spoke out against the Floyd killing, provided the opportunity and the leadership to ensure the removal of the flag.
The bottom line is that there is an era of good feelings in the Mississippi Legislature. But be assured in politics that will change based on circumstances.
Mike Kinnison’s No. 15 jersey will be retired at Delta State Saturday. Kinnison, a former DSU All American, won 75.6 percent of his games as the school’s head coach. He won a national championship in 2004 and six NCAA Regional titles as head coach.
Author’s note: Delta State University will retire former head baseball coach Mike Kinnison No. 15 jersey in a ceremony Saturday at Harvey Stadium-Ferriss Field prior to the 2 p.m. doubleheader against the University of Alabama-Huntsville.
Kinnison guided the Statesmen to the 2004 NCAA Division II national championship, six College World Series appearances and 15 NCAA South Regional appearances. His Delta State teams won 981 games, while losing only 313 for a 75.6 win percentage. He averaged 42.5 victories per season.
The story of Kinnison’s journey from team manager, to All-American shortstop, to national championship coach was detailed in Mississippi Today columnist Rick Cleveland’s 2008 biography of Boo Ferriss: “Boo: A Life in Baseball, Well-Lived.” That chapter follows:
The most succinct and telling way to describe Mike Kinnison’s success as Delta State’s baseball coach is this: No coach at any level of NCAA baseball – ever – has won a higher percentage of his games. In college baseball 40-win seasons are considered the gold standard. Kinnison’s teams routinely win 50 games.
Rick Cleveland
The story of how Kinnison, the hard-working son of a Yazoo County farmer, found his way to Delta State and eventually came back to his alma mater is worth telling and re-telling. As you might guess, Boo Ferris is a huge part of the story. The two form a two-man mutual admiration society.
Kinnison first met Boo Ferris when Ferriss spoke at the Benton Academy athletic banquet Kinnison’s senior year of high school. “Coach made such a strong impression, not just about baseball and sports but about life and planning for your future,” Kinnison said decades later. “That was in 1973 and I remember thinking even then that Coach Ferriss would be a great person to play for.”
But Kinnison was not college baseball material at that point. A late bloomer, he spent his first two years out of high school at Holmes Community College where he played football and baseball as a freshman and basketball and baseball as a sophomore.
Boo Ferriss cut Kinnison from Delta State team, made him a manager for a season, elevated him to a starting player and watched him become an All-American. Credit: DSU
“Baseball was what I loved,” Kinnison said. “I asked my coach to put in a word for me at Delta State. He said he would call Coach Ferriss.”
Ferriss promised Kinnison a chance to walk on and try out.
“So I went to Delta State and registered and showed up for the first baseball meeting, and Coach told us we would have open tryouts,” Kinnison said. “I looked around and saw about 70 guys there and that’s when it dawned on me that I was a little bitty fish in great big pond.”
Making matters worse, Kinnison had spent the previous summer away from baseball. He needed money to pay his tuition, so he worked off-shore on an oil rig. You can’t take much batting practice in the Gulf of Mexico. Kinnison was more than a little rusty when he arrived at Delta State.
“Delta State was a much more advanced program than anything I had ever seen,” Kinnison said. “I’ll give you an example. I had never in my life hit off a pitching machine. Anybody who has ever played baseball will tell you how different that is. I don’t think I impressed anybody. Coach gave me an extended look, but I just didn’t do enough.”
Said Ferriss, “We had a veteran team coming back. We were loaded. I just didn’t have room for Mike. I loved everything about coaching except for cutdown day. I hated telling a boy that he couldn’t play the game he loved. I just hated that part of it.”
“I was devastated,” Kinnison said. “It was the first time I had ever been told I wasn’t going to be able to play ball. Coach caught me between classes and asked me to come to his office. Well, I knew what was coming. He was as thoughtful and polite as he could be, thanking me for my effort. I’ll never forget him saying that I came up a little bit short – just a little bit short, he said – and he wasn’t going to be able to keep me. I’m not going to lie to you. It hurt. Man, it hurt. I just couldn’t imagine life without baseball.”
Kinnison had pretty much resigned himself to just that. Then, a week later, he was walking from one class to another when Ferriss drove by and then pulled over to the side of the road.
