Rebels remember 1956 battle

By By Will Bardwell / staff writer
Dec. 31, 2003
If Eli Manning finds a way to lead No. 16 Ole Miss to a Cotton Bowl win on Friday, head coach David Cutcliffe hopes he doesn't follow the lead of another legendary Rebels quarterback.
On Jan. 2, 1956, Ole Miss made its first-ever appearance in the Cotton Bowl versus Texas Christian. The Rebels were just 1-4 in bowls to that point, with their lone postseason win coming against the same Horned Frogs in the lightly regarded 1948 Delta Bowl.
Ole Miss, champion of the Southeastern Conference after a 9-1 campaign, was led by senior quarterback Eagle Day. Day was a natural athlete who masterfully ran the Rebels' roll-out offense, but his cocky oftentimes obnoxious personality clashed with stoic head coach Johnny Vaught. Five days before the season opener in 1955, Vaught demoted Day to the second team. The senior was reinstated two days later, though, when his replacement suffered an injury.
Day went on to lead the team to its second consecutive league title and earn All-SEC honors all the while never ceasing to antagonize Vaught.
But when Jan. 2 arrived, Day had nothing to lose by following the beat of his own drum one last time and he made it count.
The Rebels trailed TCU 13-7 entering the fourth quarter. Ole Miss had been held under 20 points only once during the season, and one of those instances resulted in the Rebels' only loss. The teams traded punts until the Rebels took over on their own 34-yard line midway through the final period. After a quick start to the drive, the brief success quickly faded and left the Rebels facing fourth down and four yards to go near midfield.
In those days, coaches were not allowed to send signals from the sidelines. Despite the threat of a 15-yard penalty if caught, Vaught insisted on flexing his leg to signal for punts on fourth downs. In the absence of such a flex, the Rebels were to attempt to convert a first down.
Paige Cothren, then a junior fullback for the Rebels, recalled in his book "Walk Carefully Around the Dead" that Day looked hopefully for Vaught's blessing to go for it.
The headstrong Day would have nothing of his coach's order, as he returned to the Ole Miss huddle.
Before Day broke the huddle, he looked to his fullback.
And he did. Day sprinted left, and under pressure from a TCU cornerback, hit Cothren for a 13-yard gain. Day broke off a 25-yard run three plays later, setting up the Rebels' go-ahead touchdown with 4:22 left. The Ole Miss defense held for the school's first win in a major bowl game.
The win helped atone for a loss in Day's other bowl game, the 1955 Sugar Bowl, in which Navy defeated the Rebels 21-0.