By
Ryan Finley
SAN ANTONIO - Sure, the song's catchy. The members of the Ole Miss pep band play it well and they play it often.
If you didn't know any better, you'd find yourself tapping your foot to it.
But 'Dixie' is more than just a song. It stands for oppression, subjugation and an era that nearly broke the United States of America.
Try telling that to Mississippi alumni, fans, and band members. It seems as if the Rebels have always turned a blind eye to political correctness.
In fact, wasn't it just recently that Ole Miss fans were forbidden from waving Confederate flags at football games?
Nothing has more demonstrated the Southerners lack of sensitivity more than an event that happened last weekend when the Rebs played host to Iowa at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo.
Prior to the game, Ole Miss' chancellor, Robert Khayat, asked the Rebels'pep band to refrain from playing Dixie in order to honor Stanley Hill, a former Iona player that had suffered injustice at the hands of Rebels fans.
On Jan. 2, 1957, the Gaels and Hill -- who is black -- traveled to Kentucky to play the Rebels in a holiday tournament. When Ole Miss -- which was not integrated -- found out that Iona planned to play with a black player, the team forfeited the game in protest. It was the last time the two teams had played prior to last Friday's game.
"I felt hurt and humiliated," Hill said in a pregame press conference last
weekend. "But at the hotel , the Mississippi players came up to me and said they wanted to play and they apologized for what happened. It was a tough time for me. When I saw the (NCAA) pairings (two weeks ago), I had flashbacks."
To honor Hill, Ole Miss paid to bring the 64-year old former union boss to St. Louis, all expenses paid. Hill accepted and said following last Friday's game that he was proud of the strides the state of Mississippi has made to integrate society.
It was a beautiful story, except for one thing - despite the behest of the school's athletic director, chancellor and basketball coach, the band played the song anyway.
'Dixie', the national anthem for the South during the Civil War, could be seen as offensive to blacks, who were enslaved by Southerners prior to and during the War.
Ole Miss head coach Rod Barnes, a soft-spoken man of few words, was not happy with the band's insensitivity.
"From what I can gather, our athletic director asked the band not to play 'Dixie' because Mr. Hill was with us," Barnes said. "First of all, I don't think it was a request that was asking too much of our band because it was a special occasion. Anything that offends a particular group should be eliminated."
Barnes, who played and was an assistant coach at Ole Miss before taking over for current ASU head coach Rob Evans two years ago, said he has no problem with the fight song but did find fault with the band that insisted on playing the song despite complaints.
"I'm not opposed to playing 'Dixie', but sometimes things have to happen when you need to accommodate people," he said.
A week ago, the Ole Miss administration was gaining national recognition for what some perceived to be a media coup, defying the good ol' boys that
still preside in the Deep South.
"People always seem to bring up the same kinds of things," Barnes said last week of the stereotyping that comes with living in the South. "There have been a lot of great strides at the university and in the state of Mississippi over the past few years."
Evidently, not enough steps have been taken.
It would have been a beautiful story. Too bad the pep band, of all people, had to mess it up.