“Coach asked me how things were going and then he told me had some spots for people top help him and that there was some scholarship money involved,” Kinnison said. “He was talking about being a manager, and he told me to get back to him.
“Well, I didn’t have any intention of doing that. It was a pride thing. But I kept thinking about it and I knew I was going to have to get a job any way to help pay for school. He was offering some money. I had to work somewhere and I decided to take the job as a manager. That decision was the turning point in my life.”
Instead of fielding ground balls, Kinnison smoothed the infield so others could. Instead of taking batting practice, Kinnison shagged balls for others. Instead wearing a baseball uniform, Kinnison washed them.
“I won’t sugar-coat it,” Kinnison says. “It wasn’t any fun watching those other people play. As a manager, you do whatever needs to be done. It was great preparation really, although I didn’t look at it that way at the time. I learned how to work on the field. I learned about the science of growing grass, the different chemicals you use. I saw the pride Coach had in the field and how it looked. And I can tell you what else I learned. I learned to appreciate the managers and support people.
Mike Kinnison Credit: DSU media
“I’d sneak in the cage and hit when nobody else did,” Kinnison continued. “I’d shag guy balls during the batting practice. The biggest thing is I saw the mental and physical maturity you had to have to play at that level. By then, I pretty well knew I wanted to coach some day, and I knew I was at the footsteps of a master.
“I learned so much about strategy and how you handle players and pitchers. I remember Coach telling men that the people on the bench are the ones you have to spend time on. Those out on the field are involved in the game. You have to spend time with the ones who aren’t in the game, make sure they stay interested and focused. I’ve never forgotten that. Coach is still the best I’ve ever been around at the strategy of the game, about having a feel for different matchups, when to use certain players.”
Kinnison was like a sponge. He soaked it all in – all that and more.
“I can remember we’d be on a road trip and Coach would pull over some place and go in and spend five minutes with somebody to thank them for something they had done for the program,” Kinnison says. “He’d always remember to take every opportunity to stay thank-you. He told us you can never say thank-you too much.”
Whether he knew it or not, Kinnison was making an impression on Ferriss, too. “Mike was one of the best managers I ever had,” Ferriss says. “He was a worker and he was smart. Man, he’s smart. But the main thing is he worked. You never had to tell him twice to do anything.”
Kinnison remembers that Ferriss never failed to thank him for all that work. “More than once he’d come up to me as I was finishing washing and drying and hand me a 20 dollar bill,” Kinnison says. “He’d tell me, ‘Go eat a steak tonight. You earned it.’”
Kinnison also earned a nickname that spring as a manager. Whenever it came time to rake the infield dirt, Ferriss would call it “scratching” – as in, “Mike go out there and scratch around first base where it’s wet.”
One time, Kinnison mumbled under his breath that he was sick and tired of that word “scratch” and that he hoped he never heard it again. One of the graduate assistant coaches heard him and jumped on it. Mike Kinnison became “Scratch” Kinnison.
But that summer Scratch Kinnison played semipro baseball with a team in Greenwood that included several Delta State players. He worked out regularly, too, doing hundreds and hundreds of pushups and swinging a heavy bat regularly. The work paid off.
He got bigger, stronger. His line drives became gappers. He did so well that reports filtered back to Ferriss. Still, Kinnison figured that when he went back to school, he would be going back to be a manager.
When he played for Boo Ferriss, Mike Kinnison (left) got a hitting lesson from none other than Ted Williams, a Baseball Hall of Fame and perhaps the greatest hitter who ever lived. Williams and Ferriss were Boston Red Sox teammates.
Ferriss had other ideas, as he explained years and years later. “I’ll never forget where I was sitting when I made the decision, right here in the living room,” Ferriss said. “I told Miriam (his wife), I said, ‘I’m going to give Mike a shot. He’s earned it. I think he can help us.’”
The next morning Ferriss called Kinnison and told him to meet him at the field. “Mike came over and jumped out of his car like he was ready to work on the field,” Ferriss said, smiling at the memory. “He said, ‘What do we need to do Coach?’”
Ferriss put his arm around Kinnison’s shoulder, pulled him close and told him: “From now on you’re not a manager, you are a player. I think you can help us, and I know you will work hard.”
