Everybody. It's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks, and welcome to Shop Talk two of two. I hope you enjoyed the first one, and I hope you enjoy this one. Today we're going to talk about something that's really near and dear to my heart, and it's the story of Chucky Mullins and Bride Gains and the signa new charity ball. And we'll dive into that right after these brief messages from our Tenner sponsors. Welcome back, everybody. Most of you should know. I'm an Old Miss guy, and I want to tell you about maybe one of the most formative experiences I had in college that really had nothing to do with me. On October twenty eighth, nineteen eighty nine, during Ole Miss's homecoming game against Vanderbilt, a guy named Chucky Mullins, playing safety, came up to break a pass. He put his head in the back of Brad Gains. Brad Gaines was a full back for Vanderbilt and he was definitely going to be a top three pick, a top three round pick. He was their stud. Chucky smoked him right on about the five or six yard line and the ball came loose bought. Hemingway went nuts because it broke up a big path at a critical juncture. Everybody started going back to their huddles and we were ready for the next play. Except Chucky didn't get up. He laid there. I was on the sideline that day, I was not in the stands, and I remember thinking, Wow, he's knocked out cold because as he lay on his back, his elbow was still on the ground, but his forearm was perpendicular to the ground, and when his arm fell to the ground, it just fell without any resistance. And so I knew this guy was just out cold. And I'd seen that before football two times, and it's scary, but you know, it's unfortunately part of the game. Roy Lee Mullins Chucky was laying there, and ironically the UH the head trainer for miss back then was Leeroy Mullins, and mister Mullins ran out to him like they always do when somebody's hurt, and when he got there, you could tell it was more than just passed out. He frantically was waving arms and the team dot came off the sideline. In a matter of instance, there was ten people around Chuck e Chuckie was a freshman, number thirty eight, and to be honest with you, not many of us even knew the kid's name. He was a second string guy, and he was in on a Nickel package about ten minutes later. And you know how it is when somebody gets hurt, you can tell it's serious. In a football stadium, it goes from wild and reverently loud to you can hear pendrop. There's fifty thousand people sitting there trying to figure out what's going on. And they roll out the back. Then they didn't have like the motorized cater cars. They just rolled a stretcher out onto the five yard line and put them up on it. And they actually passed me. And when they passed me, obviously, I'm gawking like any kid would. And they'd clipped Chucky's face mask at the jaw clip, but kept the clips on the top forehead part of his helmet, So they basically clipped the clips off and folded his face mask like he would the hood of a car, and had them all taped down, and so he couldn't move, and his face was so swollen that his cheeks had protruded outside the plastic shell of the helmet. It was awful, and I knew, like everybody else in the stadium knew that this was probably a neck injury. Plavor Zoom little by little gets louder. People forget it and keep playing, and then like twelve minutes later, from the other end zone outside the stadium, the helicopter picks up and wheels north toward Memphis, and it was like a second hush fell over because everybody knew then you know, this is bad. The next day we found out that this kid, CHUCKI. Mullins, had literally disintegrated the top four vertebrae in his neck and he was a quadriplegic. The university and the lums and students really rallied around him, and in very short order in nineteen eighty nine, there was well over a million dollars raised. The university bought theom house, built it off campus, and his rehab was a years years and a half long rehab and Brad Gaines, this big, burly, badass football player, went to Baptist Hospital Memphis and actually slept in his car in the parking lot for two nights keeping vigil over. Chucky Bride says He'll never forget the day he went to visit him, and he was wearing his Vanderbilt letter jacket, and the elevator doors parted and his bride walked into the hallway to go down to see Chucky. It was just filled with Old Miss people and it's just like he could, you know, everybody talking in the hallway over coffee, and it just was a hush, and Chucky could barely talk. He was on a ventilator, but he could put his hand over a button on the ventilator and say very short words. And Brad knelt down and prayed for him and with him, and then came up and with tears in his eyes, told him, I'm sorry he was and Chucky pushed his button and whispered in a guardly fashion and not your fault, you go play ball, And that's kind of what Chucky was. At the same time, Old Miss was struggling with some problems. The student body always rave Confederate flags, the band played Dixie about nineteen times a game, and the university was struggling with we're not a racist university, but what we're portraying can can certainly be used against people to say we're racist. In recruiting and other things. But are we really portraying who we are as university? And at this weird time where we're struggling all that, here's this black kid from Russellville, Arkansas, who doesn't have two nicols drubbed together, that the entire university is bracing as their favorite son. Next to Archie