Starkville-area strip club hosting a Hugh Freeze-themed night
The owner of a Starkville-area strip club is having a tribute night to former Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze because he said the coach banned Rebel players from going to his strip clubs.
Jerry Westlund, who owns numerous joints throughout the south, told USA Today that Freeze’s theme night on Saturday is because the coach is a “hypocrite” for his ban on the clubs. Freeze resigned after phone records showed he made a one-minute call in 2016 to a phone number connected to a Tampa escort service.
Starkville is, of course, where Ole Miss rival Mississippi State is located. From USA Today, where you should go and read the entire article because Westlund’s quotes are gold:
Westlund said if the doormen determine that someone looks like Freeze, the cover charge will be waived. There will also be free admission plus a drink for anyone who “turns in your Ole Miss official SEC coaching visor,” a nod to the sideline headgear Freeze preferred.
“We’ll be ringing the bell in tribute to Hugh and wish him nothing but the best as he seeks to further his coaching career at some community college in the Pacific Northwest,” Westlund said.
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Throughout his tenure at Ole Miss, Freeze was very overt about his Christian faith. He resigned from the school after Ole Miss officials said they confronted the coach over a “pattern of conduct.”
The phone record discovery was made during research for a lawsuit against Freeze and the school by former Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt. Freeze’s phone records were being combed to look for calls to reporters; calls that Nutt said were used to slander him in an attempt to pin the football program’s NCAA issues on Freeze’s predecessor.
The number was also found by a Mississippi State fan who is working on a book and had a working relationship with Nutt’s lawyer.
For his part, Freeze has been adamant that he did nothing wrong regarding the possible call to the escort service. He told Yahoo Sports “there’s nothing to it” regarding the call near the time of his resignation.
In a separate interview with USA Today after his resignation, Freeze said “God is good, even in difficult times.”
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of Dr. Saturday and From the Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