Kinnison cried that day. More than a quarter century later, tears welled in his eyes as he told the story.
“At 1:30 that afternoon, Mike was the first one on the field,” Ferriss said. “He hit the ground running and he hasn’t stopped since. He helped us win, and he’s still winning.”
In those days, Delta State players were able to order their gloves from a company at a discount. Kinnison didn’t have the money to order a glove, but when the shipment of gloves came in, Ferriss handed one to Kinnison and told him, “You can pay me back some day.”
Says Kinnison, tearing up again, “You don’t forget things like that.”
It is an amazing, inspiring story – the stuff Hollywood makes up. The team manager became the team’s star. He cracked the lineup, first in right field, then second base and finally shortstop.
“Mike lived in the batting cages,” Ferriss said. “He made himself into a player. Heck, he led the nation in doubles.”
Kinnison helped the Statesmen reach the College World Series both his junior and senior seasons. He made All American as a senior in 1978 when he batted .343 with 25 doubles and 56 runs batted in, leading DSU to a second place finish. In the national semifinals, Kinnison knocked in the winning run off future Atlanta Braves closer Steve Bedrosian to send the Statesmen into the finals.
Most coaches will tell you the third spot in the batting order is where you put your surest hitter. Mike Kinnison batted third his entire senior season. He never came out of a game.
“There were a lot of games where he got way ahead of the other team, and Coach would substitute almost an entirely new lineup,” Kinnison said. But he never took me out, not once. He never said so, but I always felt like he was saying, ‘Son, you’ve sat enough.’”
It was at about that time Kinnison told Ferriss he wanted to be a coach. Says Ferriss, “I knew for certain Mike would be a good one.”
Ferriss took a keen interest in the post-college lives of all his players. Kinnison was no exception. A math scholar at Delta State, he became a high school coach and math teacher. Ferriss followed his career closely.
“No matter where I was coaching, it wasn’t anything to see Coach pull up in his car at a game or even a practice,” Kinnison says. “If he couldn’t stop by, he’d always call. And he wasn’t doing that just for me. He was doing it for so many of his guys who have gone into coaching. Now I’m a coach and when I think about how he did that it’s just mind-boggling.”
Kinnison coached in the high school ranks at Lee Academy, Jackson Prep and Madison Central. His teams won three state championships and nearly 80 percent of their games. In 1994, he returned to Delta State as an assistant coach to another former Delta State player, Bill Marchant. Marchant had been paralyzed from the chest down in an automobile accident but courageously continued to coach for three seasons with Kinnison’s help. Marchant and Kinnison guided the Statesmen to an impressive 138-36 record and two College World Series berths in those three seasons.
Then Kinnison took over as head coach and Delta State got even better. Says Ferriss, “Mike Kinnison is the best coach I have ever seen at any level of the sport. I don’t care where you put him, he would be successful. He’d be successful because he’s so smart and he works at it so hard.”
Kinnison will tell you he has made one mistake since he returned to Delta State.
“At first I tried to be just like Coach Ferriss,” Kinnison says. “I tried to keep up with every player’s family, the brothers, the sisters, all the birthdays and everything Coach has always done. I finally figured out I couldn’t do it. That’s not me. That’s Coach Ferriss and that’s why he’s special,”
In fact, Kinnison is a distinctly different coach that Ferriss, much more intense, much more fiery than the man who taught him so much about the game.
Despite all the success both men enjoyed – and Marchant as well, for that matter – there remained a huge void in the baseball trophy case until May of 2004. Despite winning so many games, so many conference titles and so many NCAA regionals over the years, Delta State still lacked the biggest trophy, the one that goes to the national champion.
“We had come so close many times, I was beginning to wonder,” Ferriss said. “But I knew if anybody could win one, Mike Kinnison would.”
Judson Thigpen had been one of Kinnison’s Delta State teammates and one of Ferriss’s top pitchers. Jud Thigpen, Judson’s son, was the national player of the year, the centerfielder on that 2004 team. Jud Thigpen helped the Statesmen overcome a five-run deficit in the semifinal game and play their way into the championship game against Grand Valley State.
