Warner Alford served Ole Miss many ways, and always with utmost class ...Middle East

Take a look at the photo above. On the left, with the big smile, is Warner Alford, who died Friday at the age of 87 following a long illness. Alford played guard and linebacker and was later the longtime athletic director at the University of Mississippi.

On the right, that’s Jake Gibbs, the star quarterback of the 1960 Ole Miss Rebels. The trophy they proudly hold is for the ’60 Grantland Rice National Championship, voted on by members of the Football Writers Association of America. Seemingly looking on from the painting behind them is John Vaught, the legendary Ole Miss coach. Gibbs and Alford were two of his favorites.

Those 1960 Rebels finished with a 10-0-1 record, defeating Rice in the Sugar Bowl. Alford and Gibbs, his longtime close friend, were voted permanent captains of that 1960 Rebels juggernaut that out-scored opponents 280-60. Only a 6-6 tie with LSU ruined an otherwise perfect season.

During the three seasons Gibbs and Alford played varsity football, Ole Miss won 29 games, lost three and tied one. They won two Sugar Bowls and a Gator Bowl. That’s a whole lot of winning, but there was much more to their relationship than winning football. Alford, from McComb, and Gibbs, from Grenada, came together as incoming freshmen in August of 1957. Alford played guard and linebacker at 185 to 190 pounds. Don’t let the smile fool you; he was one tough dude.

Gibbs and Alford were suite-mates in the athletic dorm. Later on, during the time when Alford was the athletic director and Gibbs the baseball coach, they were neighbors.

“Our children grew up together,” Gibbs said Saturday. “You couldn’t hope for a better neighbor or a better friend than Warner Alford. You hear people say it all the time about somebody who never met a stranger. Well, I’m telling you Warner Alford never met a stranger. He was as good as gold. He just loved people, and people loved him.”

Now then, take a look at the photo just above. This one is from the 1960 Sugar Bowl after the 1959 season. Gibbs, 12, is about to throw a touchdown pass for the first score in the Rebels 21-0 trouncing of LSU. Number 60 for Ole Miss is Alford who just missed a block on Roy Winston, 60 in white, for LSU. You can’t see it in the photo, but Alford is screaming to warn Gibbs of what is about to happen.

Gibbs showed this writer the photo and told me about it years ago.

“The play starts out like it’s going to be a sprint-out pass like we ran so often back then, but I stop just before I get outside the tackle and throw. Well, I saw ol’ Cowboy Woodruff running wide-ass open down the middle of the field and threw it to him. Touchdown. Easy as you please. Then, I got clobbered.”

Gibbs laughed, as he told the rest. “The name of that play is 30-O, but Warner and I call it the ‘look out play’ because right before I threw it, Warner yelled, ‘”‘Look out, Jake!'”

Be assured, nobody would laugh about it louder than Warner Alford, who possessed a booming laugh that boomed often.

“ff there’s ever been a better people person than Warner, I haven’t met them,”Archie Manning said. “Warner loved everybody and as far as I know, everybody loved him.”

Manning is not alone. Says Ole Miss sports historian Langston Rogers, whom Alford hired as Ole Miss sports information director in 1981, “Warner is one of the all-time Ole Miss legends, as a player, a coach, and athletics director. I’m forever thankful he hired me. I learned so much from him, just watching how he dealt with people. Warner would help anybody who asked for his help, which is such a wonderful gift.”

Mississippi State’s Larry Templeton and Alford competed against one another as athletic directors at two of the most bitter rivals in college sports. What hardly anyone knew is that the two considered one another close friends and shared a healthy mutual respect for one another and the difficult jobs each faced.

Says Templeton, “Our fellow athletic directors in the SEC called us brothers. We always sat together in SEC meetings and usually voted together, as well.”

This was back before the SEC issued a $50 million check annually to its members. Ole Miss and State, two of the smallest and poorest schools, were fighting cannons with cap pistols. They lobbied successfully for revenue sharing with the likes of Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Florida.

“Warner was instumental in joining with us to move the Egg Bowl back to our campuses,” Templeton said. “I assure you it was a huge decision for both of that came with a huge impact for both institutions. Ole Miss has lost a great man. I lost a true friend.”

Alford influenced so many. Take former PGA Tour pro and multiple golf course owner Randy Watkins, who was the U.S. national junior golf champion in 1977 and was recruited by college golf powers around the country. Watkins initially committed to play his college golf at Georgia.

“I loved Ole Miss, but at the time Ole Miss was between golf coaches and didn’t have a really good home golf course,” Watkins said. “Well, Warner was the athletic director and he came down to recruit me himself. He promised me he was going to hire a really good golf coach. He promised me they were going to improve the Ole Miss golf course and he told me if I thought I might want to eventually live in Mississippi I’d be crazy to go to Georgia or Texas or wherever. Well, I guess there are people who could say ‘No’ to Warner Alford but I wasn’t one of them. Everything he promised, he delivered. I’ve never met a man whose word meant more to him and it did to Warner. I am forever grateful.”

At Ole Miss, Watkins won the SEC individual championship and was a first team All-American.

In the photo above, future Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat and future athletic director Warner Alford mug for the camera in 1957. The two were roommates and fast friends.

“Warner and I met when we were 15 years old at a Big Eight Conference basketball tournament,” Khayat said. “We were friends for the next 73 years. I promise you, you couldn’t have a better friend than Warner. I loved Warner Alford.

“Let me tell you about Warner. He was always the nicest guy, the sharpest dresser. He loved to laugh, loved to help folks. He loved to hug folks. He was an encourager, a leader. But he was tough as he could be. He wasn’t the biggest or the strongest, but he was tough and you could count on him.”

Kay Swayze was the daughter of Tom Swayze, the Ole Miss baseball coach for whom the Rebels’ baseball facility is named. Tom Swayze was also John Vaught’s trusted football recruiter, who successfully lured many of the school’s All-American players through the years. One of his hundreds of recruits was Warner Alford. Tom Swayze surely had no idea he was recruiting his future son-in-law.

At Ole Miss, Warner began dating Kay Swayze, a campus beauty, and both were smitten, a situation that would last until Kay died last year. They were married for nearly 64 years. Kay was Warner’s best friend, biggest fan and mother of their three children. In later years, after Warner was stricken with Alzheimer’s, Kay was his tireless caretaker.

Kay and Warner Alford are survived by two sons, Swayze and John; a daughter, Phyliss Alford Daniels; and seven grandchildren.

•••

Warner Alford’s funeral is 2 p.m. Tuesday at Oxford-University United Methodist Church. Visitation is 4-6 p.m. Monday in West Hall at Waller Funeral Home and again at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the church. A graveside service will be held at 12:15 p.m. Tuesday at Oxford Memorial Cemetery.

Memorials may be made to The Warner and Kay Alford Ole Miss Opportunity Endowment, c/o University of Mississippi Foundation, 406 University Ave., Oxford, MS 38655.

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