True, True Trojan Sandy Wilson - October 3, 1956 - March 22, 2024

By Mark H. Stowers

Recruited to play football at Mississippi Delta Junior College, Mr. Sandy Wilson set foot on campus in 1975. Bad knees and a bad heart cut his playing career short but Wilson found a unique way back onto all the Trojans fields – putting his heart and soul into each one for the past 46 years. This past week, Mr. Sandy Wilson, born on October 3, 1956, passed away at his home at the age of 67. The Isola native was the heart and soul of Trojan athletics. His friends and Trojan family are mourning the loss. Mr. Wilson's funeral will be held at the J.T. Hall Coliseum at 1:00 p.m. on the Main Campus of Mississippi Delta Community College on Saturday, March 30.

Mr. Wilson touched the lives of players, coaches, administration and those who follow Trojan athletics both at home and on the road. There was no better place for Mr. Sandy Wilson to garner a college education. The stout high school football player from Humphreys County was offered a scholarship in 1975 and found his calling and his home. He put in a year on the JUCO gridiron before health issues took away his uniform but that didn't deter Mr. Wilson from finding his way through the adversity. He's been called a True Trojan by those who worked alongside him. The dictionary offers a definition of Trojan but needs to be updated and put Mr. Sandy Wilson's photo in as well.

"A Trojan is a person who shows pluck, determination, or energy: to work like a Trojan."

Brenda Grubb, who taught at MDJC/MDCC for decades and was married to the late Carl Grubb who was at teacher and coach who also relied on Mr. Wilson's skills.

"We lost another True, True Trojan," Grubb said. "You name it and he did it. He had a huge, huge, huge heart and that man was very humble."

Dr. Allan Snowden who taught at MDCC for 29 years, knew Mr. Wilson as "a private person. The thing I remember about Sandy is that he took tremendous pride in his job. He made all the players keep their equipment in perfect condition kinder like a mother would do. You never heard a derogatory word against Sandy. He was truly a Trojan. He had a lot of Coach Jimmy characteristics in his attitude. He was a man of tremendous character."

Former Trojan baseball coach Terry Thompson remembered that Mr. Wilson "sat in the dugout and cheered us on. He was a friend, a companion – I loved him to death. He was always there and was willing to do whatever you asked him. I'd get thrown out of games during baseball and he'd yell at the umpires as much as I did. He was unique to Mississippi Delta. Not many places have a Sandy Wilson."

The late Coach Jimmy Bellipanni recruited the Humphrey's County Cowboy offensive lineman and they became life-long friends beyond Wilson's playing days. The scholarship was a blessing to Wilson and began his Trojan career.

"We weren't a great financial family but coming here to get an education and play football was always a dream," Wilson said in a 2021 interview for the Enterprise Tocsin's Profile Magazine.

His grandmother deeply instilled a work ethic in a young Sandy Wilson that provided him with a lifelong blessing. Even though he "retired" at MDCC, his "part-time" hours were much the same as his pre-retirement, by his own choice.

"Coach Tatum called me and asked if I could help straighten out the equipment room," Mr. Wilson recalled. "I said I'd stay half a year and get it back straight. I think that was a con job. I ended up staying there with him and continued working. He got me good."

He and retired Athletic Director Domino Bellipanni had a daily joust. Who would get to campus first? Bellipanni said it was about 50/50 but many of the days Mr. Wilson beat him was because he was still in the locker room after an away game and he was sorting, washing, drying and taking care of all the after-game duties.

"No matter where we played in football – home or away – when the game was over, the washing started. If we got back at 3:00 a.m., then checking the uniforms and equipment in and it takes quite a few washings to get the uniforms clean. He would be there and by noon the next day, those things were put up in storage and ready to go. Not only that but everything from the dressing room and all that he kept clean after games."

Former Trojan Head Football Coach Jeff Tatum worked with Mr. Wilson and they kept in touch after Tatum took a job in Kansas. But after suffering a stroke, Tatum explained their friendship deepened.

"Sandy was a loyal and true friend," Coach Tatum said. "He worked with me for 18 years. He was always there when I needed him with MDCC football or whatever I asked of him."

Coach Tatum told a story where the vaunted equipment manager thought he was part of a practical joke.

