Remembering a legend and a Columbus native, Coach Billy Brewer

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – A Columbus native and Ole Miss legend’s legacy will forever live on.

Coach Billy Brewer passed away on Saturday, following a brief illness, at 83-years-old.

Before Brewer became known as the second winningest coach at Ole Miss, he made a name for himself here, in Columbus.

1970 is an important year in Brewer’s career.

It’s the first year Lee and Hunt High Schools integrated and the year the Lee High School football team went undefeated with Brewer leading the way.

We sit down with two of his former players and go back in time to the days they played under ‘Dog Brewer’.

When you think of Mississippi football, one name in particular comes to mind, Billy Brewer.

“Just get out there and play hard. Just give it your best. That’s all he wanted us to do was just give it our best,” says 1970 Lee High School football player, Robert Hinton.

A former Ole Miss football player, high-school coach, and a legendary Ole Miss football coach.

But before he went back to Oxford to kick off his journey as head coach, his winning mind-set and coaching skills played out in Columbus.

“Oh yes, believe me, he was coach, he was tough, now. Ha ha ha! A lot of times, I wanted to quit, but I hung on in there with him.”

And good thing, because Robert Hinton and the rest of the 1970 Lee High School football team went 9-0 that year.

That was Hinton’s senior year and his only year to play under Brewer, but it’s a year that will stick with him for a lifetime.

“He stayed on you, not only playing football, he would stay on you about your classwork. You had to stay in that classroom too and he made sure of that.”

He also stayed on his players when it came to being in shape.

Players say Brewer and his staff were cutting edge on conditioning.

“We ran those dag-gum steps over at Magnolia Bowl up and down those things I don’t know how many times, and when he got tired of doing that, he found a hill out in Holly Hills that we ran up and down and I mean, we were in shape,” says former Lee High School football player, Forrest Allgood.

Allgood played under the legendary coach from 1968 through 1971.

“That old movie, “Remember the Titans,” yeah, we were that movie.”

He remembers Brewer being very structured, demanding, and caring, but one memory always comes to mind when he reminisces on the glory days.

“On the sidelines in the rain during a game. As a matter of fact, when I graduated from high-school I gave him a present, I gave him an umbrella, because I remembered him being in the rain all of the time. Dag-gum and I don’t know why that’s stuck in my head when I look back on my high-school football career.”

Hinton and Allgood never lost a game their senior year under Billy Brewer, setting history in the playbooks and in the Friendly City.

Allgood says Brewer could unify people.

“The social economic bracket, the race thing, none of it made any difference. Everybody was equal on that football field. Everybody was equal in the locker room. Everybody was equal period. And you know, even if you were the best performer, or perhaps even the worst performer, it didn’t prevent him from liking you.”

A memorial service for Coach Brewer will take place Saturday, at 1 p.m., at the Pavilion at Ole Miss.

A private family service will be on Sunday, at the Gunter & Peel Funeral Home in Columbus.