The next day’s Clarion Ledger described the scene this way:
MONTGOMERY — Forty years ago, 42-year-old Boo Ferriss carved a baseball diamond out of a Delta bean field. He had a vision: Delta State would have baseball program second to none.
Here Saturday night, Ferriss watched through tears as his dream was realized. “I don’t cry much,” Ferriss said. “I couldn’t help myself tonight.”
He was not alone. The movie Field of Dreams had nothing on this real-life scene from old Paterson Field:
Delta State’s Scott Ellison strikes out the final batter to clinch Delta’s 12-8 national championship victory over Grand Valley State. Green-jerseyed Delta players charge toward Ellison and pile on one another, creating a human mound on top of pitcher’s mound. Coach Mike Kinnison, national championship trophy in hand, vaults over the dugout and then climbs a few rows up into the grandstand where he presents the trophy to Ferriss, his former coach, who has big tears running down his face.
Kinnison presents national championship trophy to Ferriss.
“That wasn’t meant to be showy,” Kinnison would later say. “That was spontaneous, just the way I felt, and I think the way everybody who knows anything about Delta State feels about Boo Ferriss. He’s Delta State baseball. He’s the guy who laid the foundation. He’s the one who built the program to what it has become and he’s still there today, doing anything and everything he can to make it better.”
A modest crowd of 2,428 watched Delta State finally win a national championship after eight previous trips to the World Series. Probably 2,000 were Delta State fans. A hundred or more were former Delta State players.
“I told our guys before the game that they were playing for everybody who has ever worn this Delta State uniform,” Kinnison said. “I want everybody who has ever worn this uniform to enjoy this tonight.
“We’ve had so many good teams that have achieved so much, but we’ve always come up short before. We’ve been here a few times, and we’ve always left disappointed. This has been a long time coming and I want everybody to enjoy it.”
Delta State fans stayed in the stands and celebrated long after the game. More than an hour later, guys like Barry Lyons and Chris Burgess couldn’t talk about what had transpired without choking on their words.
Lyons, a former Major Leaguer, tried. “Delta State baseball is special,” he said. “We all know we are part of something very special and we all know who made it that way. I’m like everybody else. I’m happy for me. I’m happy for the program, but I am happiest for Boo Ferriss. He, more than anyone, deserves this moment.”
Two years later, Kinnison talked about what the championship had meant to him and why.
“That night I just felt like I had the chance to do what every player who has ever come through the program would want to do if he had a chance,” Kinnison said. “It was spontaneous, but I’m not going to tell you that I hadn’t thought of some day handing him a national championship trophy because I had.
“You know, we saw it every day as players under him,” Kinnison said. “He taught us so much about baseball, but he taught us more about how to live our lives. He talked about being polite, saying thank-you, giving it your best, but, more importantly, we saw it all in him. We saw the way he lived his life, the way he treated people. That was the most important lesson he taught any us.
“I think about this all the time. Coach could have just driven on by me that day, but he stopped. And it changed my life.”
Fevers can be a scary thing for anyone regardless of age or relative health. But when your child gets a fever, it can be downright terrifying. New parents are especially susceptible to panic when their sick child has a fever, and they often feel the need to immediately rush to the emergency room for treatment.
In fact, one study indicated that up to a third of pediatric emergency room visits occur because of concerns about high fever. The vast majority, however, don’t actually require emergency attention. That same study determined that parents’ lack of understanding about what a fever means was the primary reason for panic.
What is a Fever?
Before being able to knowledgeably determine whether or not a fever is truly dangerous, it’s helpful to understand what exactly a fever is. A fever, also technically known as pyrexia, is defined as an increase in body temperature beyond the normal range. Normal body temperature can vary based on a variety of factors, including age, gender, level of exertion, emotions, and even the part of the body used to measure temperature. The normal range that covers these factors is understood to be between 97.7–99.5 °F (36.5–37.5 °C). Even though anything above that range could be considered a fever, most healthcare providers define it as 100.4 °F when taken with a rectal thermometer (100 °F taken orally or 99 °F taken under the armpit).
