EMCC rep Rogers honored

SCOOBA – As this year’s East Mississippi Community College honoree, veteran sports publicist Langston Rogers was one of 15 individuals inducted into the Mississippi Community and Junior College Sports Hall of Fame during Tuesday night’s 11th annual induction banquet held at the Clyde Muse Center on Hinds Community College’s Rankin Campus.

Along with one individual from each of the state’s 14 other community colleges, Rogers was formally inducted this week after maintaining a distinguished career as one of the most respected and decorated publicists in the history of the College Sports Information Directors of America organization. The Calhoun City native got his illustrious communications career in intercollegiate athletics started on the Scooba campus.

Recruited to East Mississippi Junior College in 1961 by the legendary Hall of Fame football coach Bob “Bull” Sullivan, Rogers earned a baseball scholarship in addition to serving as the Lions’ publicity director and team statistician for two years. While also working as the editor of the school newspaper, The Collegian, Rogers was voted president of EMJC’s student body as a sophomore.

Rogers continued his education at Delta State University in Cleveland, where he played baseball for Hall of Famer Dave “Boo” Ferriss while also covering sports in the school’s publicity office. In 1966, Rogers was hired as director of publicity at Delta State, in charge of news and sports, and then in 1971 became DSU’s first full-time sports information director.

Rogers was hired away from Delta State by the University of Mississippi in 1981. Rogers spent 29 years supervising the Ole Miss athletics media relations office until his retirement in 2010.

Rogers has earned nearly every conceivable honor in his chosen profession during his storied 48-year career in sports publicity within the Magnolia State. He received the prestigious Arch Ward Award in 2001, presented annually to a CoSIDA member who has made outstanding contributions to the field of college sports information and is the highest award presented to a member of that national organization. Rogers, who served as president of CoSIDA, has also earned the organization’s Trailblazer Award and Lifetime Achievement Award as well as having the CoSIDA Postgraduate Scholarship named in his honor.

A 2013 Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame inductee, Rogers is also a Hall of Fame member of CoSIDA, Delta State Alumni, Ole Miss Athletics, Delta State Sports, EMCC Sports, and the Mississippi Sports Writers Association.