DM EDITOR
Courageous Black head coaches at the University of Mississippi in the past have paved the way for the coaches of today and the future.
Ken Gibson was not only the first Black coach at Ole Miss but also the first coach for the women’s track and field program at the university in 1985. Gibson passed away in 2022 at the age of 88. However, his legacy lives on through every Black coach that has followed in his footsteps.
Gibson also oversaw men’s track and field and the cross country programs. During his three-year tenure at the university, Gibson’s teams won an NCAA team title along with five individual national championships.
Following his final season as head coach of the Rebels, Gibson served on the U.S. Olympic coaching staff and coached two of his athletes in the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea.
Four years after Gibson’s departure, Ole Miss hired its second Black head coach, the first in a major sport.
Oklahoma State assistant basketball coach Rob Evans received his first head coaching job at Ole Miss in 1992 after serving as an assistant coach for 21 seasons.
Evans played basketball at Lubbock Christian University, where he met fellow freshman and white teammate Gerald Turner.
Evans knew that Turner had played alongside few Black players, which pushed Evans to form a relationship with his teammate. Close to three decades later, his former teammate and close friend, by then chancellor for the University of Mississippi, was the primary motivator behind the hiring of Evans as head coach.
When Evans took over the program, Ole Miss had only one winning season over the past nine years and only one NCAA Tournament bid in history.
During his second season, Evans led the Rebels to a 14-13 record, the program’s first winning season in seven years.
In 1997 and 1998, he coached his teams to SEC Western Division titles and back-to-back NCAA Tournament bids. Following his success, Evans was named the 1997 Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year and was offered the head coaching job at LSU, with a salary raise of approximately $500,000 more than what he was making in Mississippi. He declined the position because he believed his work at Ole Miss was not done yet.
Following the 1998 season, Evans left the program for the head coaching position at Arizona State.
When Evans departed for Arizona State, Ole Miss promoted Evans’ assistant coach and former Rebel basketball player Rod Barnes to fill his shoes.
In his first season as head coach, Barnes coached the Rebels to its first ever NCAA Tournament win. Barnes and his team made history during the 2000-01 season, which included a school-record 27-win season and a trip to the Sweet 16, the deepest NCAA Tournament run in school history.
Barnes received the 2001 SEC Coach of the Year award. After the Sweet 16 appearance, Barnes would have only one other winning season in his remaining years at Ole Miss.
His ride with the Rebels came to an end following the 2005-06 season when the team lost 13 of its last 14 games.
In 2015, Ole Miss hired four-time Olympian and USA track & field Hall of Fame member Connie Price-Smith as head coach of both the track and field and cross country programs. Since arriving in Oxford, she continues to lead the programs to new heights.
Price-Smith has a number of accomplishments, including six NCAA individual titles, 61 SEC Championships and 122 First or Second-Team All American awards.
In 2018 and 2019, Price-Smith led the Ole Miss men’s cross country team to back-to-back SEC titles, the first two SEC titles in program history. She also served as head coach of team USA’s women’s track and field team in 2016.
Yolett McPhee-McCuin, better known as “Coach Yo,” was named head coach of Ole Miss women’s basketball in 2018.
She has completely turned the program around, and Ole Miss women’s basketball has found a new energy. The 2021-22 season was a notable success through a 23-win season, 10-6 conference record and trip to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007.
Besides making history with the Rebels, McPhee-McCuin made history of her own following the 2021-22 season by becoming the first woman in Bahamian history to coach at the men’s national level while serving as an assistant coach for the Bahamas men’s senior national team during the World Cup Qualifiers.
McPhee-McCuin was also the first Bahamian woman to sign a Division I letter of intent to play basketball and the first to coach at a Division I program. Subsequently she was inducted into the Bahamian Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016.
Her bright personality and tenacious spirit have made a huge impact on the team, program and fans. McPhee-McCuin has one goal for her team: to get them back on the national stage.
These men and women have worked hard at Ole Miss to clear the path for fellow Black coaches. They are an inspiration of grit, determination and perseverance to everyone.
