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baseball Edit

David Kellum, the voice of Ole Miss baseball, enters his 40th season

OXFORD | On May 13, 1977, Ole Miss beat Vanderbilt 9-7 in the first game of the inaugural SEC Baseball Tournament.

It was a notable victory because three more wins followed over the next three days, giving the Rebels — on their home field — the conference title and the automatic bid to the 1977 NCAA Tournament.

But while that win over Vanderbilt is usually just seen as a first-day footnote for what was ahead, it, unbeknown to those participating at the time, set forth motion that would define how fans have followed Ole Miss baseball for four-plus decades.

David Kellum, then a senior at Lafayette High School, used panic and some ingenuous exuberance to land the play-by-play duty of the SEC Tournament for the Ole Miss campus radio station. He parlayed the experience into the full-time voice of Rebel baseball the next season, and — expect for a one-year hiatus in 1985 — he’s been the man behind the microphone as multiple generations have been guided by his excitable cadence.

“It’s an honor and a dream come true,” Kellum said. “I don’t take it for granted, and I still have a deep passion for it to this day.”

Kellum will step into the radio booth Friday and start his 40th season of Ole Miss baseball when the No. 9 Rebels host Winthrop at 4 p.m. He’s also been the football and men’s basketball voice for the past 28 years, but baseball was his first love and has been his defining sport.

Kellum’s mother, Helen, was a theatre professor on campus, and the campus radio station was nearby her office. Station manager James Bailey, frustrated by the lack of students still in town, was out of options and yelled in David’s general direction that there was no one to call the SEC Tournament. Bailey had no idea who Kellum was, but without any other choice, he gave the high schooler a shot. Except he didn’t know he was in high school.

“I hadn’t done squat except talk into a pencil in my living room,” Kellum said. “He had no idea about my age, and I sure wasn’t going to tell him. With no idea what I was doing, there I was, calling Ole Miss baseball.”

Jim Cade had been the main play-by-play voice of Ole Miss baseball, but in a serendipitous situation for Kellum, Cade left Oxford to open a sporting goods store in Arkansas prior to the 1978 season. With only those four days of experience from the previous May, Kellum stepped in and hasn’t stepped out again except for 1985 when Donnie Taylor called the action because Kellum’s station lost the broadcast rights.

Not known as a pack rat in other areas of his life, Kellum has his scoresheets from every Ole Miss baseball game he’s called, as well as the actual audio from nearly every broadcast with him behind the microphone — spread among several formats as technology has changed and improved.

Famed Ole Miss play-by-play personality Stan Torgerson began his final stint as the voice of Ole Miss football and basketball the same season Kellum took over baseball. It was his advice that led Kellum to record the audio and critique himself. Torgeron passed away in 2006.

“I helped Stan by spotting at football, and he looked at me one day and told me to record everything, that I could only improve if I studied myself. Stan would record the games and then immediately listen to them as he drove home to Meridian the same day.”

Kellum still listens to snippets of his broadcasts. He especially focuses on pronunciation, as his mother would often critique his southern shortening of “ing” at the end of words.

“My mother would call me and tell me to listen to the third inning because I screwed something up.”

For more than 30 years, Kellum has routinely had his wife, Mary, beside him in the booth and on the road when the schedules allow it. He juggled raising two daughters — Stephanie and Staci — around the requirements of three spots and more than 100 games per season. Kellum remembers being in attendance when Staci won the state cheerleading championship, and he made a point of being extra present during the off days and weeks.

“I missed a lot of things and had to overcome a guilty complex,” Kellum said. “My family has been so supportive and great. Mary was a taxi cab mom, and it seemed like the washing machine would always break down when I was across the country somewhere. We would all go on the road together when it was possible, and those are some of the best memories.”

The children are now grown, and Mary will be with Kellum often as another 56-game baseball regular season begins in earnest. This century has allowed Kellum to call a lot more wins than losses with Mike Bianco at the helm of the program. The Rebels didn’t make the postseason from 1978 to 1995 but have advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 14 of Bianco’s 17 years.

There have been three SEC West titles since 2005, an SEC Tournament championship in 2006 and an overall SEC championship in 2009. The Rebels finally broke the College World Series drought in 2014 after 42 seasons.

Kellum still remembers a car ride to Fayetteville, Arkansas in Bianco’s first season (2001). The two of them and former Ole Miss radio co-worker Gary Darby were driving over a day early because Bianco had a Thursday radio show during the season.

“We were in Mike’s car because he doesn’t like anyone else to drive, and we’re talking about the program and expectations,” Kellum said. “He asks Gary and me what the goals should be for the program. We hadn’t been to the SEC Tournament much, so Gary blurted out, ‘we’d just like to make it to the SEC Tournament.’

"Mike was dumbfounded and a little disgusted. ‘We’re of course going to get to the tournament,’ he fired back. And that first team did, and Mike’s made good on that promise most years since.”

Kellum gets asked often how long he will continue the calls, and there’s no exact answer. He wants to spend more time with his family at some point, and somewhat repay them for all the sacrifices they gave him for decades. And he doesn't expect to slowly back away from each sport separately. It’ll likely go from all to nothing.

And the seasons will go into the 40s for sure — as that benchmark will be met in a matter of hours. There will be more saved scoresheets and personal recordings. And fans will continue to know Kellum’s voice as the trademark sound of Ole Miss baseball.

“I really don’t want to die on a microphone,” Kellum said. “I owe it to my wife to be honest with you. I have several years left, and it’ll end at some point, but baseball is unique to me because of the number of years. I’ve never wanted to give it up. I’m still having fun.”

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