Manning. There's no bigger name at the University of the Old Miss than Chuck him my own. And it happened overnight. And it wasn't just because this kid got hurt. It was because his attitude about being hurt and his courage. Later that year, Ole Miss played in the Liberty Bowl against air Force and they had a quarterback named Dee Dallas who was number two in the Heisman balloting, and air Force was favored by sixteen points. And right before the game, to everybody's surprise, Chucky rolled in in a wheelchair into the locker room. And there wasn't a man in there that didn't have tears streaming down his face. And he had this infectious smile. And he rolled in and he looked at the team, and he put his hand over his little thing and he said as loud as he could it's time. Ole miss beat the crap out of Air Force that night, and Billy Brewer, the coach at that time, said there wasn't a team in the country that could have beat those kids that day. After Chucky rolled in and told him it's time, there was just so much inspiration from his courage and his attitude. Shortly after Chucky got hurt, there was this kid in Lauderdale, Mississippi named Alan Moore, a high school kid, a junior, who actually had the exact same injury that Chucky did, but it was from a very poor high school, again in Lauderdale, and he had no money. They didn't even have enough money for a wheelchair for him, couldn't build a ramp on his house. And we were sitting around in the fraternity house one day with a friend of mine, John Quak, and some other guys and read that story of the day of the Mississippian and John said, you know, we should do something, you know, an army of normal folks, we should do something for this kid. And so I went to Coach Brewer because I had a relationship with them. I went to Sparky Bear and the Dinas students at the time who got me in front of the chancellor, and we came up with the idea of playing what this thing was going to be called was a charity ball, which is our fraternity in a full pat of football game against another fraternity and celtickets and raise money and give it to this kid named Alan Moore in honor of Chucky Mullins. And so I actually got to meet with Chucky and I told him the plan. I said, I don't want you to feel disrespected that we're raising money for somebody else. And he looked at me and he said it's time. Chills ran through me when he said that big smile. He wanted us to go raise money for someone else because he knew he was taken care of. It's just kind of guy was So we put to go this football game. Long story short, my Afternity run the football game and we raised fifteen thousand dollars. That was in nineteen eighty nine. Today they still play that game called the Charity Ball once a year and it has grown to be the largest Greek philanthropy project in the entire United States and is today israe over three and a half million dollars for quadriplegics who had no hope of good care and wheelchairs and ramps and wheelchair accessible vehicles, all in the honor of a kid named Chucky Mullins. Why am I telling you the story? Why is this shop talk one? It doesn't matter who you are, or what happens to you, or what challenges you have in the world. If you keep a positive attitude and have the temerity to face all obstacles with courage, you can change people's lives. Chucky changed an entire generation of lives of people at Ole Miss because of his courage, because of his inspiration, because of his generosity, and because of his spirit. To this very day, every ol Miss football team, when they run out of the tunnel at Vald Hemingway Stadium, run their head over a copper bust of Chucky's head, and underneath it it just says, never give up. I think we should always think about the story of Chucky Mullins and Brad Gaines and the kids at Old Miss who've raised three and a half million dollars, all who took a horrible incident and turned it into a massive outpouring of generosity and inspiration, all because of a guy named Chucky Mullins. Who showed that even as a quadriplegic, you can inspire, you can encourage, and you can evoke change. Ole miss does not wave the Confederate flag anymore, and it no longer plays Dixie with its band. It got rid of Colonel rebb as it's Scott and it's because the university, through the inspiration of a guy like Chucky, had the courage to look at itself and say, we need to portray who we are, not what the past says about us. Chucky's inspiration and courage changed the university, changed a perception, changed an approach, and through his generosity and inspiration, has changed the lives of thirty six people that have had the same type injury he has that have come behind him. Even in his death, because Chucky died two and a half three years later, his body just couldn't function anymore, but his legacy lives on because of courage and inspiration. So when you wake up tomorrow and you think about all of the things that are going around in your community and your society, and you're like, man, I'd sure like to help, but I don't know how If a quadriplegic who doesn't have two Nickels drubbed together, came through his courage and inspiration, change an entire university and enrich the lives of other quadriplegics, even thirty years after his own death. You need to look at yourself in the mirror. You need to have some courage, you need to be inspired, and you need to understand the only thing that's going to fix us is an army of normal folks. And it really does start with you. But you've got to have the temerity and the courage to do it. We'll see you next week.

