New Post has been published on http://hottytoddy.com/cvm-salon-ribbon-cutting/
CVM Salon Ribbon Cutting
Photo courtesy of the Oxford Chamber of Commerce
The Oxford-Lafayette County Chamber held a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for CVM salon. Mandi Miller, owner uses the Davines product line from Italy. CVM is located at 105 Van Buren Ave. To make an appointment please call 714-944-9119.
New Post has been published on http://hottytoddy.com/the-talented-mr-canoe-khayat-book-a-study-in-courage/
The Talented Mr. Canoe: Khayat Book a Study in Courage
‘Skin in the Game: Khayat’s NFL battles against Big Daddy Lipscomb at the line of scrimmage would pale in comparison to his fight to change Ole Miss for the better.
Former chancellor’s life story is one of intense love of Ole Miss and dogged determination to better it.
It’s always funny—well, funny in a sad and mindboggling way—when I read angry epistles on the Internet from any remaining unreconstructed sweathogs griping that Robert Khayat “ruined” Ole Miss by removing the confederate flag and Colonel Reb. It’s ironic, because the same people are ecstatic anytime Oxford and Ole Miss are mentioned—and they are mentioned often—in national media in laudatory terms.
The same segment of Colonel-lubbers beams as they boast about how gorgeous the grounds and buildings are at Ole Miss and takes personal pride in academic achievements announced regularly from the university. They excitedly gear up for football season after the most incredible football signing day in Rebel history. And they take it all for granted.
The Education of a Lifetime, Robert Khayat’s new autobiography, should be required reading for anyone who calls himself an Ole Miss fan and especially those who pine for symbols of a Ross Barnett-era, idealized image of what some folks, perhaps innocently, think those symbols mean. The nation now takes Ole Miss seriously, and you can thank Robert Khayat.
When the former championship Rebel kicker, NFL player, law professor, and vice chancellor took over as chancellor, Ole Miss was in decay. Physically and developmentally, the campus was dying. Football was in a holding pattern of mediocrity, based in an outdated stadium. A study revealed that most people around the country knew nothing about Ole Miss, and those who had any impression at all just knew us for racism, specifically the Meredith riot and the confederate flag. Every head coach in any sport in the modern age battled the image of racism when trying to recruit black players—in fact, rival teams kept files of negative images of Ole Miss to scare recruits away from Oxford (this practice continues, but is typically a failure once recruits visit Oxford and Ole Miss today). All of the above had to change, and in The Education of a Lifetime, Khayat shares the journey he undertook to resurrect all that is fantastic about Ole Miss, expand and improve upon it exponentially, and share our story with a nation.
Before Khayat left office, that nation tuned in to watch a presidential debate, hearing positive reports from thousands of journalists whose story of Ole Miss was about the present, not the past, informed of myriad strides attributable to Khayat’s leadership. The Ole Miss story no longer ended with the Meredith enrollment. And it now has no end in sight.
Khayat’s narrative in Education, sharing his emotions, conflicts, and struggles, goes back and forth in time, offering anecdotes from the many phases of his life—giving glimpses of the challenges and experiences along the way that shaped his courage to enable him to make hard decisions as chancellor and see them through. His all-encompassing love not only for Ole Miss but for the state of Mississippi and its image and future is inspiring.
It is with no pride that I confess that I, too, ignorantly but with good intent once thought there was nothing wrong with the confederate flag; my view was that we all viewed it as a symbol of school spirit and football, and if the nation couldn’t understand we didn’t imbue the flag with racist intent, then they were the ignorant ones. I thank Robert Khayat for opening the blinds and letting the sunlight of the outside world into the minds of many like me who just didn’t get it. Imagine the absurdity of the notion: “We’re not racists. You’re supposed to come talk to us and find that out. Don’t mind the big flag on the Grove tent. Why isn’t anyone interested in Ole Miss?” As much as so many Ole Miss faithful understood, or thought we understood, the splitting of hairs that made our meaning for the symbols different from from that at a Klan rally, Khayat quickly realized that outside the Grove, there is only one interpretation of the flag, and it was the latter. That interpretation was understandable, but Khayat knew we could fight it.
His obsession—and he uses the word “obsession”—with kickstarting and fueling Ole Miss’s return to glory, by taking ownership of and doing something about the elephant in the room that is race, was the driving force that primed the pump for university achievements during his chancellorship, including the following as just a few examples:
- Between 1995 and 2009, enrollment at Ole Miss grew 78.5 percent.
- Research and development grants at Ole Miss topped $100 million during each of the last eight years of his chancellorship.
- The university’s endowment grew from $114.3 million to $472.4. The operating budget grew from less than $500 million to nearly $1.5 billion.
- Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s most prestigiouis liberal arts honor society, awarded a chapter to Ole Miss (the inch-at-a-time progress Khayat made toward getting the chapter is an interesting part of the book and a perfect illustration of the critical importance of his taking on race issues).
- The Barksdale Honors College, Croft Institute for International Studies, Lott Leadership Institute, and William Winter Institute for Racial Reconcilation were created.
