Roy Lee "Chucky" Mullins (July 8, 1969 – May 6, 1991) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

player at Ole Miss (

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment. ...

) best known for the devastating football injury that left him a

quadriplegic Tetraplegia, also known as quadriplegia, is defined as the dysfunction or loss of motor and/or sensory function in the cervical area of the spinal cord. A loss of motor function can present as either weakness or paralysis leading to partial or t ...

Accident and aftermath

Chucky Mullins was injured on October 28, 1989, during the Ole Miss Rebels' Homecoming game against the

Vanderbilt Commodores The Vanderbilt Commodores are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, Tennessee. Vanderbilt fields 16 varsity teams (6 men's teams and 10 women's team ...

Oxford, Mississippi Oxford is a city and college town in the U.S. state of Mississippi. Oxford lies 75 miles (121 km) south-southeast of Memphis, Tennessee, and is the county seat of Lafayette County. Founded in 1837, it was named after the British city of Oxf ...

. Chucky Mullins plunged head-first into a tackle of Vanderbilt fullback Brad Gaines after a short pass attempt. The impact shattered four vertebrae in Mullins' cervical spine, immediately paralyzing him. After being airlifted to Baptist Memorial Hospital in

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

, Mullins underwent a

tracheotomy Tracheotomy (, ), or tracheostomy, is a surgical airway management procedure which consists of making an incision (cut) on the anterior aspect (front) of the neck and opening a direct airway through an incision in the trachea (windpipe). The ...

and five-hour

bone graft Bone grafting is a surgical procedure that replaces missing bone in order to repair bone fractures that are extremely complex, pose a significant health risk to the patient, or fail to heal properly. Some small or acute fractures can be cured wit ...

operation to fuse the vertebrae. Mullins never regained sensation below his neck. After months of intensive physical therapy, however, Mullins was eventually able to move a hand across his body and touch his chest. As soon as the injury occurred, Mullins became the recipient of a huge outpouring of community support. Ole Miss fans, college football fans in the South and people from all over the nation immediately began to donate money towards Mullins' growing medical expenses. President

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...

visited Mullins in his hospital room and encouraged him while on a visit to Memphis. Soon, Ole Miss established the "Chucky Mullins Trust Fund" to properly manage the donations. The city of Oxford donated land for a specially-designed, handicap-accessible house for Mullins. Donations to the trust fund eventually exceeded $1 million. Mullins returned to Ole Miss on June 20, 1990, to complete his undergraduate studies.

Death

Less than a year after returning to school, Mullins was stricken by a

pulmonary embolism Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a blockage of an pulmonary artery, artery in the lungs by a substance that has moved from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream (embolism). Symptoms of a PE may include dyspnea, shortness of breath, chest pain p ...

, caused by

blood clot A thrombus (plural thrombi), colloquially called a blood clot, is the final product of the blood coagulation step in hemostasis. There are two components to a thrombus: aggregated platelets and red blood cells that form a plug, and a mesh of c ...

s formed by inactivity and poor circulation. He died in the hospital on May 6, 1991, and was buried in his home town of

Russellville, Alabama Russellville is a city in Franklin County in the U.S. state of Alabama. At the 2020 census, the population of the city was 10,855, up from 9,830 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Franklin County. History After the War of 1812, t ...

Memorials

On Sept. 26, 2014, Coliseum Drive on the Ole Miss campus was renamed Chucky Mullins Drive. During Mullins' time in the hospital, he and Gaines, who did not know each other before the accident, became close friends. Since Mullins' death, Gaines visits and maintains his friend's gravesite three times a year: May 6 (the anniversary of Mullins' death), October 28 (the anniversary of the injury) and December 25 (

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

Day). Brad Gaines continues this personal tradition to this day. Chucky Mullins Ret Number

The impact of the accident on Gaines, and the injury to Mullins, is the subject of a SEC Storied documentary "It's Time", which first aired in September 2014 on the

SEC Network The SEC Network is an American multinational sports network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications (which holds ...

. Each spring, during the annual Grove Bowl (a game at the end of spring practices pitting Ole Miss players against each other), the player who most embodies Chucky Mullins' spirit and courage receives the "Chucky Mullins Memorial Courage Award". With the award, the player received the right to wear jersey number 38, the same number Chucky wore. Chucky's number 38 was retired on September 3, 2006, in a pregame ceremony before the Rebels' victory over

. From 2006 until 2009, the winner of the "Chucky Mullins Memorial Courage Award" wore a patch in honor of this award. However, the retiring of Chucky's jersey #38 proved to be an unpopular move. Thus, after changes to the award (i.e. any defensive player is eligible, no longer just a rising senior defensive player), the number was returned to circulation in 2010 to be exclusively worn by the award winner for that season. Beginning with the 2021 season, award recipients are given the option of wearing a jersey with #38 or retaining their original jersey number with a "38" patch on it.

Winners of the Chucky Mullins Courage Award

* 1990 – Chris Mitchell * 1991 – Jeff Carter * 1992 – Trea Southerland * 1993 – Johnny Dixon * 1994 – Alundice Brice * 1995 – Michael Lowery * 1996 – Derek Jones * 1997 –

Nate Wayne Nathaniel Wayne, Jr. (born January 12, 1975 in Chicago, Illinois) is a former American football linebacker in the National Football League. He played college football at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss.) He graduated with a degree in c ...

* 1998 – Gary Thigpen * 1999 –

Ronnie Heard Ronnie Heard (born October 5, 1976) is a former American football safety in the National Football League. He was signed by the San Francisco 49ers as an undrafted free agent in 2000. He played college football at Mississippi. Heard also played f ...

* 2000 – Anthony Magee * 2001 – Kevin Thomas * 2002 – Lanier Goethie * 2003 – Jamil Northcutt * 2004 – Eric Oliver * 2005 – Kelvin Robinson * 2006 –

Patrick Willis Patrick L. Willis (born January 25, 1985) is an American former football middle linebacker who played his entire eight-year career with the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the 49ers in the first roun ...

* 2007 – Jeremy Garrett * 2008 –

Jamarca Sanford Jamarca Deshaun Sanford (born August 27, 1985) is former American football safety. He was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the seventh round of the 2009 NFL Draft as the 231st pick. He formerly played college football for the Ole Miss Rebels ...

* 2009 – Marcus Tillman * 2010 – Kentrell Lockett * 2011 – D. T. Shackelford * 2012 – Jason Jones * 2013 – Mike Marry * 2014 – Detarrian (D.T.) Shackleford (2nd award) * 2015 – Mike Hilton * 2016 – John Youngblood * 2017 - Marquis Haynes * 2018 - CJ Moore * 2019 - Austrian Robinson * 2020 - Jaylon Jones * 2021 - Keidron Smith * 2022 - KD Hill Mullins's story was memorialized in a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

, ''Undefeated: The Chucky Mullins Story'' and also the SEC Storied Documentary film, "It's Time".

* Former

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...

defensive back Zach Gilbert, who is a cousin of Mullins, wore number 38 in his honor. * Former Rebels and 49ers linebacker

was the first recipient of the Chucky Mullins Award after the number was retired. * A book was written by author Larry Woody about the incident: ''Dixie Farewell: The Life and Death of Chucky Mullins'' (1994) Eggman Publishing * Rev. Jody Hill, a former Ole Miss teammate of Mullins, also wrote a book: ''38: The Chucky Mullins Effect'' (Deeds Publishing (August 12, 2014), ).

References

External links