If it weren’t for a couple of ACT score points, Marvin Lott may have been a Millsaps College Alumnus of the Year. But back in the late 1960s, Lott took the ACT while at Greenville High School and was signed to play football for the Majors, but his 21 ACT was just short of the 23 required by Millsaps. The star quarterback decided to take his talents just up Highway 82 and stay in the Delta at Moorhead.
“So, I came to Mississippi Delta,” Lott said. “I was there in the fall of 1969; it was a small school but it was a great school and that’s the reason why I keep helping it as an alumnus.”
Lott was honored at MDCC’s award ceremony before the homecoming game at 11am on Saturday, October 5 in the Trojan Grove.
Recruited by the late Head Football Coach Jimmy Bellipanni, Lott tried out and started as quarterback for the Trojans. He also played safety on defense and helped MDJC to a 7-4 record as a freshman and 5-4 as a sophomore. While at Mississippi Delta, Lott relished being coached by Bellipanni and assistant coach Carl Grubbs on both offense and defense.
“Coach Jimmy Bellipanni and Coach Grubbs were very inspirational,” Lott said. “I enjoyed playing under defensive backfield coach Grubbs.”
He also called out several teammates he had the honor to be on the same Trojan team with.
“My first year there I played with people like John Sabin and Jesse Murphree and Jimmy Pilgreen,” the number 14 Trojan quarterback said.
He didn’t have a major while at Moorhead but had decided to major in science at Mississippi Southern (now University of Southern Mississippi) due to his coach’s influence.
“I hurt my knee my sophomore year at Moorhead, and then when I went to Mississippi Southern I had two knee surgeries,” he said. “After that, I was laid out a year.”
Lott would restart his education and decided to attend Delta State and get his Bachelor of Science Degree in Science (1974) and enter the work force employed by the Helena Chemical Company where he worked in Sales and Management in Cleveland, then later in Bunkie and Natchitoches, Louisiana and eventually Tunica. In 1983, Lott went back to Cleveland for a job with Jimmy Sanders Seed/Cleveland Chemical Company. He also went back to school at Delta State and got his Masters in Science, Chemistry and Entomology. Lott would later retire from Sanders in 2014 and start his own farm consulting business, M & M Consulting.
His degrees and road to working in a science-related profession dates back to his days at Moorhead and the influence of his coaches and teachers while there.
“I enjoyed going to Mrs. (Nell) Stonestreet’s English class. Mrs. (Rose-Mary) Golden taught Mississippi History, and she was a very good teacher. Coach Grubbs taught science and I enjoyed going to science classes under him. He just said, ‘youngsters today need to get an education.’ When he went to Delta State, he got a degree in science and then taught for many years. That inspired me.”
As an active alumnus, Lott has been part of the committee that raised money for the science building. He’ll be the first to tell you that he’s just helping give back to the college that gave him so much and that plenty of other folks have done as much or more than himself.
“Winning this award was an inspiration. There are plenty more people who are better deserving of this award than I am,” Lott said. “I’m really honored and I’ve been humbled.”
His knee has had five more surgeries, and he’s had a hip replaced and little bit of work on his shoulder. He’s not quite ready to join Coach Tatum’s offense to help today’s Trojans but he does find time to ingrain his knowledge and love for the game into Pee Wee football players in Cleveland.
“That (playing quarterback at Moorhead) is behind me (laughing),” he said. “I wish them luck.”
When he’s not consulting or coaching, Lott can be found spending time with his five grandsons and hunting and fishing.
Married to the former Kathleen Aguzzi of Cleveland since 1974, they have two sons Brian (attended MDCC) and Michael.
