Mr. O.W. Reily Jr. was born on June 17, 1924, in Shreveport, Louisiana, to O.W. and Dot Higginbotham Reily. As a child, he attended public school in Collinston, and Bastrop, Louisiana. He was active in sports, including track, basketball, and boxing. As a young man, Mr. Reily was an amateur boxer in the Marine Corps, and in college.

In 1941, he joined the Marine Corps. From October, 1941, through November, 1945, he was in the Marine Corps; he served at Pearl Harbor, Midway, the fire department of Camp Lejeune, and the Panama Canal. In 1946, he married, and is currently married to Gloria Reily.

In 1947, he worked at Southern Natural Gas, in Perryville, Louisiana. In 1948, he worked at International Paper Company. From 1949 through 1952, he attended Delta State Teachers College, from which he was graduated, earning his bachelor's degree in physical education. From 1952 through 1954, he was employed at Delta State Teachers College, teaching health, coaching track, and teaching driver's education. From 1954 through 1958, he coached track and basketball at Cleveland High School. From 1958 to 1967, he coached basketball at Bastrop High School in Louisiana. In 1967, he returned to Delta State College as dean of men, where he remained until he retired in 1991.

He is a member of the Lions Club and the Delta State Booster Club.

This is an interview for the Mississippi Oral History Program at The University of Southern Mississippi. The interview is with Mr. O.W. Reily Jr. and is being conducted on August 19, 1999. The interviewer is Perry Barrett.

Barrett: This is an interview from the Mississippi Oral History Program. The interview is being recorded with Mr. O.W. "Wig" Reily Jr. on August 19, 1999, at Mr. Reily's home. The interviewer is Perry T. Barrett.

There we go. All right, Mr. Reily, could you tell us just a little bit about your early educational experiences, maybe where you went to elementary school, middle school?

Reily: Well, I went to elementary school in Collinston, Louisiana, through the third grade, and then moved to Bastrop, Louisiana, where I remained throughout the rest of elementary school and high school. Now, in those days we didn't have middle school and all that. We just had elementary school and high school.

Barrett: OK, and are there any particular teachers you might could-that you recall or remember that made a particular impression on you in the early years?

Reily: Well, at Bastrop, for about a year, Mrs. Phillips was not only a terrific teacher, but she was about half bouncer, too. And I went by her former home just a couple of weeks ago. I was visiting in Bastrop, Louisiana, and we ate in Monroe and came down the river road where Mrs. Phillips used to live. And she was quite a character, and one of her chief things, especially if you got kind of out of hand in class, well she might say, "Wig, go down and see if Coach Benyon has got something for you to do." (Laughter.) And so then I'd spend the rest of that period down there with Coach. But anyway, that's one of the things that I remember about Bastrop High.

Barrett: And what course did Mrs. Phillips--

Reily: Mrs. Phillips taught English.

Barrett: Taught English. And so when I asked you about recalling teachers, that's the first one you mentioned. Any other reason that she would come to mind?

Reily: Well, no, other than, you know, she was pretty tough. And there were a few ways to avoid her class, but it was better not to do that and go on and face the music. Of course, most outstanding--and naturally I was rather interested in the athletic phase of it--and so Coach Dutch Benyon was a real inspiration for all of us that participated under him. And then he finally left Bastrop and came into Mississippi. Went to McComb first and won what at that time was thought to be the National Championship in a game played in Atlanta, and then moved to Holmes Junior College and taught there several years and coached, and went to Pascagoula as a coach and ended up as an athletic director, and then retired. He's a real worker. In fact, in high school we probably had the best physical education program in the South at that time. When I was in high school, our physical education fee was fifty-five cents per year, and that enabled you to have in physical education class a clean tee-shirt, clean shorts, jock, socks, and a towel afterwards. And if you came back that afternoon to work out for track or baseball or whatever, you got the same thing again. And he started off washing all that stuff on these old wringer type machines, washing machines. No dryers back in those days, and so he had to hang it all out to dry. And when it was raining, he hung it under the bleachers in the gym. And so that was quite an experience.

Barrett: And you participated in one sport, or several sports?

Reily: I participated in track, basketball, and boxing.

Barrett: All right. Now other than-now you were, although you were born in Shreveport, you grew up in-

Reily: Collinston. When Daddy and-Mother and Daddy moved back to Collinston soon after I was born.