Everybody. It's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks, and welcome to Shop Talk two of two. I hope you enjoyed the first one, and I hope you enjoy this one. Today we're going to talk about something that's really near and dear to my heart, and it's the story of Chucky Mullins and Bride Gains and the signa new charity ball. And we'll dive into that right after these brief messages from our Tenner sponsors. Welcome back, everybody. Most of you should know. I'm an Old Miss guy, and I want to tell you about maybe one of the most formative experiences I had in college that really had nothing to do with me. On October twenty eighth, nineteen eighty nine, during Ole Miss's homecoming game against Vanderbilt, a guy named Chucky Mullins, playing safety, came up to break a pass. He put his head in the back of Brad Gains. Brad Gaines was a full back for Vanderbilt and he was definitely going to be a top three pick, a top three round pick. He was their stud. Chucky smoked him right on about the five or six yard line and the ball came loose bought. Hemingway went nuts because it broke up a big path at a critical juncture. Everybody started going back to their huddles and we were ready for the next play. Except Chucky didn't get up. He laid there. I was on the sideline that day, I was not in the stands, and I remember thinking, Wow, he's knocked out cold because as he lay on his back, his elbow was still on the ground, but his forearm was perpendicular to the ground, and when his arm fell to the ground, it just fell without any resistance. And so I knew this guy was just out cold. And I'd seen that before football two times, and it's scary, but you know, it's unfortunately part of the game. Roy Lee Mullins Chucky was laying there, and ironically the UH the head trainer for miss back then was Leeroy Mullins, and mister Mullins ran out to him like they always do when somebody's hurt, and when he got there, you could tell it was more than just passed out. He frantically was waving arms and the team dot came off the sideline. In a matter of instance, there was ten people around Chuck e Chuckie was a freshman, number thirty eight, and to be honest with you, not many of us even knew the kid's name. He was a second string guy, and he was in on a Nickel package about ten minutes later. And you know how it is when somebody gets hurt, you can tell it's serious. In a football stadium, it goes from wild and reverently loud to you can hear pendrop. There's fifty thousand people sitting there trying to figure out what's going on. And they roll out the back. Then they didn't have like the motorized cater cars. They just rolled a stretcher out onto the five yard line and put them up on it. And they actually passed me. And when they passed me, obviously, I'm gawking like any kid would. And they'd clipped Chucky's face mask at the jaw clip, but kept the clips on the top forehead part of his helmet, So they basically clipped the clips off and folded his face mask like he would the hood of a car, and had them all taped down, and so he couldn't move, and his face was so swollen that his cheeks had protruded outside the plastic shell of the helmet. It was awful, and I knew, like everybody else in the stadium knew that this was probably a neck injury. Plavor Zoom little by little gets louder. People forget it and keep playing, and then like twelve minutes later, from the other end zone outside the stadium, the helicopter picks up and wheels north toward Memphis, and it was like a second hush fell over because everybody knew then you know, this is bad. The next day we found out that this kid, CHUCKI. Mullins, had literally disintegrated the top four vertebrae in his neck and he was a quadriplegic. The university and the lums and students really rallied around him, and in very short order in nineteen eighty nine, there was well over a million dollars raised. The university bought theom house, built it off campus, and his rehab was a years years and a half long rehab and Brad Gaines, this big, burly, badass football player, went to Baptist Hospital Memphis and actually slept in his car in the parking lot for two nights keeping vigil over. Chucky Bride says He'll never forget the day he went to visit him, and he was wearing his Vanderbilt letter jacket, and the elevator doors parted and his bride walked into the hallway to go down to see Chucky. It was just filled with Old Miss people and it's just like he could, you know, everybody talking in the hallway over coffee, and it just was a hush, and Chucky could barely talk. He was on a ventilator, but he could put his hand over a button on the ventilator and say very short words. And Brad knelt down and prayed for him and with him, and then came up and with tears in his eyes, told him, I'm sorry he was and Chucky pushed his button and whispered in a guardly fashion and not your fault, you go play ball, And that's kind of what Chucky was. At the same time, Old Miss was struggling with some problems. The student body always rave Confederate flags, the band played Dixie about nineteen times a game, and the university was struggling with we're not a racist university, but what we're portraying can can certainly be used against people to say we're racist. In recruiting and other things. But are we really portraying who we are as university? And at this weird time where we're struggling all that, here's this black kid from Russellville, Arkansas, who doesn't have two nicols drubbed together, that the entire university is bracing as their favorite son. Next to Archie