- The number of National Merit Finalists in the freshmen class more than doubled.
- More than $535 was invested in physical facilities on the Oxford and Jackson campuses.
Khayat’s stated mission was to transform Ole Miss into a great public university. That mission was accomplished in only 13 years, and the progress continues. It would be impossible for a book about that journey to be uninteresting, but even so, this tome is made all the more engaging by Khayat’s knack for telling the inside stories. Among those anecdotes is one about how Ole Miss got the funding for the very arts center that would enable Ole Miss to attract the presidential debate. Tip your hat to Mr. Canoe.
Robert Khayat’s The Education of a Lifetime goes on sale at all fine bookstores on September 10, 2013. For more information, or to order online, visit RobertKhayat.com.
— Tad Wilkes, tad.wilkes@hottytoddy.com
New Post has been published on http://hottytoddy.com/professor-percy-pickem/
Professor Percy Pickem
Ole Miss opens its home slate against Southeast Missouri. Plus, South Carolina travels “Between the Hedges,” the Mountaineers head to Norman, the Fighting Irish enter the The Big House, and upset-minded Western Kentucky will be skirmishing at Tennessee. The ole professor welcomes you to Week 2 of the college football season.
New Post has been published on http://www.hottytoddy.com/the-heart-of-the-rebel-nation/
The Heart of the Rebel Nation
Photo by Robert Jordan
Archie Manning is ours, and we are his. He is my generation’s greatest childhood football hero. When Johnny Vaught was the father of Ole Miss football and Archie was the prince.
If you and your daddy ever paced around the living room in front of the family stereo, holding on with all you had, as the Rebels were locked in a great late fourth-quarter battle with LSU in Baton Rouge, then you know why Archie is in charge now. The absolute jubilation of a 1970s Ole Miss kid as Stan “The Man” Torgerson yelled back to every Ole Miss kid in Mississippi…HE SCORESSS! It was bliss, and when you remember it again now, then you know why Archie is in charge.
My brother and I yelled and danced around the living room, Momma jumped up and clapped and Dad yelled, more like roared, and pumped his fists in the Oxford air. The good times were on, and we knew we won because Archie was in charge.
Finally, after we settled down, Dad put his ear to the radio to hear every post game word out of Stan’s mouth. As soon as the broadcast ended, then a rare thing happened. We got phone calls at 11 p.m., and it was cool with the folks. Cause it was Uncle Joe and Uncle Hubert and granddaddy calling to roar on the phone with dad and shake their fists in the Jackson and New Albany air.
We laid in our beds excitedly replaying it in our heads. You could see the green field and feel Tiger Stadium and see Archie under center in white and it was a sweet sleep the 70s as Rebel kids fell off into that night because we were in Archie’s Army. And then real early on Sunday morning, I made the run with dad to the newspaper stands at the Holiday Inn. And when I jumped back in the car and Dad popped open the Clarion Ledger sports section and there was a huge color shot of Archie on the run with the ball in his hand, looking down field in Tiger Stadium, then I absolutely knew in my Ole Miss heart that Archie Manning would always be in charge of my Ole Miss.
The line of Rebel legends is long and storied. From “Bruiser” Kinard to Johnny Vaught to Charlie Conerly to The Pooles to Jake, Ben, Deuce, Eli, Dexter and Donte and starting at Vandy with our best recruiting class ever. All the greats through the years had their place and led Ole Miss football into the future. They will live in the collective memory of the Rebel Nation, forever.
Childhood heroes can never lessen. They don’t fade. Archie Manning was my childhood hero as he was for so many. He doesn’t need a title. That’s not what I mean. Hugh Freeze is our man and the SEC knows we are coming. But through the years, if ever Archie takes to a microphone to speak to Ole Miss, then I’ll be right there with him. I’m still in Archie’s Army.
So when you look at this photo you aren’t just looking at a Colonel Reb and an Ole Miss Homecoming Queen, although that in itself would be enough. And you’re not just looking at Mr. and Mrs. Archie Manning either. You are looking at the very heart of Ole Miss and the Rebel family is blessed that he is ours, and we are his.
New Post has been published on http://www.hottytoddy.com/freezes-monday-press-conference/
Freeze’s Monday Press Conference
Screen shot by Hottytoddy.com
Coach Freeze discussed with the media on Monday how he felt about the outcome of the game. The team will prepare this week to protect the Vaught this weekend against Southeast Missouri.
– Adam Brown, HottyToddy.com Sports Editor and Justin Taylor
Coach Freeze discusses with the media on Monday how he felt about the out come of the game. The team will prepare this week to protect the Vaught this weekend against Southeast Missouri.
New Post has been published on http://www.hottytoddy.com/beautiful-morning-at-high-cotton-on-the-square/
Beautiful Morning At High Cotton On The Square
Photo by HottyToddy.com
Liria Frerer of Tupelo enjoys the morning paper on the balcony of High Cotton just off the Oxford Square. The photograph was taken about 7:30 a.m. on a recent morning. Liria is working on a Master’s in Counselor Education at Ole Miss.