Barrett: Right. Was that where you attended your elementary and high school?

Reily: Um-hm, just my elementary. I went through the third grade in Collinston, then moved to Bastrop. Collinston and Bastrop were very close, about six miles apart.

Barrett: And then you graduated from high school-

Reily: -in Bastrop.

Barrett: OK. Now other than school, or maybe another aspect of school other than sports, what else comes to mind when you think about your years when you were growing up?

Reily: Well, I think about the folks that came along with me. And Derrall Foreman, who ended up retiring from here, too, and I were together all the way from the third grade through high school and college, so naturally I think of him. And he-the golf course here is named after him, and so his wife's a better golfer than he is though. But anyway, of course, most of the time I think about Derrall when I'm thinking about coming up. In the summer many a time he's helped me mow my yard so I could go play baseball. He still lets me know about that. (Laughter.)

Barrett: OK. Now, I see where you would have been in your early teens or somewhere in that range around the time of the Depression.

Reily: The Depression was a little earlier, because you, most of the time you want to think about the Depression beginning about '29, '30, in there. And of course at that time, well, I was six. But I can remember the days being pretty tough. And at that time, my daddy was working for Louisiana Coffee Company delivering coffee, and that kind of played out. And later on going to work for International Paper Company, well, you always had to worry about them shutting down for a period of time and all that business. It was a tough go. I can remember times when he'd get laid off, and there was a peach orchard right outside Bastrop, and so he'd end up working out there for ten cents an hour.

And another little story that goes along there, when I first got out of the service I was going to school in Northeast Louisiana. And I'd hustle home and go to the peach orchard and work out there myself for a fabulous wage, maybe a quarter an hour, I don't know. But see, when I graduated from high school, I graduated in 1941. And so I went and joined the Marine Corps, went in the Marine Corps in October of '41. I was in San Diego when Pearl Harbor was bombed.

Barrett: You were in San Diego at the time of Pearl Harbor?

Reily: And was in the next crew to go overseas.

Barrett: So you were in the Navy?

Reily: Heck no, I was in the Marine Corps! (Laughter.)

Barrett: Oh, in the Marine Corps.

Reily: Don't call me that Navy stuff! (Laughter.)

Barrett: Sorry.

Reily: Yeah, we went over the first of January.

Barrett: When you say "went over," where did you go to?

Reily: My first stop was Pearl Harbor, and that was a real sight.

Barrett: So you were there within-

Reily: I was there in early January.

Barrett: Of '42?

Reily: Yeah.

Barrett: Whoa.

Reily: And from there I went to Midway.

Barrett: Midway, and how long were you at Midway?

Reily: Long enough. (Laughter.) That was our first victory.

Barrett: So that's the Battle of Midway. Oh my goodness. Did you want to talk any about that?

Reily: No, darn glad we won. (Laughter.)

Barrett: Yes sir.

Reily: And it-well, probably the Marine pilots were more responsible for that victory than anything else, the way I see it. Of course, they were flying planes that looked like these crop dusters around here. And they cleaned out that Japanese Navy pretty well-of course, with some help from our Navy, too. And, but anyway-

Barrett: So you were seventeen or eighteen when you went in the Marines?

Reily: Yeah, I was seventeen, and was seventeen just about the time the battle came about, too, see. I was eighteen on June seventeenth of '42.

Barrett: So after Midway, then what?

Reily: Came back to Pearl Harbor and stayed there a little while. And then came back to the States. And was stationed at Camp Lejeune for well, about nine months. And I was in the fire department at Camp Lejeune. The purpose of that was because I was, I was finagling to, I was on the town and Camp Lejeune boxing team. And so they put me in a operation where it was easy for me to go work out and that kind of thing.

And one morning a fellow walked in and hollered, says, "Anybody's been in combat want to go to Panama?"

And my bunkie said, "You ever been to Panama?"

And I said, "No."

And he said, "Let's go."

Well, at that time the Marine Corps had a stipulation that you couldn't stay in the States for six months. And we'd already been there nine, so it was time for us to get out of there anyway. So we went to Panama. I finished up the whole thing there.

Barrett: Yes, so it's in the Canal Zone?

Reily: Yeah.