"One time he was trying to throw away some helmets and every time he put them out in the morning they would be back in the equipment room after lunch. This happened for a few days. He thought it was Domino or me that kept putting them back in the equipment room. Come to find out it was Coach Jimmy," Tatum said. "A special memory was how happy he was when we won the national championship in 1993. I went to a party one night at his and house and danced the night away. And most recently he sent me a text most every night after my stroke telling me that I was strong, praying for me and he loved me. Sandy was a special person and I am going to miss my friend."

MDCC President, Dr. Tyrone Jackson had plenty of interaction with Mr. Wilson and knows no one will ever fill his shoes on campus.

"Sandy faithfully served MDCC for 46 years, managing the athletic fields, locker rooms and equipment. He is an MDCC legend for his love of the college, work ethic, and steadfastness and he leaves a vast legacy behind," Dr. Jackson said. "We need more people like Sandy in this world. His absence will be strongly felt by his Trojan family."

MDCC Athletic Director Jason Conner worked closely with Mr. Wilson the past few years.

The late great UCLA Basketball Coach John Wooden said that the true character of a man is what he does when no one is looking," Coach Conner said. "Sandy Wilson epitomizes that quote. He seemed to make everything look immaculate and ready without a lot of fanfare. He always did the little things that made our things look special! I appreciated his work ethic and pride in and for Trojan Athletics. Sandy Wilson will be missed and there will be big shoes to fill."

Linda Gray, wife of the late Trojan Head Football Coach James "Wooky" Gray, knew that Mr. Wilson was special.

"Sandy was the most remarkable worker I have ever seen," she said. "He worked long hours and never complained. Wooky depended on him and he always came through."

When Coach Terry Moore came to Moorhead, he was the defensive line and linebacker coach for the 1993 National Championship team.

"When I first met Sandy, he had a sign over the roll-up window where the kids would get their equipment that said, 'I can provide you with all the equipment you need to play football. But I can't provide you with the guts.' After I met Sandy, I never met a guy who was so spot on and targeted all of his job responsibilities and fulfilled them. He did a super job and he was all about Mississippi Delta. He was a great person in his job and he was also a great person and a great man. I had tremendous respect for him. 

Former Head Baseball Coach and Athletic Director at MDCC, Dan Rives, knows the school has suffered a huge loss.

"Sandy Wilson was an institution and one of the first people you think of when thinking of Trojan greats," Rives said. "His work was never done and was truly a labor of love, as he spent hours upon hours in the equipment room and out on the fields. As hard of a worker as he was, he was equally as good of a person and someone that you could easily trust. Sandy will be sorely missed around Moorhead, and his impact was felt all over campus."

Coach Jim Southward came to Moorhead in 1988 as an assistant and then Head Coach for the Trojan football team after Coach Gray retired.

"He was such a great guy and he was one of those special people. There's not enough good things to say about him," Coach Southward said. "What I remember most, you never had to worry about his part of it. You knew the field was going to be in pristine condition. You never had to worry about equipment. He would tell me what we needed to order, what we needed to replace and what we needed to get repaired. He took care of it. He was so valuable he was worth 10 people. He bled red and black but he was very quiet and not outspoken."

He noted that coaches normally take care of the playing fields and "Delta was very blessed to have a guy of Sandy's caliber who was not only great at doing it but had great pride. And he enjoyed it. It was what he loved to do. They will find people to do the work but they will never find anyone who will do it and have the passion that Sandy had for doing that work."

Coach Southward even leaned on Mr. Wilson's turf care to help him out with his wife's garden.

"He was one of a kind and a great friend. He came to my house several times to help me with little projects my wife had for me with planting flowers and doing beds. Sandy new how to do that like the best in the world and he loved to do it."

Moorhead resident and MDJC football alum and former teacher, Bob Clark, met Mr. Wilson when Clark came back to teach.

"He was a true Trojan. He was at all the ball games and kept the fields up. I don't what the school will do without him," Clark said. "He was committed and worked long hours and weekends. He enjoyed what he did and was proud of what he did. He was Coach Jimmy's right-hand man."

Coming from Isola, Wilson was a workhorse offensive guard who had caught the attention of his JUCO coaches.

