FINALS FRENZY PAGES 5-8
THE
Daily
MISSISSIPPIAN theDMonline.com
Thursday, November 19, 2020
Volume 109, No. 13
A legend retires
Coach Davis
to miss opener
JAMES MINZESHEIMER thedmsports@gmail.com
HADLEY HITSON
BILLY SCHUERMAN / THE DAILY MISSISSIPPIAN
dmmanaging@gmail.com
Curtis Wilkie grew up at the University of Mississippi. As a child, he lived in a family dorm as his mother worked to earn her Master’s degree. His father served as the chief of campus police, and his great-grandfather was a student when the Civil War started. It was no shock when Wilkie decided to attend the university himself in the late 1950s, and when he returned as a professor in 2002 after retiring from The Boston Globe, “it was like coming home.”
SEE LEGEND PAGE 2
Engineering professor dies KENNETH NIEMEYER thedmnews@gmail.com
Waheed Uddin, a professor of civil engineering and director of the Center for Advanced Infrastructure Technology, has died, according to a university spokesman. The university confirmed Uddin’s death but did not release a cause of death. “Dr. Uddin was a pillar of the
Ole Miss School of Engineering whose expertise in civil engineering infrastructure and transportation was responsible for hundreds of graduates finding successful careers around the world,”David Puleo, dean of the School of Engineering, said in a press release. “More importantly, Dr. Uddin was a trusted mentor and valued colleague to the students, faculty and staff.
Our deepest sympathies are extended to his wife, sons and family at this time.” Uddin received a Ph.D. in transportation engineering from the University of Texas in 1984. He has worked at the university as director of the CAIT since 1999 and acted as Chair ofCivil Engineering in 2007.
SEE ENGINEERING PAGE 12
OLE MISS VS. TEXAS A&M POSTPONED The Ole Miss vs. Texas A&M football game, originally set for this Saturday, has been postponed due to quarantined players in the Texas A&M program. SEE PAGE 4
Ole Miss head basketball coach Kermit Davis tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, and regular team protocols — as the result of his test — became public on Tuesday. With basketball season less than two weeks away from tip-off, it appears that unless Davis’s results are deemed to be a false positive, he will not be on the sideline come the Rebels opening games starting Nov 25. “The team is going through contact tracing, and those found to be a close contact will go into quarantine per medical guidelines,” the program said in a tweet on Tuesday. “If Tuesday’s test also comes back positive, Coach Davis will remain in isolation at his home and miss the first two games of the season.” Davis released a statement on Wednesday morning that said his second COVID-19 test came back positive as well and he is now experiencing mild symptoms. He will continue watching team practices on Zoom and organizing the day to day operations of the program. Taking head coaching responsibilities over in the meantime will be Ronnie Hamilton, the third-year assistant coach and former defensive back for Duke’s football team. Although Hamilton is only in his third season at Ole Miss, this is his sixth with Kermit Davis, as he served on Davis’s staff at Middle Tennessee for four years. Although Hamilton has experience at many programs across the country, this will be his first stint as a head coach. He will also likely be assisted by Win Case, who similarly spent 10 years under Davis’s wing at Middle Tennessee, and before that, he had served as a head coach. It is hard to say what impact this will have, but this could be a huge blow if multiple players are isolated because of COVID-19 positive tests, or just contract tracing alone. The Rebels are still set for tipoff at home for the Justin Reed Ole Miss Classic on Nov. 25-27.
THE SECRET TO THE LUV SHAK’S SUCCESS The Luv Shak, no matter how small or hidden, has built more of a community than arguably any other restaurant in Oxford. However, owner Dennis Oostendorp denies any credit. SEE PAGE 10