“It’s going to be a blast,” organizer Susan Hunt says of this evening’s Shrimp Bowl parade and pep rally.
“I mean, how can we go wrong?” she declares. “We have more than a thousand people in the parade, when you consider the folks from Keesler, the football team, the band, the dance team, the cheerleaders and the Sports Hall of Fame class.
“And, I don’t care what they say, the weather is going to be perfect.”
The Shrimp Bowl parade will roll through downtown at 6 p.m., traveling from Howard Avenue to MLK Boulevard and south on Lameuse to the Town Green, where a pep rally will be conducted. As part of the events, the 2012 inductees of the Biloxi Sports Hall of Fame will be recognized, and there will be performances by the Biloxi Indian Marching Band, dance team and football cheerleaders.
It’s the kickoff of a sports-filled weekend that will see the dedication of the A.J. Holloway Sports Complex on Saturday at 3, the Shrimp Bowl doubleheader at 4 (Gulfport vs. Pascgoula followed by Biloxi vs. Picayune at 7:30) at the Biloxi High campus, and the induction of the 2012 class of the Biloxi Sports Hall of Fame on Sunday at 5 at the Biloxi Civic Center.
To print a poster about all of the events, click here.
To visit the online Biloxi Sports Hall of Fame, click here.
It’s an A.J. Holloway kind of weekend
Perhaps it’s only fitting with the focus on Biloxi athletics this weekend that the University of Mississippi Political Science Department has chosen to announce that Biloxi Mayor A.J. Holloway, a member of the 1960 Ole Miss national championship football team, has been chosen to receive its Distinguished Alumni Award for 2012.
The Oxford university — where Holloway graduated with a B.A. in Education in 1963 and played in two Sugar Bowls and a Cotton Bowl — also plans to establish the A.J. Holloway Fund to provide academic and research support for the Political Science Department.
To read more about the honor – including laudatory messages from such luminaries as former Gov. William Winter, former Lt. Gov. Brad Dye and UM Chancellor Emeritus Robert Khayat – click here.
Weekend preview: McClinton, Meat Loaf, Duran Duran, and Fata Morgana finale
This weekend, you’ll find shows by Delbert McClinton and Duran Duran at the Hard Rock, Meat Loaf at the IP, and finale of the Cirque-styled Fata Morgana at the Beau Rivage.
For details on these events and a host of others, click here.
News and notes
Council meetings: The Biloxi City Council will hold two public meetings on Tuesday. At 9:30 a.m., council members will discuss budgets for the departments of Parks and Recreation, Police, Fire and Public Works. Then, at 1:30 p.m., the council’s meeting agenda will be rife with property issues: more than two-dozen ongoing cases involving so-called Katrina-blighted properties, and a zoning issue in which Thomas and Randi P. Mueller are appealing a Planning Commission recommendation to allow a new apartment complex on Popp’s Ferry Road. To see the agendas for both meetings, click here.
Elite swimmers: The Biloxi Elite Swim Team will be holding tryouts for the upcoming season on from Monday through Aug. 31, weekdays after 5 except for Wednesday at the Biloxi Natatorium. Swimmers must be at least 4 years old and able to swim 25 yards. For more information, www.biloxielite.com or call the Natatorium at (228) 435-6205.
Katrina observances: The city is making plans for its annual Katrina memorial observance, traditionally held on Aug. 29 at 8 a.m. on the Town Green. This year will also see an Aug. 28 event at the Biloxi Visitors Center. To read more about local author Pat Smith’s discussion of his new book “Hurricane Katrina: The Mississippi Story,” click here.
