The Beautiful South - my Mississippi road trip diaries
GEORGE SOMERVILLE – THE TOUCHDOWN SEC CORRESPONDENT
A short story in three states : Part III
In the first part of my Mississippi road trip diaries I talked about my love for SEC football & the Deep South in general.
In this part I leave the cowbells of Starkville behind and head west and North further into the Deep South to Oxford, Mississippi.
I have had a love affair with Oxford since I first visited in 2015. It’s a part of the world I will try to visit if I am within driving distance. This was my third visit to Oxford however this time there was a subtle difference. I arrived post the all SEC match up with conference newcomers Oklahoma and the city was still electric from the night before!
Clearly word has spread and Oxford & the Grove is on the bucket list of thousands of football fans! The City was transformed from a quiet and elegant Mississippi town to a bustling football metropolis!
"I'm going to tupelo"
Tupelo, MS
The Ole Miss Experience
I have never hidden my love for Oxford, Mississippi. I first experienced The Grove at Ole Miss back in 2015. On that occasion Ole Miss played an out of conference game against Fresno State. Ordinarily you would not expect such a game to be well attended. But I underestimated Ole Miss fans, the Grove and the true Southern tailgating experience. Not being American, tailgating remains something of an alien concept to us Brits but we are catching on. However from of all my gameday experiences, the Grove is next level. For the first time at a football game I saw men in dinner jackets and bow ties, ladies and girls in evening gowns. Tents had chandeliers and the food seemed next level. On that occasion the sun was out and it was packed.
The Grove is a parkland square at the centre of the Ole Miss campus which is not as big as you might think. This means that the bagging of a spot of prime real estate requires a stake well in advance. Of course those tailgating don’t wait in line, no Sir. They pay students handsomely to do so.
But not for the first time I digress. The city of Oxford is beautiful in itself. At the centre of the community is the Courthouse Square, better known just as The Square which everything in Oxford seems to revolve around. If you have ever watched the excellent TV show True South about life in the South you will recognise many of the bars and restaurants as favourite haunts of host John T Edge and writer/producer Wright Thompson. Oxford has a reputation as a foodie heaven and rightly so.
Tupelo Honey
So, if I am in the vicinity (in this case vicinity = 200 miles), I’m not going to miss the chance to visit Oxford. Leaving Starkville behind I chose to stop off in Tupelo first as a short detour. If you own blue suede shoes or a pink Cadillac you already know that Tupelo is the birthplace of Elvis Aaron Presley. You can visit his birthplace, home and various other attractions in Tupelo. However I previously visited all the Elvis sights before on a trip to Memphis to visit Graceland. This time I wanted to see downtown Tupelo and I have to say it was well worth the trip. I wouldn’t say Tupelo is stuck in a time warp, that would be unfair. However the buildings are still as they were back in the day and some including the Department Store and Hardware store where Elvis bought his first guitar still operate. As Sunday morning strolls went, it was a wonderful meander back in time.
Going to the grove
Oxford, MS
But Oxford called. Oxford is about two hours from Starkville and is in North Mississippi on the road to Memphis, Tennessee. My hotel was just off the Square which allowed me to park up and take in the post game atmosphere. As much as it was Sunday lunchtime the town was buzzing post the victory over Oklahoma. In fact the town was still so busy that it was impossible to get a seat anywhere to grab something to eat. This was especially disappointing as I had a fantastic list of recommendations of where to eat which was rendered obsolete by the combined Rebel & Sooners masses.
True south connection
One of the side benefits of visiting Oxford at the end of October was that preparations were well underway for Halloween with many events taking place at the weekend and its fair share of trick or treaters roaming the streets. Walking some of the back streets far from the busy square gave a great insight into normal life in Oxford, away from Ole Miss and the football razzamatazz.
One of the unexpected but awesome benefits of co-hosting the College Chaps pod is meeting new people and developing relationships and in some cases, friendships. One of those friendships is with John T Edge who as I previously mentioned is the host of the excellent True South tv show. Unfortunately John T was out of town when I visited Oxford but he did give me some recommendations for eating while in his hometown.
With the eating situation now perilous I ended up in a Taco place just off the square. It remains to be seen if it would have appeared on Mr Edge’s list (albeit further down) but it gave me the fuel I needed to press on.
what do you mean “in a gas station?”!
However during my post eats walk I sadly realised the error of my ways. I stopped in at a gas station to grab something to drink. The gas station also sold food and as it transpired was home to where the “original chicken on a stick” is served.
Which immediately made me realise the mistake I had made. On previous trips to Oxford and indeed Mississippi I have been directed by locals to some of the most out of the way places, especially gas stations to grab something to eat. BBQ in the South is a religious experience and while the serving outlets might not sound appealing, the food invariably is awesome. It is not unusual to find the most fantastic BBQ or fried chicken joints behind gas stations or in strip malls. And this was hammered home the next morning as I set out on my long road trip to Baton Rouge. I stopped at the gas station directly across from my hotel to fill up with gas before embarking on the six hour drive into Louisiana. And guess what? Yup, they were serving breakfast including BBQ to a line of eager customers at 6am on a Monday morning! My mood was sullen as I had to be on the road.
