The tale of LSU women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey and a squirrel from Pascagoula
If you have not heard of the squirrel from Pascagoula, LSU women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey wants you to Google it.
Mulkey dropped the reference to Ray Stevens' quirky country song, Mississippi Squirrel Revival, after No. 14 LSU's 82-64 win over Vanderbilt on Sunday.
At halftime, LSU players and their many family members were individually recognized and posed for pictures during halftime on the floor at the Pete Maravich Assembly. One was guard Jailin Cherry, a grad student from Pascagoula High in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
"My family is, like, only two hours away, so every Sunday they're here," Cherry said. "Family means a lot to me. That's really the reason why I came to LSU, because it's close to home. … I'm very family oriented. so just to see everybody be able to have their own family here and everybody get introduced, that's a lovely thing to have."
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As Cherry spoke, her coach smiled. And when Cherry was done, Mulkey jumped right in.
"But these Sunday games at noon – do you all know the Mississippi squirrel can't get loose in the First Self-Righteous Church in Pascagoula?" Mulkey said. "OK, go look it up."
Cherry knew exactly what Mulkey was talking about. Reporters and most others in the interview room did not.
"Y'all looking at me like 'She's lost her mind.' That's one of the greatest, funniest songs ever," Mulkey said as Cherry laughed. "OK, they can't go do that if we've got 12 o'clock games, right?
"I'm telling ya, baby, people have got to be in that church in Pascagoula. … Who sang that?"
When no one answered correctly, Mulkey, a native of Tickfaw, Louisiana, who came to LSU this season after 21 years at Baylor, chastised reporters in her usual drawl, saying "I cannot believe y'all do not know that song. … Look it up right now. Somebody look it up. I'm gonna make y'all look it up. … I'm not gonna tell you who it is. I'm gonna make y'all look it up. Google it. And you're gonna slap yourself when you see who it is, because he also sang 'The Streak.' C'mon, guys, y'all need to be more well-rounded than this."
Stevens recorded Mississippi Squirrel Revival in 1984, 10 years after The Streak became a nationwide hit.
Mississippi Squirrel Revival is about a parishioner named Harv and a young boy's squirrel that gets loose and runs up Harv's pants "in that sleepy little town of Pascagoula." The squirrel goes berserk as it scurries about the church, and a rival breaks out.
One verse of lyrics, according to Musixmatch:
"Well, Harv hit the aisles dancin' and screamin'
Some thought he had religion
Others thought he had a demon
And Harv thought he had a weed eater loose in his Fruit-Of-The-Looms
He fell to his knees to plead and beg
And the squirrel ran out of his britches leg
Unobserved, to the other side of the room"
"Alright guys. Go look up Pascagoula squirrel," Mulkey said before leaving the room. "I'm tellin' ya. Great video too."
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey Pascagoula church squirrel
