STARKVILLE — As the speakers at Davis Wade Stadium blared, the smattering of cowbells clanged and the garage door separating the player entrance from Scott Field was opened, it revealed Starkville native Kobe Jones holding an unfamiliar banner.
Gone were the Confederate stars and bars from the old state flag. Instead, Jones held in his hand the “New Magnolia Flag” designed by Starkville graphic designer Rocky Vaughan as MSU took the field for Saturday’s 24-17 win over Vanderbilt.
“That moment meant a lot for me,” Jones said. “First off, it was a huge honor to be asked to carry the flag and I was just very proud to finally get to wave a flag that unites all Mississippians.”
Added junior safety and West Point native Marcus Murphy on why Jones was selected to carry the flag: “I felt like he’s the voice. Like they say, he’s the mayor of Starkville. This is his hometown. I feel like we put it in great hands of a great leader.”
On a day in which MSU honored its history with “Flying ‘M'” decals and midfield paint in reference to the school’s impact on the space program during the mid-1900s, Saturday marked the latest monumental moment in a state whose past is as checkered as any.
After the Mississippi legislature passed House Bill 1796 in June, announcing it would remove the former state flag that contained Confederate iconography in its top left corner, Vaughan’s design was chosen in a contest that saw over 3,000 admissions to be taken to a vote on Election Day.
“It’s just an ugly topic. … I don’t want to seem like an advocate for each side,” Vaughan told The Dispatch in August. “But I am a designer. So I can let everybody see, you can have a pretty flag, you don’t have to be so upset about (it).”
Tuesday, the new state flag was approved overwhelmingly via referendum. Four days later, it was carried by Jones onto Scott Field, while another copy was perched proudly beneath the American Flag in the southwest corner of Davis Wade Stadium.
“I feel like it felt good as a whole,” Murphy said. “Being from the state of Mississippi, we always come with a chip on our shoulder and I felt like, as a whole, it meant a lot to the team to do that.”
Noticeably absent from Tuesday’s festivities was former MSU running back and Columbus native Kylin Hill, who announced on Tuesday that he would opt out of the rest of the season in order to prepare for the 2021 NFL draft.
Over the summer, it was Hill’s 98 character tweet at 1:09 p.m. on June 22, reading, “Either change the flag or I won’t be representing this State anymore & I meant that .. I’m tired.” that began a national conversation regarding the fate of Mississippi’s controversial state flag.
Three days after the viral proclamation, representatives from all eight of Mississippi’s public universities, including MSU athletic director John Cohen, football coach Mike Leach, women’s basketball coach Nikki McCray-Penson and baseball coach Chris Lemonis, among others, made the trek to the State Capitol in Jackson to lobby legislators on changing the long-maligned banner.
“I know firsthand what it feels like to see a Confederate flag and pretend that it doesn’t have a racist, biased, violent or oppressive overtone,” McCray-Penson, a native of Collierville, Tennessee, said in a press conference held on the central steps of the Capitol building. “It screams hate and it hurts me to my core.”
After Hill’s activism helped net Mississippi a new state flag, he was awarded a key to the city of Columbus on July 21.
“They’d always tell me, ‘One day, you’re going to get it, bro,'” he said at the time. “I said, ‘I want to make a change one day. And it’s not going to be in football.'”
Saturday, four days after the referendum on the flag passed and just hours after most major networks declared former Vice President Joe Biden the winner of a tightly contested 2020 presidential election over incumbent President Donald Trump, it was the sign of statewide unity on the field Saturday that offered a glimpse of hope in an otherwise divisive present.
“I just felt like that was just one moment everybody in Mississippi could come together on and embrace and enjoy,” Jones said.
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
