Bio

Gene Bass

Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College (1965-66) / Football
Long Beach, Mississippi

Gene Bass of Long Beach was selected by Coach Ken “Curly” Farris immediately to play middle guard on the Gulf Coast football team in 1965. Coach Farris called Bass a “difference maker” as a two-year starter on defense. Despite a hobbling ankle injury early in his second year, which slowed him for the rest of the season, he still was selected as Honorable Mention on the All-State Junior College Team. 

Memorable highlights at Gulf Coast include serving as co-captain for the 1966 victory over the Pearl River game. This was Coach George Sekul’s first year as head coach of the Bulldogs, and the victory was the first win over Pearl River after 18 straight losses to the Wildcats. 

The Bulldogs cinched the 1966 Mississippi Association of Junior College state championship in the final game of the season with a victory over Jones. As a reward, the Bulldogs were selected to play Navarro Junior College from Texas in the second annual Shrine Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana. In the fourth quarter of the game, the Bulldogs were nursing a lead, but Navarro was moving up fast. As sports editor Dick Lightsey of the Daily Herald newspaper described it: “The Texans took a fourth-and-one gamble at midfield and lost it.” The play was stopped when Bass shot into the backfield and tackled the ball carrier, killing the drive. Coach Sekul’s Bulldogs held on for an eventual 21-7 victory.