"We weren't a great financial family, but shoot, coming here to get an education and play football, that had always been a dream," Mr. Wilson said. "I always worked. There wasn't an issue to play football and work on my job."

After playing a year, heart problems took away his uniform but not his work ethic, pride or standing with his JUCO coaches.

"My old ticker got kind of bad. The same issue I have now. Hypertension runs in my family," he said. "I had to let that go and then I started working for Coach Jimmy and the athletic program. I stayed in school and ended up getting three different degrees – Tool and Die, Machine Shop and Sheet Metal."

Mr. Wilson did some work for the Bearden family in Isola while in high school at the gin. That led to working for Popcorn Smith doing some foundation work until Coach Bellipanni called him home to Moorhead.

"I always worked but Mr. Bearden said he didn't want me working on the farm and he called one of his friends and got a job in my trade," Mr. Wilson said. "But after a year Coach Jimmy came to me and said he needed me to work for him."

He came back to campus in 1978 and first took over as the equipment manager and later the upkeep, maintenance and repair of all the school's athletic fields. The late retired MDCC Coach Carl Grubb recalled the mission given to a young Sandy Wilson by then Head Coach Jim Randall.

"Coach Randall would go community to community and see kids walking the street with the Mississippi Delta shirt on that belonged to Mississippi Delta and would try to get them back," Coach Grubb explained. "Coach Jimmy came to me with some money to hire Sandy as a manager so the equipment and shirts wouldn't walk away from campus."

When he first started, Wilson was in charge of managers and made sure lockers were supplied properly. He won awards as National Equipment Manager of the Year, State Manager of the Year and Regional wins as well.

After getting the equipment manager position and getting the shirts and equipment off the streets and back on campus, the coaches soon gave Mr. Wilson more responsibility – that of all the fields, according to Coach Grubb.

"We had all these high schools coming in we were lining the fields and when Sandy came in, he took a huge load off of us," Coach Grubb said.

Mr. Wilson went to clinics to learn athletic field maintenance and has many certificates from the University of Arkansas, Mississippi State University and others.

"The key is knowing how to grow it and take care of it," he said. "We did a job on them (fields) and worked on them and improved them. Five or six years ago, we redid the whole game field with a sprinkler system. We put in 419 Sports Field Turf grass. It's the same type of grass used in the Olympics."

Wilson's steady hand has painted the field for decades putting his magic touch on the playing surface. He even started a trend.

"Back in the '80s, I was the first to start putting stencils on the field. I did that with string and stakes," he said. "We made a Trojan. We had the art department draw it up but the MDCC I did with string and a stake. I used to do the field all by myself. It would take three days. If we play on Thursday, I start up on Monday evening. My right hip is gone from pushing that rig."

Belzoni native and now the "Turf King" at Mississippi State University, Brandon Hardin takes care of all the playing surfaces for the Bulldogs. Hardin has trained folks to work across the SEC and beyond taking care of turf fields. He and Mr. Wilson struck up a relationship as well.

"Sandy was MDCC.  Sandy loved his facilities, his fields and especially his student-athletes," Hardin said. "Sandy put his all into all of his fields for his athletes. When he didn't know, he would always ask me to teach him the proper way to do this or that and then he would execute it perfectly. He was a self-taught student of the industry. I never heard Sandy say a negative word even when he was frustrated due to lack of funding, Sandy found a way. He made it happen. Sandy my friend, you will be missed by all of us, it was a privilege to have known you!

Mr. Wilson's work on the field and off led to him helping and being part of 15 championships during his tenure.

As Mr. Wilson grew into his position, he came up with and created innovative ways to keep up with all of the equipment and to keep it in tip-top shape. When Domino Bellipanni, Coach Jimmy's nephew, came to MDCC as an athletic trainer in 1986 and would eventually move into the top athletic office. He worked with Sandy for 30 years and admired his ingenuity, work ethic and results each and every day.

"There are no bigger Trojans than Sandy Wilson. He was one of those guys where the (work) clock didn't mean a whole lot," Bellipanni said. "He was a loyal, loyal Trojan. He's been inducted into the Mississippi Delta Sports Hall of Fame. When he retired, he came back to work part-time. But he didn't have a part-time bone in his body. He put in the hours to get everything done."

