MC Street Honors Legendary Coach and Athlete Dick Hitt

Dozens of family members and Mississippi College friends attended the dedication of Dick Hitt Drive to honor the legacy of a legendary coach and extraordinary athlete with roots at MC.

President Lee Royce, Athletic Director Mike Jones and retired MC administrator Doc Quick were among those paying tribute to Hitt and his six decades of accomplishments in the sports world.

A sign bearing Hitt’s name and the university’s logo is now standing near the A.E. Wood Coliseum to remind visitors to the Clinton campus of the feats of a powerful name in the nation’s sports community.

At Saturday’s dedication, Quick, MC’s retired vice president of alumni and student affairs, described Hitt as the “hero” of his life and a great role model for the coaching profession.

A former four-sport letterman at MC and former coach at his alma mater, Hitt’s 31-year coaching career also took him to places like Mississippi State University, University of Wyoming, the University of Arkansas and the University of Tennessee. He retired in 1974 after 13 seasons as manager at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium.

But Hitt and members of his family always had a deep love for athletics at Baptist-affiliated MC, said his son, Tom Hitt. It’s a top-notch athletics program at the Christian university, he said, because of the way it builds character.

Dick Hitt and his brothers, James, Joel, and Bruce, or the four Hitt Brothers were all superb student-athletes at MC. They are members of what Quick believes to be the greatest sports family in the school’s history. The sons of longtime mathematics professor Joel Reuben Hitt earned a total of 42 letters at MC.

Ceremonies at Mississippi College occurred after the late Gulf Coast banker and former MSU Bulldog lineman Leo Seal, Jr. provided a generous gift to MC to honor his good friend, Dick Hitt. The gift from Seal, who died in November 2008, resulted in extensive renovations to the A.E. Wood Coliseum. A Bay St. Louis native who served as president of Hancock Bank, Seal played for Dick Hitt when he coached at Mississippi State in the 1940s.

Other notable honors have come his way before. Dick Hitt, who died in 1986 at the age of 80, is a member of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in Jackson and the MC Sports Hall of Fame. The Hitt family is special to Mississippi College. Four generations of Hitt family members are MC graduates.

After the ceremonies on Sept. 11, Hitt family members joined the football crowds cheering for the Choctaws to open the home season with a 21-14 win over the Belhaven Blazers.