Today’s column comes to you compliments of a chapter in Dr. Dan Jones’ new memoir “Medical Missionary,” an intriguing read I much enjoyed.
Rick ClevelandWe begin in October 2002. Jones, later the University of Mississippi chancellor, was then the associate vice chancellor for health affairs at University of Mississippi Medical Center. Six doctors from a Pyongyang medical center were winding up a two-month visit to UMMC. Jones decided it would be a good idea to expose the North Koreans to American football.
Some background is necessary here: The six doctors were accompanied by a North Korean government handler, presumably to ensure they did not defect. Jones knew the stern, often scowling handler as “Mr. Jon” from a previous visit to North Korea. Jones’ relationship with Mr. Jon had been tenuous, at best.
“Yankee imperialist bastard,” was how Mr. Jon, a short, stocky man with military bearing, had once referred to Jones.
The North Korean doctors’ visit had been highly productive. Jones, an avid Ole Miss football fan, was eager to show them a good time.
“Football?” Mr. Jon asked before the Oxford visit. “Is that the sport they play with tin cans on their heads?”
On the Friday night before the Saturday game, Jones tried to give the Koreans a rudimentary football lesson – no easy task, Jones discovered. While the six doctors seemed politely interested, Mr. Jon was enthralled. Something about the often brutal sport clearly appealed to him
Mr Jon pointed at the TV tuned to a Friday night game. “Why don’t they tackle down that small man wearing black and white,” Mr. Jon asked.
Long after the doctors had retired to bed to rest for the big day, Mr. Jon continued to pepper Jones with football questions. Clearly, they had made a connection. Finally.
Now then, if you are going to your first football game what better way to start than on a glorious October Saturday afternoon with the sixth-ranked Florida Gators, quarterbacked by Heisman Trophy candidate Rex Grossman, against underdog Ole Miss, quarterbacked by Eli Manning?
The experience began in The Grove, which was as busy as a stepped-on ant bed that day.
As Jones describes in the book: “I always love the moment when folks see the Ole Miss campus, especially The Grove, for the first time. All the senses are pinging: the tall oaks lay down their deep green blankets of shade on the lush grass. Red and blue tents shoulder so close it’s hard to tell where one party ends and another begins. The tang of barbecue and grilled sausages is heady perfume, and the taste is even better than the smell. The happy yells of reuniting friends cut over whatever song some tent is blasting and, occasionally, the school chant of ‘Hotty Toddy’ is raised and answered.”
On the walk from The Grove to the stadium, Mr. Jon continued to ask question after question about football. At one point, he asked: “What does it all mean? The thing they keep saying.”
“Hotty Toddy?” Jones asked.
Mr. Jon nodded.
“Well, it means sort of … nothing. It’s nonsense.”
“It means nonsense?”
“Nobody knows exactly what it means,” Jones responded. “It’s something we say at our school… Hotty Toddy means we’re excited. We’re rooting for our team, we hope to win. It’s like a bow or a high five between fans. We’re all it it together. Hotty Toddy!”
They continued on to the stadium, past the long row of the portable Hotty Toddy potties. Mr. Jon seemed satisfied with the explanation.
Jones had arranged for the visitors to be in the chancellor’s suite, where they could either sit outside and watch the game or sit inside and enjoy the air conditioning and football fare. They also had access to the suite next to the chancellor’s, where beer and bourbon were available.
By the second quarter, Jones and Mr. Jon were the only two remaining in the outside seating. Mr. Jon was mesmerized by the football. Heavily favored Florida led 14-2 at intermission, but Mr. Jon had become a Rebel fan and he wasn’t giving up. He never left his seat, except to visit the adjacent suite to replenish his bourbon.
Local Ole Miss fans will remember what happened in that second half nearly 24 years ago. The Rebels, sparked by a tenacious defense and Manning’s error-less quarterbacking, fired back.
“Sack him!” Mr. Jon yelled as the Ole Miss defense constantly harassed Grossman. When a nearby fan yelled, “Ref, you need glasses,” Mr. Jon responded, “Yes, sir. He does need glasses!”
When Ole Miss completed the scintillating 17-14 victory and fans charged the field and tore down the goal posts, Mr. Jon threw back his head and yelled: “Hotty Toddy” and, wrote Jones, “gave sloppy high-fives to every American bastard he could reach.”
An addendum: Mr. Jon’s head clearly ached the next morning when the Koreans returned to Jackson to begin packing for the long trip home.
Addendum, two: Dan Jones would reunite with Mr. Jon on a subsequent visit to North Korea. To learn about that – and so much more, including Jones’ medical missionary work in South Korea, Russia, Iran and China – get the book. It will not disappoint.
Dan Jones is signing “Medical Missionary” at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Square Books in Oxford, where he is joined for a conversation with poet/author Beth Ann Fennelly. Jones is signing the book Thursday at Lemuria in Jackson, where Rick Cleveland will join him for a conversation. The signing begins at 4:30 p.m. the program at 5:30.
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