Bellipanni also said of his longtime friend, "Sandy was going to have your back. He was going to support the Trojans. If you wanted to have a definition for Mississippi Delta athletics, you just put Sandy. It wasn't only football or baseball – he supported it all. He was always there to help and help anybody that needed it. You will never find another person with the work ethic he had."

He noted the development of all the sports outdoor playing surfaces improved under Wilson's management. Something every MDCC athlete got spoiled with at home but understood the importance of when on the road.

"The football practice field at Moorhead was better than game fields that we played on away because he would take pride in it. They would be smooth and grass was where it was supposed to be and all of that," Bellipanni said. "He was definitely something."

Bellipanni worked closely with Wilson but noted that the loyal Trojan also had his own fan club of sorts. An eclectic array of local kids that Wilson had gathered.

"A youngster in Moorhead that he saw that might be trying to go the wrong way in life, he'd take them under his wing. He would teach them right from wrong and steer them down the right road," Bellipanni said. "There may be three or four with him on the sidelines and helping him paint the fields. He would try his hardest to keep them out of trouble. And they'd wind up going on trips with us. The first thing you might think of is did those youngsters get paid. If they did, it came out of his pocket. I dare say, we always think of coaches and teachers keeping kids out of trouble, well, Sandy did the same thing and he wasn't a coach. He may go without eating but he was going to take care of those little guys. His work ethic was tremendous. Things didn't stop there was always grass on the field, spraying and painting and those of today don't quite understand that part."

Bellipanni noted that each and every student-athlete gave their strictest attention to Mr. Wilson and his rules of the locker and equipment rooms as well as the field of play.

"That equipment room was his domain. He set the rules that apply and you will follow. You look at the fields they were always as good as they could get because he took pride in it," Bellipanni said. "

Mr. Wilson developed a system of straps and pins to attach equipment given to each player and they were instructed on how to use them properly.

"There were no lost jerseys. They had to check them in after the game, that includes socks and it all deals with discipline. You had a pin to put it on or a strap to keep each players equipment separate but together for them. They were shown how this was to be put on the pin or the strap and if it's not, then you're going to be smelling pretty bad, because it didn't get washed. It would keep the discipline instilled there."

Over the years, Mr. Wilson spent time driving around both Coach Randall and Coach Jimmy to all sorts of recruiting, special meetings and such. It wasn't uncommon for Wilson to drive to the coast and back in one day for meetings.

"Coach Jimmy, I personally drove him around. He was recruiting (baseball) Coach Thompson to MDCC. They were playing Gulf Coast and that was about a four-hour drive. They were in a three-day tournament and he won every day, so we'd get up every day and drive back down there instead of staying down there. He taught me a lot. When you order equipment, order only what you need and he was big on saving stuff cause he always said, 'The state is gonna go broke one year.' (laughing)"

Off the field and in the classroom, Mr. Wilson credited former sheet metal teacher Al Loveless with helping him become successful.

"I'm a country boy from Isola and didn't have much or know much but he taught me a lot about being a man. Looking folks in the eye, when you meet a man, you shake his hand strong," Mr. Wilson said.

Mr. Wilson credited his grandmother, Carry Wilson, with teaching him a strong work ethic and was the first in his immediate family to go to college. She didn't want him to play football, so he told her he was in the band in order to practice and play. 

"I think about her every day and have a picture of her on my desk. I have an aunt, Miss Judy Wilson and I tell her, I would never do anything where someone would call you and say, 'Oh, did you see what your nephew did?' Everything I do is going to be positive."

Wilson was married and had three kids who have all graduated from Mississippi universities. But he had plenty more "kids" during his 46 years at MDCC.

"I enjoy the kids and I've been in charge of work-study students. I've had 70 or 80 of them and they are all successful today. They are doctors and lawyers and all. I was real strict with equipment and all. I remember one day I was in the mall and a former student introduced me to his kids and he said, 'Boys, this is Mr. Sandy. You know what I teach you how to put your shoes up in the closet and hang your clothes up. This man taught me that. He was teaching us about life.' I carry that to everyday life."

Sandy Wilson, a life-long, loyal Mississippi Delta Community College Trojan.