Barrett: Were you around Fort Clayton or-

Reily: No, I don't believe we had Fort Clayton then.

Barrett: Oh, no, OK.

Reily: And I was stationed right out of Panama City. And my duties-talking about the "life of Riley," now-at that time were I carried the official mail. Got on this little train every morning at 10:00, and went from Panama City to Colon and stayed till two, came back, then I worked out. (Laughter.) And so that was about it. And then I got out in November of '45. Had enough points to get out at that time.

Barrett: OK. So you get out of the service, and then it's on to college, or-

Reily: Well, I went home, piddled around for the rest, till spring semester started at Northeast. Started to school down there.

Barrett: When you say "Northeast," that's-

Reily: Northeast Louisiana at Monroe. And it was a junior college at that time. And all of our group that came back about the same time, Derrall Foreman, James Justice, James Gilbert, and Talmidge[?] Foreman, Leon Gee[?], and James Buford Atkins, we just all walked in down there and started school at Northeast. And Northeast had had a pretty good boxing team prior to the war, and of course a lot of that was due to do to the fact that all the high schools around there had boxing teams, see. And so I was on [a] boxing scholarship, and all the rest of that crew that I named was on football scholarship, so we had-but on over in the summer I got married, and my scholarship wasn't doing me much good. I was trying to live in Bastrop and go back and forth. And so I dropped out of school after that summer session, so I went in the spring and summer. And first worked for Southern Natural Gas, then I worked for International Paper Company. And one night I was, two or three of us from Bastrop were fighting in Greenville.

And Foreman is already over here in school. So he comes down there and said, "Why don't you come on back to school?" Said, "You might not do anything but fight and play ball the rest of your life, anyway." And so I said, he said, "We've got a"-they were on the quarter system. Said, "We've got a new quarter starting next week."

I said, "Well, find us a place to live, and we'll be there."

Barrett: Well, this is back at Northeast?

Reily: Well, no, we'd been coming to school-Derrall was in school-he had, at that time, he had gone from Northeast Junior College to Delta State to finish school.

Barrett: Oh, so they're wanting you to come to Delta State.

Reily: Yeah, and so I said, "Get me a place to live, and we'll be there." So we moved in Mrs. Wiggins' house down on the floor. He got me an apartment down there. She had moved out of the house, and she had the house divided into two apartments. Red Gunn was living in one, and Rae Jo[?] and I were living in the other one. And so that's the way we started off here. That was in the spring of '49.

Barrett: Now, you were here on a boxing scholarship?

Reily: No, we didn't have-though we started some boxing, but Delta State didn't have a boxing team. My boxing scholarship was at Northeast Louisiana.

Barrett: After you left Northeast Louisiana, you continued to do some boxing?

Reily: Oh, yeah, to have those dollars coming in.

Barrett: Was this-this was professional boxing?

Reily: Well no, we were-back in those days the good amateur cards, well, they'd give you a little on the side and on that. But I was actually working at Southern Natural first, and then went to work at International, but I was boxing on the side. We had [a] regular community team in Bastrop at that time, kind of like an AAU team, but that was before AAU. So then we were over here one night, and Foreman said why didn't I come, and so I did.

Barrett: OK. All right. So you come to Delta State, and what is your major?

Reily: I was majoring in physical education and helping Coach Gene Chadwick and Coach John Ray Ricks with anything they wanted me to do. I was kind of the flunky around. And so went that direction all through school. And of course, we were still boxing around, too. And got some others folks from Bastrop, old Bill Williams, one, was a good one. And so we had a pretty good boxing team here, although it wasn't recognized by the school. We'd just go off and fight, you know.

Barrett: So you continued to do that while you were attending Delta State?

Reily: Yeah. Some of the good ones were Bill Williams, Sugar Durham, James Kelly, of course, Derrall Foreman, too, and John Brewer were all fighting back in those days.

Barrett: Did you go to different cities?

Reily: Yeah, one of the big promoters at that time lived in Greenwood. So we fought a good bit in Greenwood, Greenville, and around most, you know, Columbus, Memphis.

Barrett: So you graduated from Delta State with a degree in-

Reily: Physical-well, in education, majoring in physical education, in 1952.

Barrett: All right, now. Let me ask you about-when you first got to Delta State, you had some hours from Northeast Louisiana.