Manning. There's no bigger name at the University of the Old Miss than Chuck him my own. And it happened overnight. And it wasn't just because this kid got hurt. It was because his attitude about being hurt and his courage. Later that year, Ole Miss played in the Liberty Bowl against air Force and they had a quarterback named Dee Dallas who was number two in the Heisman balloting, and air Force was favored by sixteen points. And right before the game, to everybody's surprise, Chucky rolled in in a wheelchair into the locker room. And there wasn't a man in there that didn't have tears streaming down his face. And he had this infectious smile. And he rolled in and he looked at the team, and he put his hand over his little thing and he said as loud as he could it's time. Ole miss beat the crap out of Air Force that night, and Billy Brewer, the coach at that time, said there wasn't a team in the country that could have beat those kids that day. After Chucky rolled in and told him it's time, there was just so much inspiration from his courage and his attitude. Shortly after Chucky got hurt, there was this kid in Lauderdale, Mississippi named Alan Moore, a high school kid, a junior, who actually had the exact same injury that Chucky did, but it was from a very poor high school, again in Lauderdale, and he had no money. They didn't even have enough money for a wheelchair for him, couldn't build a ramp on his house. And we were sitting around in the fraternity house one day with a friend of mine, John Quak, and some other guys and read that story of the day of the Mississippian and John said, you know, we should do something, you know, an army of normal folks, we should do something for this kid. And so I went to Coach Brewer because I had a relationship with them. I went to Sparky Bear and the Dinas students at the time who got me in front of the chancellor, and we came up with the idea of playing what this thing was going to be called was a charity ball, which is our fraternity in a full pat of football game against another fraternity and celtickets and raise money and give it to this kid named Alan Moore in honor of Chucky Mullins. And so I actually got to meet with Chucky and I told him the plan. I said, I don't want you to feel disrespected that we're raising money for somebody else. And he looked at me and he said it's time. Chills ran through me when he said that big smile. He wanted us to go raise money for someone else because he knew he was taken care of. It's just kind of guy was So we put to go this football game. Long story short, my Afternity run the football game and we raised fifteen thousand dollars. That was in nineteen eighty nine. Today they still play that game called the Charity Ball once a year and it has grown to be the largest Greek philanthropy project in the entire United States and is today israe over three and a half million dollars for quadriplegics who had no hope of good care and wheelchairs and ramps and wheelchair accessible vehicles, all in the honor of a kid named Chucky Mullins. Why am I telling you the story? Why is this shop talk one? It doesn't matter who you are, or what happens to you, or what challenges you have in the world. If you keep a positive attitude and have the temerity to face all obstacles with courage, you can change people's lives. Chucky changed an entire generation of lives of people at Ole Miss because of his courage, because of his inspiration, because of his generosity, and because of his spirit. To this very day, every ol Miss football team, when they run out of the tunnel at Vald Hemingway Stadium, run their head over a copper bust of Chucky's head, and underneath it it just says, never give up. I think we should always think about the story of Chucky Mullins and Brad Gaines and the kids at Old Miss who've raised three and a half million dollars, all who took a horrible incident and turned it into a massive outpouring of generosity and inspiration, all because of a guy named Chucky Mullins. Who showed that even as a quadriplegic, you can inspire, you can encourage, and you can evoke change. Ole miss does not wave the Confederate flag anymore, and it no longer plays Dixie with its band. It got rid of Colonel rebb as it's Scott and it's because the university, through the inspiration of a guy like Chucky, had the courage to look at itself and say, we need to portray who we are, not what the past says about us. Chucky's inspiration and courage changed the university, changed a perception, changed an approach, and through his generosity and inspiration, has changed the lives of thirty six people that have had the same type injury he has that have come behind him. Even in his death, because Chucky died two and a half three years later, his body just couldn't function anymore, but his legacy lives on because of courage and inspiration. So when you wake up tomorrow and you think about all of the things that are going around in your community and your society, and you're like, man, I'd sure like to help, but I don't know how If a quadriplegic who doesn't have two Nickels drubbed together, came through his courage and inspiration, change an entire university and enrich the lives of other quadriplegics, even thirty years after his own death. You need to look at yourself in the mirror. You need to have some courage, you need to be inspired, and you need to understand the only thing that's going to fix us is an army of normal folks. And it really does start with you. But you've got to have the temerity and the courage to do it. We'll see you next week.