`A Member Of Our Family' -- Ole Miss Remembers Chucky Mullins And His Unifying Influence

OXFORD, Miss. - Chucky Mullins, whose courageous battle to return to a normal life after a crippling football injury won the admiration of the nation, was remembered today in memorial ceremonies at the University of Mississippi.

Services were held this afternoon at the Tad Smith Coliseum on campus. Visitation for students, faculty and friends began at noon.

Mullins, 21, died Monday at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Medical Center in Memphis, Tenn., of complications from a blood clot in his lungs. Hospital officials would not say whether Mullins had been removed from life support.

Mullins was paralyzed from the neck down after making a tackle in a 1989 game against Vanderbilt.

"Number 38 will always be in the minds, the hearts and the lips of Ole Miss people," Head Coach Billy Brewer said. "Chucky Mullins is a legend in his own time.

"I don't know what we'll do without him."

Ole Miss, where integration in the 1960s triggered bloody violence, seized on Mullins' courage as a rallying point for both blacks and whites to display a new unity.

"Black or white was not an issue. He was a member of our family, and we rallied around him and continue to do so," said Chancellor Gerald Turner. "This tragedy provided an opportunity for our unity to be displayed."

The former defensive back had been on a respirator since a blood clot shut down his lungs last week while he was dressing for class.

Tentative arrangements call for Mullins' burial Saturday next to his mother in Russellville, Ala. She died in 1980.

Mullins' courage after the accident so inspired students and others that they raised $1 million for his expenses.

"I think he's going to be remembered for his strength and his confidence," said former teammate Darron Billings of Jackson, Tenn. "It's a great loss."

The more than $750,000 remaining in a University of Mississippi Foundation-administered "Roy Lee Chucky Mullins Trust Fund" will endow a scholarship fund in Mullins' memory. Grants will be awarded annually to disadvantaged high school graduates.

Mullins is survived by two brothers, Horace Mullins of Russellville, Ala., and Lamar Phillips of Oxford; sisters Gwendolyn Mullins of Detroit, Christy Phillips of Russellville and Keshia Phillips of Oxford; and his father, Roy L. Stovall of Florence, Ala.

A $70,000 house built for Mullins by the university on property donated by the city of Oxford and a special van used to transport Mullins' wheelchair remain university property.

Mullins' guardian, Carver Phillips, and his wife Karen have lived in the Oxford house to care for the former Ole Miss athlete.

"It will be up to the foundation to determine what happens now with that property," said Florian Yoste, former executive director of the foundation.

Yoste, who now serves as coordinator of off-campus programs for the state College Board, said he left Mullins' bedside Monday morning after spending the weekend with him.

"I told Carver Sunday, `I want to . . . see him by myself because it will probably be the last time.' I put my hand on his forehead and talked to him."