Reily: Yeah, very few, though, that would transfer.

Barrett: OK, so you came here.

Reily: I was-this will slaughter you-I was majoring in agriculture when I went to Northeast. And so I didn't have much that would transfer at that time. I was-really had four years to go.

Barrett: OK. Can you tell me anything about the-do they have any kind of initiation or anything like a-what they do with the freshman?

Reily: They were cutting freshmen's hair. But of course, most of my crew were returning veterans; so they left us alone. They didn't try to cut our hair, but I can remember-this is going back a ways, too-but the year that we quit cutting hair was about 1971 or 1972, I guess. And I'll tell you this; Dr. Blanchard was a freshman. And he was living in Hardee Hall. And we had a guy that was-back in those days we called RA's "monitors"-that lived in Woolfolk. He eventually won the Mid-South Golden Glove Heavyweight Championship. And his name was Ned Roan[?].

And he said, put the word out, said, "Well, I don't care what they say. If they come by here I'm going to cut their hair." And so all that crew that was living in Hardee Hall would go all the way around the dining hall-well, what is the Union now-and go around and come back to the cafeteria to avoid coming by Ned's. And so there was another boy that was also a monitor living in Woolfolk dormitory named David Nelson. And he was from Houston, Mississippi, and Blanchard was from Houston, Mississippi.

So at the cafeteria Blanchard eases over to David and said, "If I sneak over there tonight, will you show me this guy Ned Roan?"

And David said, "Yeah." And told him what room he was in. So Wayne goes over to see David, and they carry him down there to see Ned, and he was satisfied then. So-but that was when we did cut out the-that used to be a big deal. They'd cut the hair, and sell you a beanie to wear. And you had to keep up with that beanie. (Laughter.)

Barrett: OK. Can you recall any particular rules that the university imposed upon students at the time when you attended-curfews, rules, regulations?

Reily: Well, of course I was married, so that made a little different situation. And of course there weren't any cars. If you went out on a date, you just walked from here to the movie, which is where the printing company is up there, Rhodes Printing Company now. And so that was kind of a big deal on Sunday night anyway. Everybody'd walk up there and go to the movie. And Brock had her restaurant across from there. And go for something to drink and come back home. Girls couldn't go out alone, and of course had curfew every night, you know. But on these nights like Sunday night, I think maybe they could be out till, oh, 9:30 or 10:00. And you need to go to orientation every now and then.

James Donald Cooper gets back, gets out the old handbooks, and he'll read rules to them out loud about what they were supposed to do and all this. Of course, you know, everybody got a big laugh about it. Mrs. Lawler was the dean of women at the time I was in school, and she ruled the roost. And then when I came back-well, this was a long ways in there-Mary Long was the dean of women at that time, and she was a tough customer, too, you know. In other words, it's probably best that she passed away early. Visitation in the dormitory would have killed her anyway. (Laughter.) But anyhow, when I graduated, then Dr. Kethley was president. And that's another little story. Dr. Broom was the first president of Delta State, and he died within a year. And Dr. Kethley was appointed president in 1926, I guess, and he was still president when I came here. And hired me the first time-when I graduated, he hired me, and I worked those two years there. So I worked for Dr. Kethley then.

Barrett: What did you do those two years?

Reily: OK, taught-he hired me as dean of men-no, I'll take that back, I'm getting confused. Dr. Kethley hired me to teach health, coach track, and help both Coach Chadwick and Coach Ricks, which I had been doing while I was in the school, and to teach driver education. And I had to go to Ohio State that summer to get certified to teach driver's ed, to teach the people to teach driver ed in the high schools. And so that was one of the primary purposes was that driver ed, because we'd been bringing somebody from over to State to Delta State in the summer to teach our students, in order that we could certify those people. So we needed somebody who was eligible to, could certify them. So I went up there to Ohio State that summer to get certified myself in order to teach driver education. And I stayed on two years. And then I went to Cleveland High coaching track and basketball. And stayed there four years. Went back to Bastrop coaching basketball. Stayed nine-

Barrett: Bastrop High School?

Reily: Yeah, Bastrop High School. And at that time, by then, Dr. Ewing was president. And so he called and offered me the job as dean of men. And at first I really [felt] rather hesitant about coming. But anyways, one of-you have to know Dr. Ewing to understand this, because he could jump on you whether he'd ever met you before or not, you know.

