Mississippi State Basketball is arguably in the greatest run of success in the history of the program. Coach Stansbury and his "Hardwood Dawgs" have won a regular season championship, a conference tournament titles, as well as competed in four consecutive NCAA tournaments. However, the most historically significant event in MSU Basketball history happened in 1963...

In 1963, segregation was coming to an end and racial tensions were at an all-time high. There were riots and marches across the country as schools nationwide became racially integrated. During this period Mississippi State basketball was dominant. The Bulldogs were following the Bailey Howell years with Babe McCarthy at the helm. Despite these successes, MSU wasn't allowed to compete for the National Championship due to a Mississippi law that would not allow state universities to compete against integrated schools. However, in the spring of 1963 that would all change.

"The biggest memory I have during my time at Mississippi State was not being allowed to play an integrated basketball team," says Bill Anderton, a member of the 63' squad. "Finally in 1963 we had enough, and we all got together where Coach McCarthy said that they are not going to let us go so we're going to sneak out and go play,".

The Bulldogs were coming off back to back SEC Championships in 62' & 63' and were confident they could compete for a national championship. The Bulldogs were tired of watching Kentucky go and compete as the runner up. Especially since the Bulldogs had beaten UK consistently.

"Kentucky always went as the Runner up and we had beat Kentucky some...that was a big deal and that was getting old."

Not being able to take it any longer, Coach McCarthy organized a plan to have his team slip out of Starkville in the early hours of the morning and play in the NCAA tournament before the governor could stop them.

"I'm going to sneak out of town so the governor can't serve me a court order and we'll meet up," recalled Anderton of a speech given by McCarthy. "A DC 3 appeared at Starkville Airport and we had to get up at four in the morning to get out there before things got going. I don't know who chartered the plane...it just showed up. We flew out and picked Babe up in Nashville on the way to East Lancing to play our first round."

This whirlwind of a day took its toll on the Bulldogs. By having to sneak around in fear of not being allowed to play, they didn't have a chance to look around and become comfortable. In fact they never had the chance to practice once they got to East Lancing.

"We lost our first round game to Loyola of Chicago. We were up at the half and went on to lose by two or three points," said Anderton.

Loyola of Chicago would go on to win the national title game by 30 points over Cincinnati and the Bulldogs would defeat Bowling Green in a consolation game the next evening.

"We like to think, if things would have been a little different, we could have competed for the National Championship,"stated Anderton.

Upon graduation in 1965, Anderton would begin his coaching career at Pass Christian High school, where, after just four seasons, had built a championship caliber team. That is, until hurricane Camille hit the Gulf Coast and wiped the foundation clean at the high school.

"After Camille I found a job selling life insurance for a company out of Dallas until a former Bulldog, Art Williams called me."

Art Williams played football for the Bulldogs in 1963 and was a close friend of Anderton during school. Williams, who currently stands as the Forbs 139th richest man in America, contacted his old friend to join his team with a new concept in insurance of "buying term and investing the difference".

"I was one of the first six people he recruited to join the team. Ten years later we became the largest insurance company in the world. It is now called CitiGroup, Travelers Primerica."

Since that time the Anderton family has developed and sold many businesses including one of the first prepaid phone cards.

"We were fortunate to get in on the front end of the prepaid phone card industry... we all know how that has grown over the years."

Now Mr. Anderton spends a great deal of time in Starkville as the new owner of Highlands Plantation.

"When we looked at what the community of Starkville needed we saw that there was very little family entertainment in Starkville. So we wanted to step in and help with this need."

Together with his partner Herb Bruster, a former Bulldog who is one of the Top 10 providers in the nation of Direct TV, they are committed to providing Starkville with a quality family experience.

"We want to build a championship facility for the use of the family. Not only do we have the best value in golf for central Mississippi we will have a championship put-put course, lighted driving range, swimming pool and much more." Anderton continued, "Our goal is to build Highlands Plantation up as big as we can and provide quality family entertainment."

As Mr. Anderton spends more time in Starkville he looks forward to attending all Mississippi State events.

"We spend a lot of time in Starkville and West Point... I really like to go to all the sporting events I can. I make it to all the games I can get a ticket to. I can't miss games! I will always make it to the SEC games."

The Anderton family looks at the move to Starkville as a home coming of sorts.

"I'm 62 now and I've been gone for over 40 years now. But in my life things have always come full circle, from my faith, my family, and my business and now my life. Mississippi State has been my home since I was 18 years old. I've had to go away from time to time but I always come back. At the end of the day this is probably where I end up."

On behalf of the Bulldog family, welcome home Mr. Anderton.

This article was published in the December issue of Maroon and White magazine. For more information about M&W got to www.maroonandwhitemag.com