Beyond being a measurement, a fever is also often an indicator of an immune response to a pathogen or illness. When the body’s immune system senses some types of infection, for instance, it causes the body to generate and retain more heat in order to benefit the body’s fight against the pathogen. This response is closely linked to the kind of tissue inflammation you experience when you have the common cold; while the sensation of a fever (or a runny nose) is unpleasant in the moment, it simply means that your body’s immune system is functioning properly.
When Should You Worry?
As noted above, any elevated temperature above the normal range can be considered a fever, but doctors and other healthcare professionals don’t become alarmed until the child’s temperature is 104°F or above. The primary reason for this is that a fever lower than that almost always represents a normal, healthy response to whatever illness is affecting the body. In other words, anything under 104°F shouldn’t be cause for concern and wouldn’t require a visit to an emergency room.
In fact, the specific temperature measurement alone is often not as effective as evaluating additional symptoms. If your child has any kind of fever in addition to the following signs and symptoms, you should call 911 right away:
too weak to move or stand up
won’t wake up
severe trouble breathing and can barely speak or cry
red or purple spots/dots on the skin
any other indications of a life-threatening emergency
Most of the above symptoms are rare and can happen regardless of how bad a child’s fever is, so if your child’s symptoms include any of these, you shouldn’t wait until the fever gets higher. There are other signs and symptoms related to a high fever that can be a cause for concern. If your child is experiencing any of the following, it is recommended you seek medical care like that provided by TrustCare Kids, an urgent care facility dedicated to walk-in pediatric care:
fever over 104 °F (or any fever in children younger than 12 weeks)
trouble breathing
trouble swallowing
chills and shaking
dehydration
weak immune system (pre-existing condition)
fever lasts longer than 3 days
fever returning after no fever for 24 hours
has febrile seizures (they are usually not serious and pass within a few minutes)
Potential Causes of a Fever
There are numerous potential causes of a fever in kids, but the fever is always a symptom of some other illness or disease. Most fevers are caused by some kind of infection, including both bacterial and viral pathogens. Infectious diseases like meningitis, influenza, and other upper respiratory tract infections are often behind an increase in body temperature as just a normal part of immune system function. Chickenpox, tonsillitis, and ear infections are also some common childhood ailments that might cause a run-of-the-mill fever. It can also be a symptom of COVID-19, the illness caused by coronavirus.
Perhaps surprisingly, another possible cause of a fever is simply being overheated. Sometimes, out of concern for cold weather, excess bedding or clothing (or swaddling in infants) can actually raise the child’s body temperature enough to trigger a fever. Though much rarer, certain medications, brain diseases, cancer, and autoimmune diseases may also be the reason for a fever.
When and How to Treat a Fever
When a child has a fever, many parents understandably experience a strong urge to “fix” the problem as quickly as possible. As noted earlier, however, sometimes a fever is actually a good thing in that it represents a natural, healthy immune process that the body uses to heal. In such cases, the only recommended treatment is to let the fever run its course. In fact, using medication or other treatments to force a reduction in body temperature can actually have the opposite effect and cause the illness to linger longer or even increase in severity. This is why watching and waiting for some of the other signs listed here is often the best course of action.
There are times when the fever is high enough to cause significant discomfort for the child (usually around 102°F) but not high enough to require immediate medical attention (104°F). A fever with a temperature in this range may cause chills, sweats, aches, irritability, or a loss of appetite. In such situations, there are a few remedies that can bring comfort and relief for the child until the fever comes down on its own:
acetaminophen
ibuprofen (Advil)
analgesic (Tylenol)
dress the child more lightly so that less body heat is trapped
push fluids like water or juices (or popsicles!)
lukewarm bath
NO aspirin (it can lead to a condition called Reye’s syndrome)
TrustCare Kids is Here to Help!
We know how scary it can be when your child gets a fever, but the good news is that most of the time the danger of bigger problems is pretty low. Sometimes, though, other symptoms are present, and you’re just not sure whether it’s a passing concern or a serious illness. TrustCare Kids was created to be a valuable resource for parents when you need help answering that question.
TrustCare Kids is open seven days a week with convenient hours, and it is specifically designed to provide for pediatric primary care and pediatric urgent care. If your child has a fever and you’d like to bring him or her in to get checked out, you can either make an appointment to see a pediatrician or walk in to receive pediatric urgent care; simply visit TrustCare Kids for further information on each.