Anyhow, he said, "How would you like to be, come over here and talk to me about being dean of men?"

And I said, "What does he coach?" (Laughter.)

And he said, "You mean to tell me you don't know what the dean of men's responsibilities are?"

I said, "Well, not really." I said, "I think that Mr. Wyatt might have been the dean of men when I was in the school. But he had a lot of other duties, too, and my affiliation with him came in other areas other than being the dean of men." Anyway, [he] kept on wanting to know would I come and talk to him about it, and I did, and we ended up (inaudible). OK, now he was the third person. Broom was first, Kethley was the second, and I'd worked for him. Ewing was the third, and [I] worked for him. Lucas came after him, and I was still here and I worked for Lucas.

Barrett: Now, when you came back as dean of men, that was in the late '50s. Is that right?

Reily: That was in 1967.

Barrett: Nineteen sixty-seven, OK.

Reily: And so then I worked for Wyatt. So up till Dr. Potter came, I'd worked for every president we'd had other than Dr. Broom, who wasn't here but a year. So, I was kind of proud of that.

Barrett: Fine, fine, OK.

Reily: In fact I told Dr. Potter he might have to hire me in order that I can keep my record going. (Laughter.)

Barrett: So you came back to Delta State in 1967 as the dean of men, and you continued in that capacity at the university?

Reily: I moved to dean of student affairs in '73, I think, and I stayed in that position till I retired.

Barrett: OK, and so as the dean of men and dean of student affairs, can you recall any particular interesting experiences with the students?

Reily: Well, I just told you about one, about Blanchard. That's pretty good.

Barrett: Yeah, that's a good one.

Reily: Well, we came, you know-panty raids was a big thing, you know. You had to go over there and break all that up and try to catch as many as you could. When-dang, my memory's leaving me now. What did we call it when somebody'd take all of his clothes off and run down the-

Barrett: Streaking.

Reily: Streaking, OK, we went through that, and of course-

(End of tape one, side one. The interview continues on tape one, side two.)

Barrett: You were talking about how you came back to Delta State in 1967 at the request of the president to serve as the dean of men. You went on to dean of student affairs. And I'd asked you about any particular interesting experiences with the students. You mentioned that-streaking.

Reily: And the panty raids.

Barrett: And the panty raids.

Reily: You got to have that. And of course one of the first guys I remember grabbing on a panty raid, and I had him.

And I said, "You get out of here, and you be in the office in the morning at 8:00." And I left him just like that and was going to get somebody else. And he-so the next morning at 8:00 he wasn't there. Well, of course, the thing to do any time you were looking for a student and you were having trouble, of course, go to the cafeteria for lunch, as you know they've got to come eat. So you were going to catch them there.

Anyway, I grabbed him, and I said, "Where were you at 8:00?"

And he said, "I didn't figure you'd remember me."

I said, "I certainly do remember you, and I want you there at 1:00. And if you're not there then, I'll call your daddy." And of course his daddy had been in school with me. So I had him by his-and, of course, I was coaching track at that time, had, got started off-Coach McCool had initiated track in 1966. That was the first team. Then when I came in '67, well, I took that over. And then that first year was pretty tough, but winning a few meets.

Barrett: So you coached track in 1967?

Reily: Yeah, and during-I had a tough year that first year, but we did win two or three meets. And of course, you know, track is a little different. You can finish second or third, and you've beat five or six teams in the meet. So anyway, starting with the next year, we went four years in which we only lost two meets. We lost one in '68, one in'69, went undefeated in'70. So that was pretty good.

