WALDEN WORLD

The world is not the same without Coach Bob.

There are those who have affectedus in a greatway but we really don't know how much till they are gone. I lost a special person this summer and I want to share about him.

I had never played an organize football gme till I was in the 8th grade. Not that I didn't want to but because I was to large. I 1967 I went to high school at Central High in Jackson. Back then things were definately "balck and white" if you get what i'm saying. That didn't bother me because I was brought up respecting black folk. Anyway... That was when i met Coach Bob Stevens. A bigger that life man who would do things that amazed all that surrounded him.

This is the real Coach Bob...Bob Stevens possessed multiple talents as a football player, football coach, basketball coach and champion handball player.
But his legion of friends and associates may remember him most for the lively sports discussions that took place at the I-55 YMCA in Jackson, where Stevens once operated his popular sandwich shop.

"Coach Bob," said George Dale, former state insurance commissioner and longtime YMCA lunch regular of Stevens, who died Friday at 82. "He was an extremely likable, fun-loving guy. Those of us at the Y always liked to pick at him and make fun of his alma mater (Southern Miss). "He was the biggest USM fan there was. We would all pull for Southern in private, but we wouldn't tell him. We'd always kid him about Southern and anything else we could."

Stevens, a member of four halls of fame, played football at Copiah-Lincoln Junior College and Southern Miss as an end and tackle, sandwiched around a Navy stint in 1945 as a combat air crewman during World War II. His high school football coaching career, in which he compiled a 141-73-9 record, began in 1949 at Pass Christian and also included stops at Meadville and two Jackson schools, Central and Murrah. Stevens, whose 1973 Murrah team went 9-1-1, was ranked No. 1 in the statewide AP poll for much of the season and remains the highest-scoring in school history (28.5 points per game) - was known as an offensive innovator and risk-taker.

"When I was coaching at Moss Point, we never played his teams but we knew what he ran," Dale said. "Bob was well known for his trickery. People who played him would go through the ballgame knowing he'd do something crazy, but what is it?
"Many times he might not have the best talent in the world, so he had to be somewhat deceptive to compete in some situations, and he did that well. Bob was probably one of those that took less talent and did a lot."

In 2003, Stevens was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. He also is a member of the Co-Lin, USM and Mississippi Association of Coaches halls of fame.

So much to have accomplished, so much to leave behind.

I didn't kow how much Coach meant to me till i sat at his funeral next to two black guys that were my friends then and are still today. He took us from a low position in life and helped us all be more than we were. I'm the only person in my family to go to college. I couldn't have and probably wouldn't have gone to college if it hadn't been Coach Stevens.

He offered a stabilizing force for us all to keep us from going down the tube. The dad we NEEDED and a dad than many didn't have.