(Photo from Ole Miss Athletics)
- Jeff Roberson writes that in the months ahead, it’ll be “turn out the lights, the party’s over” for the Tad Pad. But certainly not so for all the memories and for all that facility meant to so many for so long.
I’ve reminded Keith Carter of the moment quite a few times. He laughs and he remembers.
It was January 24, 1996, and Keith was one of a group of talented freshmen who were called upon to help a short-handed Ole Miss team try to win a basketball game in Oxford against a ranked Auburn team.
Press row at C.M. “Tad” Smith Coliseum, for most of its years, was along the sideline across from the teams. Ole Miss students sat in the sections right behind the media.
A few times we would grab our equipment, computers, notepads, pens, whatever we were using, and move out of the way. It didn’t happen often, but sometimes court-storming went through our seats and tables.
We didn’t move after the Rebels defeated the Tigers 82-69 that night to ring in an era of winning basketball that was just ahead for Ole Miss. The students didn’t hit the court that night either.
However, as soon as the game was over and the Rebels had quickly celebrated on the court, Keith raced over to the students. But rather than running around the end of all those press tables, the Perryville, Ark., freshman jumped up on one of those tables, towel in hand, waving it with all his might as several thousand of his fellow classmates responded in kind – but remained in the stands.
I never forgot that moment, and neither has Keith, now the Ole Miss athletics director, nor have the thousands still inside the Tad Pad that winter’s night, soon to be 30 years ago.
It was but one of hundreds of memories I have in the life of the Tad Pad, which served as Ole Miss men’s and women’s basketball home from the mid-1960s until just a decade ago when the Sandy and John Black Pavilion opened in January, 2016.
Others? Some are personal to me. I remember where my late father’s seats were – Section C, Row 6, Seats 3-4. Right behind the home bench. After games, I’d walk over and shake his hand at the rail, just before he headed to his car and an hour’s drive home. Did it every game.
On the court, there are moments that ring loud. For the women, it’s a 59-57 nail-biting win over Vanderbilt in 1992, the last Southeastern Conference game that regular season. The Rebels were SEC champions, and they didn’t lose a single game in the league that season.
But every game in that building coached by legendary hall of famer Van Chancellor was an adventure and usually a win. One day during his 19 seasons with the Rebels, they hosted Tennessee, always a challenge and a premier women’s program. There had been an ice storm, and Van and family left their house in east Oxford for the game. Their vehicle slid off the road and somebody stopped and gave them a lift to the Tad Pad.
That was but one story that day. The other? Final score: Ole Miss 78, Tennessee 72.
Watching Peggie and Jennifer Gillom play basketball at Ole Miss, two Lafayette County High School legends, was special. Watching John Stroud of nearby West Union become the No. 2 all-time scorer in SEC men’s history at the time, behind LSU’s Pete Maravich, was a treat every time the ball was tipped.
After Carlos Clark hit a game-winning jump shot at the buzzer to beat Grambling in the 1980 NIT for Ole Miss’ first postseason win, fans almost cheered the roof off the place. The night Ole Miss honored Bonnie Lee “Country” Graham, from my hometown, was moving to me as Ole Miss’ first All-American was recognized as both a former player and former head coach of the Rebels.
Watching Armintie Price play. And Carol Ross, a former player, become head coach of the Rebels. Watching Ole Miss, at one stretch in the series, win 51 of 52 women’s games versus Mississippi State, with at least half of those on the Tad Smith Coliseum court.
There was Marshall Henderson. And Eugenia Conner. And Jackie Martin. And Murphy Holloway.
But no game topped the regular season finale on May 4, 1989. That’s the night the Ole Miss men beat LSU 113-112 in overtime. The Rebels’ Gerald Glass scored 53 points. The Tigers’ Chris Jackson (Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf) scored 55. Both were Mississippi kids; Glass from Greenwood, Jackson from Gulfport. Folks who were there still talk about that game.
Then there’s Rod Barnes, the man Ole Miss honors this weekend. He was SEC Coach of the Year and Naismith National Coach of the Year. That was after he took Ole Miss to the Sweet Sixteen in the 2000-01 season. It was the deepest Ole Miss had ever advanced in the NCAA Tournament.
The next time the Rebels advanced that far? Earlier this year, the 2024-25 season under current head coach Chris Beard.
Before he was a Rebel assistant coach and then head coach, Rod Barnes was one of the all-time favorite players in program history. And still is. His All-SEC performances as a guard are legendary, and his style of play was as unique as the man himself.
I wasn’t there for his last game, at the SEC Tournament, but I’ve always been told this. Rod Barnes got a standing ovation as he exited the court for the final time in an Ole Miss uniform – not just from the crowd but from and the media and press corps assembled. That’s what members of the press, who in that moment put aside decorum normally assigned to them, thought of Rod Barnes then, and what he meant to the game of basketball in this conference.
Originally called by many in its infancy the “Rebeldome,” we actually said our goodbyes to C.M. “Tad” Smith Coliseum, a decade ago and have just visited a few times since for games like this one against Cal State-Bakersfield. But for one last time we’ll get to step inside its dimly lit interior and hear the echoes of all the great players and games and moments so many of us have been a part of as students, fans, media, band members, cheerleaders, alumni, players, managers, trainers, and coaches.
“Let the party begin!” shouted Brent Musberger of ABC as Dick Vitale sat beside him and added his remarks as well. It was January 11, 1997, and the Rebels defeated defending men’s national champion Kentucky 73-69 that day. It’s a Tad Smith Coliseum memory that won’t ever go away, nor do we want it to.
Apparently in the months ahead, it’ll be “turn out the lights, the party’s over” for the Tad Pad. But certainly not so for all the memories and for all that facility meant to so many for so long.
Article was originally published by Ole Miss Athletics. Used with permission.
