MSM 580 Coach Reed Green - Southern Miss Football before WWII - a podcast by USM Center for Oral History

The University of Southern Mississippi was still the Mississippi State Teachers College when Bernard Reed Green graduated in May of 1934.  In this episode, he recalls his decision to come back that fall as the Freshman Football Coach.  According to Green, his coaching style differed from that of Coach Pooley Hubert, the man who hired him, and how that difference had a positive impact on the team’s performance.  He explains his philosophy and why he made a practice of recruiting new players from local junior colleges.

In 1942, as the United States prepared for war, Mississippi Southern College as the school was known by then, suspended all intercollegiate sports activities. Green remembers how he found jobs for his football players so they could remain in school. With so many students serving in the military during the war, Mississippi Southern faced the possibility of having to permanently close its doors.  Green recounts how he and others lobbied the Pentagon for an officer training school to be located on campus. He explains that hosting the OTS and allowing the officer trainees to live in the empty men’s athletic dorm known as The Rock, enabled the institution to remain solvent during those lean war years.

PHOTO: Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame (Wikipedia)

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