Callin' Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge, LA
The drive down into Louisiana was long (320 miles) but not without its beauty. Even in the Deep South fall was in full swing and with every passing mile the trees changed a different colour. I had to be in Baton Rouge before 4pm for an appointment I did not want to miss. So the pressure was on a little to get South and fast.
The Shaq effect
An early departure from Oxford meant I was in Louisiana before lunch and in Baton Rouge for 1pm. As I was going to be in Louisiana for less than 24 hours I deliberately stayed on the LSU campus to give me the opportunity to do everything I wanted. As is often the case a hotel on campus has links to the University and the Cook Hotel & Conference Centre was no exception. From a bronze Mike the Tiger in the hotel lobby to a LSU gift shop and BCS Championship trophies on display. The hotel even had the Shaquille O’Neal lodge (where you eat when staying at the hotel). The hotel is a living monument to the LSU Tigers.
gotta go see mike
After check-in I got myself onto the LSU campus. The temperature in general was very warm, unseasonably warm over the course of the weekend. If I thought temperatures in Alabama and Mississippi were hot (and it was), Baton Rouge was steaming hot and humid. Nonetheless walking about the LSU campus was beautiful and a real joy. Inevitably I migrated towards the stadium mostly because Mike’s enclosure is situated directly across from Tiger Stadium. It’s seldom, if ever that a school has a live Tiger on campus and Mike lives in style. Which means that Mike’s 15,000 sq foot climate controlled enclosure is a must visit if in town. Mike always draws a crowd and this day was no exception. He was a great warm up act for my main adventure that day – a tour of Tiger stadium.
welcome to Death Valley
Tiger Stadium
The LSU Tigers have played football at Tiger Stadium since 1924. Since then the stadium has been renovated four times and expanded seven times to its current capacity of 102,000. Which is quite an expansion from the original capacity of 12,000 when it originally opened!
When you talk about college football stadiums in the US, in fact any stadium in the US then Tiger Stadium is on everyone’s bucket list. The words “and It’s Saturday night in Death Valley” ring in your ears when you think about the great, raucous atmospheres that have happened over the years in Baton Rouge.
So while I couldn’t get to a game this time around I was never going to pass up the opportunity to get inside this cathedral of Southern college football.
It did not disappoint. Tiger Stadium is everything I wanted it to be. The tour of trophies, walls of fame and even the locker room (which is a little ordinary compared to other locker rooms I have been in) were just the appetiser to stepping out onto the field.
Death Valley is up there with any stadium I have visited and I include Lambeau Field and the old Yankee Stadium in that exclusive club. I cannot imagine what the place is like full and on a Saturday night. Having watched so may games on TV from Death Valley, standing there taking in the stadium in relative silence was a little surreal and overwhelming. It really was cathedral like.
Honestly, I cannot wait to go back for a game. AT NIGHT
Roll Wave!
driving into Nola
And with that my time in Baton Rouge was over. The now well worn seat in my rental car was getting used for one last time on my relatively short drive into New Orleans.
But this is a football trip and there was time for one final stop on my itinerary before handing back the rental car. If you listen to the College Chaps podcast you know that we frequently talk about and have a soft spot for the Tulane Green Wave. So it seemed fitting to make my last stop on this whirlwind tour at Yulman Stadium at Tulane University in New Orleans.
end of the road
And so the trip was complete, From that first stop at the Rock in Hattiesburg to Saban Field at Bryant Denny stadium, into Davis Wade stadium, Vaught Hemingway in Oxford to Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge and Yulman in the Crescent City I packed as much into a long weekend as I could. In total my trip was five days including travel with boots on the ground in the US for four days. Across those four days I made it to six University campuses – Southern Miss, Alabama, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, LSU and Tulane. I made it inside Davis Wade and Tiger Stadiums and in doing so I drove over a thousand miles.
The people as always were friendly and welcoming. Southern hospitality is a real thing. The trip just underlined all that I love about that part of the world.
It really does Just Mean More.
GEORGE SOMERVILLE
COLLEGE FOOTBALL WRITER
GEORGE IS A LONG STANDING FANATIC OF LIFE AND FOOTBALL IN THE DEEP SOUTH AND WRITES HIS WEEKLY COLUMN CALLED “IT’S ONLY SEC” FOR THE TOUCHDOWN. HE IS ALSO CO-HOST AND ONE THIRD OF THE COLLEGE CHAPS PODCAST, THE UK’S FIRST PODCAST DEDICATED TO THE COLLEGE GAME.