The only thing missing for the new DVD

"Undefeated: The Chucky Mullins Story" is a rating.

After watching the documentary, I'll give the

film a rating: ET - as in expect tears.

I have followed the Chucky Mullins story since he was paralyzed on that

fateful day - Oct. 28, 1989 - at the Rebels' homecoming game against Vanderbilt.

Like most Ole Miss fans, I thought I knew Chucky's story. It's pretty well known that he was a borderline

Division I player from Russellville, Ala., he had redshirted his freshman year

and was getting to play in some nickel defensive packages as the fifth defensive

back his redshirt freshman year. I knew that he made

a touchdown saving tackle on Vanderbilt's Brad Gaines when he was paralyzed.

I knew about the money raised to care for him, that his injury was

credited with bringing whites and blacks together, and that he had returned to school before he died on May 6, 1991.

It turns out that what I knew about Chucky Mullins

only scratches the surface.

There's the old saying that time heals all

wounds and while Chucky's memory has been kept alive by public events such as

the annual Chucky Mullins Courage Award and more private measures such as a Chucky Mullins

endowed scholarship fund, the fact is, that since his injury, another generation has passed and the

memory of Chucky has faded.

Sure, there's been a book about him and game

announcers will sometimes mention the player that won the Chucky Mullins Courage

Award. Beyond that, there's not a lot of information about the player

who literally gave his life for Ole Miss football.

I had hoped that Hollywood would make

a movie about Chucky. The rights to do that were bought years ago, but a

film has never materialized. Perhaps it's not quite dramatic enough for

Hollywood.  Movies about a team that won a high school state championship

amid racial tension or about a mentally challenged fan who was made manager are

apparently more intriguing.

It's probably just as well that Hollywood stays

out of the Chucky Mullins story because it has a tendency to over-dramatize

events while not allowing facts to get in the way of a good story. 

Hollywood also hasn't been kind to Mississippians, who are often portrayed in less than a

positive manner.

Perhaps things have worked out for the best

without Hollywood as

Ole Miss alumnus Micah Ginn has produced a film about Chucky Mullins that

Hollywood can't touch.

I received a copy of the film on DVD a few

weeks back. I watched it privately and by the end of the

documentary I had a lump in my throat the size of a baseball and was fighting

back tears.

I learned that I didn't know much about

Chucky Mullins at all.

This is mesmerizing account of

Chucky Mullins that every Ole Miss fan - make that every sports fan - should

watch.

This is not an A&E television narrator

telling a story. The documentary is done with Chucky's family, members of

the Ole Miss team from that era, hospital personnel and many more, using

Russellville, Ole Miss, Memphis and Birmingham as the backdrop to tell the

Chucky Mullins story. In fact, there is no narrator at all - people who

knew Chucky tell his story. It's moving.

The film shows highlights from a generation ago that

will bring back memories, not only of Chucky, but of an era gone by.

The powder blue helmets, Billy Brewer,

Vaught-Hemingway Stadium when it really did look like a high school stadium and

had an abundance of empty seats at home games will jog memories - some good - and perhaps some

that show just how far behind the Ole Miss program was in that era in

terms of facilities.

There's footage of Chucky going through

practice and a film clip of him knocking down a pass at the goal line in a

win over Georgia two weeks before he was injured for which he was named Ole Miss

"defensive player of the week." Overall, the film is packaged with

terrific video and photos of Chucky from his pee-wee football days, to news

clips of him emerging as a star high school player, to a ton of testimonials

from his closest friends, such as Trea Sutherland.

Ole Miss fans can thank Ginn for taking on a personal project in which the

producers may be lucky to recoup their expenses but at least the project

marks the culmination of a five-year dream for Ginn.

"I was at the Ole Miss-Vanderbilt game that took place on the same date as

Chucky's accident only 10 years later," Ginn said in an interview before the

documentary premiered at Ole Miss last fall. "They asked for a moment of

silence for Chucky, and I have never heard that many people be so quiet for so

long. It was moving."

Following Ginn's "moment of silence" experience, he started thinking

about the impact of Chucky Mullins' life on people, most of whom never knew him.

"That planted a seed that this was a guy I wanted to know," Ginn said.

Ginn said his intent was for the film to celebrate Mullins' life and impact,

instead of simply focusing on his death. He found old film of Mullins playing

football at his high school in Russellville and conducted on-camera

interviews with about 25 people, including Mullins' teachers, coaches, friends,

former teammates and his guardian, Carver Phillips.

Ginn hopes to get copies of the movie to high schools across the state and

region.

"I'd like to get it into the hands of teachers and coaches so they can show

it to student-athletes and give them a real role model to follow," he said.

"That, I think, would be the greatest tribute to Chucky that anyone could ever

imagine."

And a great tribute it is.

My wife is still fighting to understand football and after considerable

prodding, she relented to watch the documentary, knowing little about Chucky

Mullins. An hour later she was headed to the bathroom to repair her mascara after watching the film.

Maybe that's another tribute - if not to Chucky - at least to Micah Ginn.