Longtime Ole Miss Athletic Trainer Passes Away

Clement Leroy Mullins, 79, who retired in 2004 as Ole Miss’ Director of Sports Medicine, passed away Tuesday at his home in Oxford.
 
Funeral services will be held Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022, at 2 p.m., at North Oxford Baptist Church. Visitation will be held prior to the service beginning at 12:30 p.m. at the church. Burial will follow in North Oxford Baptist Church Cemetery.
 
Mullins was associated with Ole Miss athletics for 29 years, including three years as the Director of Sports Medicine. From 1998 to 2000, Mullins served his second stint as the head Athletic Trainer at Ole Miss, after holding the post of Director of Insurance and Wellness in the athletics department from 1996-1997.
 
Mullins joined the Rebel staff on Feb. 1, 1975, as Head Athletic Trainer and is remembered the most for his on-field care and treatment for Chucky Mullins. Chucky’s career at Ole Miss come to a tragic end Oct. 28, 1989 when he broke his neck while making a tackle against Vanderbilt, which left him paralyzed from the neck down.
 
Mullins, a native of Natchez, Mississippi, began his career at Southwest (Miss.) Community College, before spending the next three years at Eastern Kentucky while earning his BS degree.
 
He left Eastern Kentucky in 1965 for Mississippi State, where he spent the next eight years, including one year as a graduate assistant while earning his Master’s degree in Guidance and Administration, two years as Assistant Athletic Trainer and five years (1968-72) as Head Athletic Trainer.
 
Mullins came to Ole Miss from Tennessee, where he had served as Associate Head Athletic Trainer in 1973 and 1974.
 
A retired certified member of the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA) and a former member of the Professional Education Committee of the NATA, Mullins was a frequent lecturer on athletic injuries at seminars and meetings held throughout the United States. He was a member of the Southeastern Athletic Trainers’ Association and Mississippi Athletic Trainer Association. He also taught in the University’s Health Science Department on the Ole Miss campus and the University Medical Center in Jackson.
 
In 1993, Mullins was inducted into Eastern Kentucky University’s Hall of Distinguished Alumni, and in 1994 received the first Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer Award ever given by the Nation Athletic Trainers’ Association. In 1996, he received the Tim Kerin Award which is the most prestigious award given by the National Athletic Trainer Association. He was inducted into the Southeast Athletic Trainers’ Association Hall of Fame in 2014.
 
In 2001, Mullins received the Contribution to Amateur Football Award from the Ole Miss Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame, while also receiving the Award of Merit from the Southeast Athletic Trainers Association. He was inducted into the Mississippi Athletic Trainer’s Hall of Fame.
 
In addition to his parents, Clement Leroy Mullins, Sr. and Willie Mae Wallace Mullins, Mullins was preceded in death by his brother, Danny Mullins.
 
Mullins is survived by his wife of 55 years, Barbara Till Mullins; a son, Timothy Chris Mullins and his wife, Stephanie of Snow Lake, Mississippi; a daughter, Renee Mullins Phillips and her husband, John Douglass of Columbus, Mississippi; a brother, Harry Mullins and his wife, Susan of Newnan, Georgia; and five grandchildren, Hayden Russell Mullins of Denver, Colorado, Jonathan Brooks Tyler and Micah Samuel Tyler of Oxford, Mississippi, Garrison Till Reedy and Rayne Allen Phillips of Columbus, Mississippi.
 
Expressions of sympathy or memorial contributions in Mr. Mullins memory may be made to the Roy Lee “Chucky” Mullins Scholarship Fund, University of Mississippi Foundation, 406 University Avenue, Oxford, Mississippi 38655.

Courtesy of Ole Miss Athletics