Then of course, the other story as far as the late '60s, you know, was integration. And we were going, you know-and to begin with everything was going pretty smooth. And in '69 we began to have some problems that mostly were caused by off-campus people, although we had a couple or three that really got wound up into the thing. And finally in the spring of '69, and maneuvering around, we were pretty well aware of, that students were going to try to do something or sit-in that afternoon in front of the president's office. Of course, that naturally would be disruptive, and so we had a couple of school buses parked over behind the coliseum and the Highway Patrol over there with them. And when they sat down, well, first Dr. Ewing came out of his office and asked them to leave. Of course, [they had] a little harassment with him vocally, and then laughing and carrying on. And so about that time the Highway Patrol walked in, and we march fifty-four of them out to get on those school buses. And as it so happened the county jail was full; it had had a busy weekend. And so we had to take those fifty-four to Parchman. And well, the rule over at Parchman was that nobody was released after 6:00. But by the time they had got everybody checked in and fingerprinted and all that kind of business, well it was 6:00, and it didn't make any difference whether anybody came and paid the bond or not. They couldn't go. Anyway, that was a testy time, I guess. And of course the hearings that we had to have after all that. We went all through all that business. But that pretty well put an end to our problems as far as integration was concerned. The rest of that school year, it was kind of tight, but from that point on everything went fine.

Barrett: That was the spring of 1969?

Reily: Yeah. And so that, I guess-and soon after that, you know, we're into the '70s. And the big thing going in the '70s in addition to school from a student affairs standpoint, we were, you know, everything was going smooth. We were trying to have as good an intramural program as we can. And we were trying to keep the dormitories in the best condition we can, and having problems with shortage of rooms, and a lot of times having to start the year at three to a room when they're built for two, you know. And that's a big problem. But we were able to do that with pretty good supervision. And due to the fact of the supervision, we were not having the damage that other institutions are having and so are able to charge lower rent than anybody else in the state. And in fact that's something we've got that we can feel proud of, the people that we put to work in the dormitories supervising, and the head residents. And a lot of that was work-study work. In other words, it weren't necessarily people that were schooled in that kind of thing. It was something we was going to have to school them in when they got there and pay them with work-study. And due to the fact that we were able to do that, we didn't have to charge that extra rent that everybody else was charging. At one time-and this was back, of course, when money was a whole lot different that it is now and the fees were different, a whole lot. But on the number of people that we had staying in dormitories and housing, if we had been charging the same thing that Ole Miss was charging, we would have been taking in $600,000 more in housing than we were presently taking in.

Barrett: Oh, my goodness.

Reily: Now, in other words, that kind of shows you the difference in what they were charging there and at State and Southern. Southern wasn't as quite as bad, but anyway, we were still low-man-on-the-totem-pole. And we were able to do it and make ends meet with that lower charge on housing. And probably right now we wouldn't be having to charge as much as we are charging if the board didn't require it, because the difference between us and the big three was getting too big. In other words, there was too much difference there, and they didn't want to handicap Ole Miss and State and Southern.

Barrett: You mentioned the difficulty in the spring of 1969 with the civil rights resistance or demonstration of some sort. Were there ever any organized demonstrations or activities related to the Vietnam War, or opposition to the Vietnam War on the campus?

Reily: Oh, maybe every now and then two or three might come up with something. But we-I can't remember. I can remember some incidents, but nothing, not big enough that made a great impression on me. I can remember one get-together with some of my track folks. And Jamie Cox was a sprinter, had just come back from Vietnam. And something, there'd been some fussing, I guess, about Vietnam and all this kind of business.

And so I just had that group in there and was asking them, "Well, how do you feel about this," and so forth.

And the main remark I remember, Jamie Cox spoke up and said, "Well, those folks that are fussing, we ought to send them to Vietnam, and let them find out what life's all about." And he was a mighty fast sprinter too. (Laughter.) And, you know, back in those days that was pretty good time. Anyway, everything-we've been fortunate to have less disturbances, I'd say, than-or we was able to handle all that kind of stuff.

Barrett: Anything else that comes to mind, interesting, maybe with the students, faculty, or the school, and your tenure in the seventies?

Reily: Well, in the seventies, of course the big thing was the Lady Statesmen. And, of course-well, Dr. Lucas was president by then. And he decided he wanted to start girls' basketball. Well, Margaret Wade was over there teaching P.E.; so that was the next step. And she had been at Cleveland High at the same time I was up there. And of course, she had an outstanding record at Cleveland High, played for the State Championship three times, got beat every time but always [by] one or two points. But anyway, she had quite a reputation as a girls' basketball coach. And probably the unsung hero was Melvin Hemphill, who did all the recruiting. And of course the big deal was Lucy Harris. Do you remember that name?

Barrett: No. It sounds familiar.

