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“I just wasn’t mature enough at the time to apply myself in either. I just was not doing very well,” Lewis stated. Lewis finished his freshman year and then transferred to Mississippi College (MC) in Clinton where he played for two seasons before he injured his back His senior year, Lewis asked head coach James Q. “Stute” Allen if he would allow him to coach the freshmen team and play other schools instead of putting the team in the Jackson City Men’s League as they had always done? Allen agreed. Lewis put together a schedule that included junior college teams such as Copiah-Lincoln and Southwest Mississippi as well junior varsity teams from universities and colleges in the mid-south. Lewis was able to get a two-game se- ries with USM and his team beat them in the game at Mississippi College. “We had about a break even record and that year was a great experience for me,” he stated. When the basketball season was over in the spring semester, Harwell McPhail, the athletic director at MC, offered Lewis a job to stay on as coach of the freshman team, teach a few classes, and the opportunity to work toward his master’s degree at the same time. This would begin in the fall, and Lewis was ecstatic to be staying at MC. But things would change quickly. The Vietnam conflict was ramping up and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed an executive order that all graduate deferments for the military draft would be lifted, which would take away the opportunity for Lewis to coach and continue his studies at MC. “I remember vividly when this came across the radio. I was with some folks in a car and we were driving down Capitol Street right across from the Governor’s Mansion,” Lewis recalled. A short time later Lewis received his notice from the draft board to come take a physical at the army induction station on State Street in Jackson and Lewis was concerned about the way things went. “I’ll never forget that day. We arrived, took the physical, and then about fifty of us went into a room and they had us sit down at a desk. The Sergeant handed out a written exam and told us to write our name on the upper righthand corner of the test. He said if you couldn’t write your name, then just put an X and someone will come by to sign your name for you. He paused and then said ‘Gentlemen, you will all pass this test.’ We all just kind of looked around the room realizing the dye had been cast and everyone was going to pass that test, unless you had something really particularly wrong with you.” In the meantime, Lewis in spite of receiving a 1A classification, never was drafted. He was concerned 12 SOUTHERN SENIOR MAGAZINE | Winter 2020-2021