Thirty-five years ago, Chucky Mullins died at 21. His story remains the most important one Ole Miss football has ever told.
Thirty-five years ago yesterday, on May 6, 1991, Roy Lee “Chucky” Mullins died at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis. He was 21 years old.
His story is the most important one Ole Miss football has ever told.
Oct. 28, 1989
It was Homecoming at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Ole Miss was playing Vanderbilt. Mullins, a redshirt freshman defensive back from Russellville, Alabama, was emerging as one of the most physical players on the roster. He wore No. 38.
Vanderbilt fullback Brad Gaines caught a short pass over the middle. Mullins, roughly 50 pounds lighter, launched himself into a headfirst tackle and knocked the ball loose. The hit shattered four vertebrae in his cervical spine.
He never moved again.
Mullins was airlifted to Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis. He underwent a tracheotomy and a five-hour bone graft operation to fuse the vertebrae. He was a quadriplegic. After months of intensive rehabilitation, he eventually regained the ability to move one hand across his body and touch his chest.
What happened next
The community response was immediate and overwhelming. More than $1 million was raised for the Chucky Mullins Trust Fund. President George H.W. Bush visited Mullins in the hospital on Nov. 22, 1989. Walter Payton and Janet Jackson visited as well.
But the most meaningful visitor was the one no one expected.
Brad Gaines — the Vanderbilt fullback on the other end of the hit — came to the hospital. Mullins told Gaines it wasn’t his fault. The two forged a friendship that endured beyond Mullins’ death and continues to this day. Gaines visits Mullins’ grave in Russellville three times a year — on May 6, October 28 and Christmas Day. He brings tools and cleaning supplies to tend the headstone.
Mullins returned to campus in August 1990 and re-enrolled in classes on Jan. 16, 1991. His motto, adopted by a program and a university, was two words: Never quit.
On May 1, 1991, while preparing for class in Oxford, Mullins stopped breathing. He was hospitalized and transferred to Memphis. He never regained consciousness. Five days later, he was gone. A pulmonary embolism — a blood clot that traveled to his lungs — ended a life that had already taught Ole Miss more about itself than any season ever could.
He was buried in Luketown Cemetery in Russellville, in the shade of tall oak trees on the edge of a hilly cemetery. His mother is buried next to him.
What he left behind
In the spring of 1990, the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity at Ole Miss established the Chucky Mullins Courage Award. It is presented annually to an upperclassman defensive player who embodies the spirit Mullins carried — courage, leadership, perseverance and determination.
The winner receives a framed Mullins jersey and the honor of wearing No. 38 on the field the following season. Jersey No. 38 was officially retired on Sept. 3, 2006, in a pregame ceremony before Ole Miss’ victory over Memphis. In 2011, the program decided the number would remain retired but be worn exclusively by the annual Courage Award winner. Since 2021, recipients can choose to wear 38 or keep their own number with a 38 patch.
Tyler Banks, a senior linebacker, won the 2025 award.
A bronze bust of Mullins stands on a brick pillar in the southwest corner of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, near where the team enters the field. The pillar is inscribed with “Never Quit.” Players touch the bust before taking the field on game days.
On Sept. 26, 2014, Coliseum Drive on the Ole Miss campus — the road connecting Hwy. 6 to campus — was renamed Chucky Mullins Drive.
35 years
Chancellor Gerald Turner said after Mullins’ death that “black or white was not an issue. He was a member of our family.” The late Mississippi author Willie Morris said the response to Mullins’ injury had done more for race relations in Mississippi than anything.
A 21-year-old quadriplegic forgave the man who hit him, went back to class and gave a university permission to become something better than it had been. Mississippi listened.
He was 21 years old. He wore No. 38. He told the man who tackled him that it wasn’t his fault. He went back to class. He never quit.
Thirty-five years later, neither has Ole Miss.
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