July 25, 2012

OXFORD, Miss. -- Eddie Crawford, Ole Miss' last three-sport star and a long-time administrator, will be enshrined in the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame Friday at Jackson's Downtown Marriott, beginning at 5:30 p.m., followed by the banquet at 7 p.m.

Festivities for the six-member Induction Class of 2012 will continue Saturday as part of the 50th Annual BancorpSouth Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame Induction Weekend. The inductees and other Hall of Famers will sign autographs Saturday from 9:30-11 a.m. at the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, and the Drawdown of Champions, which includes auctions of sports memorabilia and other prizes, will take place from 6:30-10 p.m. also at the museum.

Tickets remain available to all three events and can be ordered by calling (601) 982-8264.

Crawford, a native of Jackson, Tenn., is entering in his 50th year of service to the University of Mississippi, currently serving as Special Assistant to the Athletics Director. His administrative tenure at Ole Miss included a stint as interim athletics director from April to June 1998 and eight years as director of the Loyalty Foundation, now the UMAA Foundation.

Crawford joined the athletics department in 1962 as head basketball coach, freshman football assistant coach and varsity scout. He was head basketball coach from 1963-68, posting a 46-97 record. He coached the offensive backfield and receivers before taking on full-time recruiting responsibilities in 1977. Following the 1979 season, Crawford joined the Loyalty Foundation staff.

Crawford was a standout performer in football, basketball and baseball from 1954 to 1956 and is believed to be Ole Miss' last three-sport letterwinner. An All-SEC centerfielder in 1956, Crawford also competed on the Rebel track team but did not letter.

After a successful stint with the New York Giants of the National Football League, Crawford entered the coaching ranks as an assistant at Greenville (Miss.) High in 1958. He was named head coach at Greenville in 1959 before returning to Jackson (Tenn.) High as coach and athletic director in 1960, a position he held until joining the Rebels in 1962.

A member of the Ole Miss Sports Hall of Fame and the Jackson-Madison County Hall of Fame, Crawford was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in February 1996. He and his wife, Shirley, have two children, Kim and Kip, both Ole Miss graduates, and two grandsons, Slater and Logan.

Joining Crawford in this year's Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame class is the youngest ever inductee, Courtney Blade Rogers, former National Softball Player of the Year at Southern Miss; Sam Hall, Hattiesburg, Miss., native and former player and golf coach at USM; Jeff Malone, all-time basketball scoring leader in Mississippi State history with 2,142 points; Ennis Proctor former Executive Director of the Mississippi High School Activities Association and 20-year major leaguer Rafael Palmeiro, the only three-time baseball All-American in MSU history.