Midmorning With Aundrea - April 2, 2020 (Part 3)

(Part 3 of 4) In today's "Boxed Out", Tom Eble asks some of WCBI's former sports directors talk about some of their favorite student athletes they've watched grow over the years.

Intro most people agree.

We live in an amazing place for people who love sports.

From the youngest players to college and even the pros, we get to watch student athletes learn and grow.

We all have favorite memories.

And, that's what our wcbi sports director tom eble asked a few of our former sports directors when they got together on zoom.

Pkg " my name is mark rogers and my name is chris latimer.

And i'm robbie donahoe.

I came in right after chris left and so i came on board right there at the start of the football season in 2001.

I started at wcbi in december of 2006.

What was your favorite story to cover wall at wc vi if there was one certain, you know, i don't know if it's just like a major event like for instance, like an ncaa tournament.

Or like if there's a story you'll always rember doing that ended up being your favorite.

I was standing in that same end zone when peyton manning threw his first touchdown pass.

It was one of them was like my third week at wcbi and peyton manning through his first touchdown pass as a college football player, but mississippi state came back and won that game.

And i was standing in that end zone when i think it was derek tate through the touchdown pass to a tight end.

I was right in front of me.

In that end zone.

It was my first game at mississippi state in scott field.

Feel later, chris could help me out on the quarterback.

I think it was stewart patridge like for ole miss through game winning touchdown.

And then a two point conversion to beat mississippi state and tommy tuberville was so fired up he and jackie cheryl met at midfield and tuber ville just kind of gave him a slap across the wrist and you know, i shouted something and took off.

And just the rivalry between the two schools and all sports but obviously in football stands out to me it was that run that they made in the final four and that's the easy one and that's the obvious answer but but that's the truth.

And in fact, somebody emailed me just yesterday saying that in their coronavirus, self quarantine they had watched those boys from state and that was good viewing for covid 19 lockdown so people are still watching that right now and web i did a great job with that they beat santa clara and santa clara had steve nash at the time, then they beat utah and utah had keith van horn.

And then the next year they make that run to the final four and they take down ray allen in the sweet 16 beat kentucky, which everybody thought was the number one team in the country was going to run away with it and the sec tournament.

And then when they beat cincinnati in the elite eight, i know mark went to that game i was holding down the fort.

But when everybody got back to the gtr airport, the line was out to the highway and you couldn't get in there wall the wall people, layers of people, people on chairs, people on sofas standing waiting for this team to come in.

So i really remember that moment when the bulldogs came back from beating cincinnati.

They were final four bound.

We were live at the gtr airport and that was one of my favorite shows for some for some reason, or somehow i convinced the station to let me go to pasadena to cover the alabama texas bcs championship game in oh nine.

Um, you know, i didn't quite know know that that was going to be at the start of the dynasty that just about everybody wants to end now.

But it was really, it was really cool one being at the rose bowl.

But to just being around alabama fans who have been waiting for 17 years to win a national championship, you know, i wasn't it was it was a little bit easier to deal with them when it had been almost two decades since they won a national championship.

So they were actually kind of they were actually kind of fun to be around back then.

But it was it was really cool being in that setting and being in the middle of it.

When they won their first the fact that we get to cover there'll be cbi three sec teams. and so it was neat covering eli manning's final three years at ole miss.

It's pretty cool to be a part of history when sylvester croom gets the mississippi state football coaching job, but i've got to echo what mark was talking about earlier.

The rivalry.

I'm out came i was born and raised in madison, wisconsin.

So i'm a huge badger fan.

You know, we talked about wisconsin, minnesota, the longest rivalry in the country.

But there is nothing in the world that can compete with this rivalry between mississippi state and ole miss.

And i just rember those times where, you know, it's i don't know how you guys deal with that with social media, i get stuff thrown at me at both places.

I mean, people i go to ole miss and i have to hear well, mississippi state must be off today that's why you're here or vice versa and i'm at the other place and so the rivalry always like electric atmospheres you know, those friday nights a high school football and in the without those rivalry games with state and ole miss, those ones that really stand out.

Morgan williams shot against uconn to win that game was arguably probably one of the most defining moments in sports history for not just mississippi state but the state of mississippi as a whole because i don't think only people fully realize, you know, the magnet attitude and obviously derek can speak to this as well because he was there on the floor shooting that.

That shot because we're the local tv guys, we couldn't be on the floor but be actually getting to be in the arena for that shot at ending uconn's 111 game winning streak or they went to multiple national championships.

I mean, we'll never see anything like that ever again, more than likely in basketball because the last time we had seen that was ucla with lew alcindor and go waltons teams back in the 60s and 70s.

So because there's so much more parity in college basketball, i think that's what made that shot.

So much more significant in the history, the sports landscape history, not just in all the country but in mississippi for sure" tag that was robby donoho in the upper left hand corner, current sports director tom eble in the middle on the top.

Derek cody is in the upper right hand corner.

Chris latimer is in the lower left.

Mark rogers in the center and will kohlmeyer is in the box on the lower right.

We'll have more from these guys in the days to come on wcbi.

Stay with us.

We have another story with sunny.

The hungry catepillar when mid morning returns.