On Nov 2, 2009, at 2:22 PM, Helen Huntley wrote: > Rodney Stowers > http://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/04/sports/mississippi-state-player- > dies.html
and here http://articles.latimes.com/1991-10-21/sports/sp-226_1_jackie-sherrill His Other Side - Sherrill's Mystique Is Built on Arrogance, Insolence, but Stowers' Death Made Him Let His Guard Down By GENE WOJCIECHOWSKI, TIMES STAFF WRITER|October 21, 1991 STARKVILLE, Miss. — Tears do not come easily for Jackie Sherrill. If anything, they are a last resort, a reluctant concession, a luxury Sherrill rarely allows himself. But on Oct. 5, with about 2,000 mourners squeezed into Mississippi State University's aging Lee Hall auditorium, Sherrill's eyes betrayed him. He wept. Like a baby. Two days earlier, Sherrill had walked into his office shortly before 7 a.m. and was met by a Mississippi State team trainer, who, his voice unsteady, told him Rodney Stowers, a 20-year-old junior defensive end, had died. Stowers had entered nearby Golden Triangle Medical Center Sept. 29 to allow team physicians to insert a pin to help heal his right leg, broken the day before in a game against Florida. But four days later, Stowers suffered a hemorrhaging of the lungs, a side effect, doctors said, sometimes associated with such an injury. Sherrill couldn't believe it. This was the same Stowers he had wrapped his arm around minutes before a recent game and told that he needed his best effort. Stowers had happily delivered. Now he was gone. Sherrill and the trainer drove to the hospital, where Athletic Director Larry Templeton and Stowers' mother were waiting. At 1 p.m. a team meeting was held and later, Sherrill conducted a news conference so charged with emotion that the Mississippi State football coach had to pause several times to compose himself. The next day, on a chilly, gray October afternoon in Starkville, where a tiny college town grieved for one of its adopted own, Sherrill stood in front of the memorial service congregation and searched for the proper words. The man who, critics say, cornered the market on arrogance and raised insolence to an art form, appeared very human and vulnerable. For a change, Sherrill wasn't in total control. His heart ached, and for once, he allowed the pain to be seen by all. This wasn't the same Sherrill who, in 13 seasons at such places as Washington State, Pittsburgh and troubled Texas A&M, had a 105-45-2 record, and in the process, angered such traditionalists as Penn State's Joe Paterno, attracted the attention of the NCAA and generally treated everyone as his royal subjects. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
