{"id":138921,"date":"2024-04-30T12:10:34","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T17:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=138921"},"modified":"2024-04-30T12:10:41","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T17:10:41","slug":"writer-wright-thompson-to-give-university-of-mississippi-commencement-address","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/writer-wright-thompson-to-give-university-of-mississippi-commencement-address\/","title":{"rendered":"Writer Wright Thompson to Give University of Mississippi Commencement Address"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

University’s 171st annual Commencement begins May 8, 2024<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An Oxonian <\/strong>and Mississippi <\/strong>native will take the stage this year at the University of Mississippi<\/strong>‘s 171st annual Commencement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wright Thompson<\/strong>, an award-winning senior writer for ESPN <\/strong>and author of three bestselling books, will deliver the address at Convocation, set for 9 am May 11, 2024, in The Grove<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Wright Thompson is an acclaimed writer and a gifted storyteller \u2013 traits that align with our university’s rich literary legacy,” Chancellor Glenn Boyce<\/strong> said. “We’re honored to welcome this renowned native Mississippian as our Commencement speaker, and we look forward to the anecdotes and wisdom he will share with the Class of 2024.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thompson began his writing career as a student journalist at the University of Missouri<\/strong>, where he was a columnist and sportswriter for The Columbia Missourian<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following graduation, Thompson worked for Kansas City Star<\/em><\/strong> and The Times-Picayune<\/em><\/strong> in New Orleans<\/strong>. Throughout his career, he has reported on major sporting events such as the Super Bowl<\/strong>, the Kentucky Derby<\/strong>, and The Masters<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2006, Thompson joined ESPN full time, where he writes for the website and magazine. He has written a variety of sports features and profiles of influential figures such as Joe Montana, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods<\/strong>, and NBA <\/strong>executive Pat Riley<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was the inaugural winner of the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting<\/a> and received a<\/a> Sports Emmy for his ESPN:60<\/a> article on bare-handed fishing. Thompson also won the Media Eclipse Award for his long-form horseracing article “The Legend of Zenyatta.”<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thompson is author of three published books including<\/a> “The Best American Sports Writing” (Houghton Mifflin, 2015), “The Cost of These Dreams: Sports Stories and Other Serious Business” (Penguin Publishing Group, 2019) and “Pappyland: A Story of Family, Fine Bourbon and the Things That Last” (Penguin, 2020).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his upcoming book, “The Barn,”<\/a>\u00a0he explores the life and murder of Emmett Till<\/strong>, a black teen who was tortured and killed 23 miles from Thompson’s hometown of Clarksdale <\/strong>in 1955.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Till’s death helped spark the Civil Rights Movement<\/strong>, but despite decades, arrests and acquittals, facts about Till’s death have been largely erased and forgotten. “The Barn” is scheduled for publication in September 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commencement exercises will be held May 8-12, 2024, in various locations across campus. For more information, see the\u00a02024 Commencement website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Clara Turnage<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

University’s 171st annual Commencement begins May 8, 2024 An Oxonian and Mississippi native will take the stage this<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123462,"featured_media":138925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17687],"tags":[9715,3470,6044,3994,28611,28607,28609,7236,5,24735,896,7067,4,28613,3390,28606,2012,28610,655,20353],"class_list":["post-138921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-university-of-mississippi","tag-civil-rights-movement","tag-clarksdale","tag-emmett-till","tag-espn","tag-joe-montana","tag-kansas-city-star","tag-kentucky-derby","tag-michael-jordan","tag-mississippi","tag-nba","tag-new-orleans","tag-ole-miss","tag-oxford","tag-pat-riley","tag-super-bowl","tag-the-columbia-missourian","tag-the-grove","tag-the-masters","tag-university-of-mississippi","tag-university-of-missouri"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Wright-Thompson-750.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138921"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138931,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138921\/revisions\/138931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}