Reily: Well, she scored the first two points the United States scored in the Olympics in basketball. Anyway, she was six-three, about 190 then. And she could clean folks out from under that board. And one of the things that we did; well, this was just the way Margaret played. We didn't substitute much, and we had a lot of other good ball players on the teams. But Cornelia Ward and Ramona Von Boeckman, Debbie Brock, I'm missing one there. Anyway, that five-I'll think of the other one in a minute-and of course the first year they had a pretty good year and won about sixteen ball games or something. But that was-we were eliminated. And then the next year they started, and they won three National Championships in a row.

Barrett: What years were those?

Reily: Seventy-five, '76, and '77, I believe is correct. And of course the big thing-we even changed spring break one time in order that it wouldn't interfere with the National Tournament. And of course everybody was, you know, we were packing them in. You had to buy a season ticket to be assured a seat in the coliseum. And back in those days, women's basketball was in the AIAW, and I forget what those letters stand for exactly. But all of those championships were in the AIAW. And all schools participated, Division One, Division Two were all together. It wasn't any difference. So we won those three National Championships against everybody. And the last one, we beat LSU in the finals at the University of Minnesota, in their coliseum. And of course, we probably had 300 folks up there, just Delta State people. And those were the good days. Of course, our girls' basketball has always gone along.

And now Lloyd Clark has won three National Championships. Now he, when he first came, we'd had a year where we had a losing season in between Margaret and Lloyd. And changed coaches, hired Lloyd. And he had been coaching; he was a Delta State graduate and was coaching at Vicksburg, doing well. Came up here, and the first two years he won over twenty games, but we didn't get invited to the tournaments because we weren't in the conference. In other words, we weren't in a, we were in a Division Two conference in the NCAA, but we were playing Division One women's basketball. And, of course, the only way we could have gotten to the tournament would have been to do well in our conference. And so they certainly weren't going to let us in the Southeastern conference. So after two years, then we went into Division Two, and of course he continued to win. And he had great teams all along. I was just looking [at] some of this. Let me reach over here just-

Barrett: Can you reach it?

Reily: Of course, another thing-here-have you ever seen one of these?

Barrett: I have not.

Reily: OK. Well, I don't have there what I thought I had. But-

Barrett: There's a-

Reily: That's Margaret Wade. But he won the National Championship in '89, '90, and '92. Now, you are going to see Dr. Gunn, you said. He-OK, he and Gladys Castle-and Gladys is a legend here, too. She has-I guess the only job she ever had. It probably says in here. But she was always the secretary to the dean of academic affairs. And so-and kept up with everybody. When you think of her, well then right off you think of Mrs. Katie Maulding, who was the registrar, and Mrs. Ethel Cain, who was head of the women's physical education, but she was running the men's, too. And she, and those people-Mrs. Tatum in history, and you have to go back through all those folks. I got a letter from a boy, Jack Rademan, who ran the eight-eighty for me back in then, and he's in Florida. And he wanted to know about Dr. Butler and Mrs. Brumby. And those were all-Mrs. Brumby taught everybody that came through here geography, I guess. Dr. Butler was in the English department. And it's funny when now you see her in the grocery store, and she's having to hold onto that cart to get through. But she still remembers a lot of those students.

And she'll say, "Wig, what about Rademan? Have you heard from him lately?" And I'll try to bring her up to date on him, and all this kind of business. But anyway, those folks knew everybody.

And people like Mrs. Maulding, she might meet you in the cafeteria, and she'll say, "Do you know you haven't had kinesiology yet? Now you've got to take that next semester." Or next quarter, you know, whichever it would be. In other words, she kept up with things so close like that.

Now, in teachers in this day and time-I'll criticize them a little-they want to fuss and say, "We've got so many students that we can't advise all these people." Well, you just think that as the number of students have gone up, so has the number of faculty members gone up. It's just that these people were involved and wanted to know about everybody and help them, and have an influence on them, and be dad-gummed sure that they was able to finish school. And it-well we, some of our problems in high school and colleges and everything else have gotten to the point that folks think that they ought to go home at 3:00 in the afternoon, you know. Now that's just some more of my feelings. But anyhow, I feel like we could do just as good a job of advisement today as we did thirty years ago if we worked as hard as those people did. Because with the number of faculty people we've got, it comes out to you're advising about the same number of students. Well, and particularly with us, where we are trying to maintain small numbers in classrooms and not going to 200 and 300 like some of the larger universities are. And, you know, as long as we maintain thirty and below, well we got enough faculty members to advise those people. Anyway, what were we talking about? (Laughter.)

Barrett: I'm glad you said that because that's true.

Reily: Well, and see, with all these problems that we're having in the schools today. You go back to when I was coming through high school, probably when you were coming through high school, and when I was teaching in high school, it was just an unwritten rule that the coaches were going to have hall duty before school and at lunch.

And if folks had come in with those long coats on that they had at Columbine or what, heck, they would turn them around and said, "Go home and get you another sweater or something."

And I can remember sending folks home because they weren't wearing a belt or they didn't have socks on, or those kind of things. And I hope that in my tenure at Delta State that we were able to have some influence on folks. If we'd be more concerned-now, we can't get away from technology and the improvements along that line and all this kind of thing. But still, we need to be concerned about every student that graduates from Delta State University being a lady or a gentleman, knowing the difference between right and wrong, and be really concerned about making a contribution to society. Now that's my preaching for today.

Barrett: I like it; I like it.

Reily: Well, and see, back in those days-earlier-in the '70s, '60s, late '60s, '70s, you know, we were through those dormitories every night. Well, everybody didn't have cars, so everybody was in the dormitory. You got to know them. You knew their mom and their daddy. And if his little brother was sick or her little brother was sick, you knew about it, you know.

"Your mother's sick. Well, how is she doing?" And all this kind of business. Back when you had room check, you know, you taught a person how to take care of yourself and do things that you needed to do. And see, back in those days we were making room check twice a week. And if they didn't, well they got a green slip. And of course, when those added up, well, then you had to come up with something else for them. But anyway, we're getting away from being concerned about us really having an influence on them. One time-and this is something else-I have heard Mrs. Cain, Mrs. Ethel Cain say in class, I'd say I guess in an education course, that you ought to spend three to five minutes of every class period you have trying to influence people and teach them the difference between right and wrong. Now, you just think if in your classes today-and I don't mean as soon as they walk in start doing that-somewhere along the line during that fifty minutes you say something about what's right or what's-you know.

And Dr. Kethley-we had chapel back in those days-one of his favorite sayings is "Don't you do anything that will reflect on your upbringing." I believe that's the way it was. Anyway, you know, it was a good, old saying. And of course, now, we couldn't do that. We couldn't have chapel because we would leave out the Muslims, or we would leave out somebody, you know. It just couldn't be a non-denominational-type thing. That's another thing we used to do; and this was all part of student affairs, you know, everything outside that classroom is student-the chapel. And see, we used to try to have chapel once a week in there at noon. And Tim Stearns, the pastor of Covington Presbyterian Church, I can remember him doing the chapel program when he was in school, and also remember him doing some other things. But anyway, I kid him now, and I tell him I still have got him on probation. (Laughter.) But anyway, I wish it was-I'd prefer it to be back like it used to be.

Barrett: So when you say you "had chapel," every week there would be services and-

Reily: Yeah, back-see, when Dr. Kethley was president, we had chapel on Thursday at 11:00-I believe that's the right time-and everybody was supposed to be there.

Barrett: Eleven o'clock in the morning, a.m.?

Reily: Yeah. Now, when we built this chapel, of course, that was just another program in student affairs that we were having. We tried to have chapel, I think it was on Wednesday at noon. And we would start about 12:30, and give them time to get to the cafeteria and eat and come back over. And then we had a Sunday night service, had a committee composed of students who were responsible for the Wednesday noon program. And we had faculty members on the committee who were responsible for the Sunday night program. And, you know, that went pretty well. We'd have years where we didn't have as many in there, and we didn't attract near as many people as you would prefer that we did. But we got enough to make it worthwhile. And of course you're able to find out all about the chapel in here. Mrs. Sillers in Rosedale donated the money to build the chapel. The chapel was the original heating plant. And of course we got all that stuff out of there when we switched over and got away from steam heat. And it wasn't much of anything. Janitors used it to store stuff for a long time. And then finally she donated the money, and we used that building and converted it into a chapel. And after some time, the-my mind is gone again-Alice West, her folks, who at one time was West Implement Company-that was a John Deere Company-donated the money for the chimes.

(End of the interview.)