NATCHEZ — Ole Miss lost possibly its biggest fan this past Saturday.

Denton L. “Flop” Thomas, 78, of Natchez died after fighting years of poor health and was buried at Greenlawn Memorial Park Cemetery on Monday.

Thomas was a member of the Natchez chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame and was a past president of the District 10 Ole Miss Alumni Association.

And he never even attended school there.

“He loved Mississippi, that was the main reason,” said Gene McGehee of Vidalia, who called Thomas his best friend. “Flop was the type of guy that when he liked something he went head over heels. You couldn’t get it out of his mind.

“He didn’t like Mississippi State, and he didn’t like LSU. He was one way. He didn’t like no team but Ole Miss.”

Thomas was such a fan that he passed out business cards that featured the Ole Miss Rebel mascot and the phrase, “Talk to me about Ole Miss anytime!”

McGehee said he was so engrossed in Rebels sports that all the football coaches there knew him.

When his health turned poor and he was no longer able to walk around the Oxford campus, they offered to drive him around.

“The coaches told him, ‘You park your vehicle when you get here and you give us a call,’” McGehee recounted. “‘We’ll send up a golf cart to meet you at your car and drive you around campus, and we’ll put you in the stadium so you can watch the ballgame from the sideline in the golf cart.’”

Thomas even did some recruiting for his favorite school when he was younger, driving players up to Oxford to watch the games.

“He was liked by everybody up at Ole Miss,” McGehee said. “Coach David Cutcliffe (who coached Ole Miss until 2004), he called the other day after Flop had died with condolences. That was real thoughtful.”

Thomas was also a fan of local high school sports.

He was integral in handing out the seven scholarships the National Football Foundation gives to area senior athletes, and he was a particular fan of Adams County Christian School football.

Tony Byrne had a particular memory of his friend, who was about six years older than him.

“When I was in high school, I remember we had won the south division (football game),” Byrne said. “Flop was one of the first ones on the field. There was a picture taken of our team, and Flop was right in the middle of the team, just smiling as a fan.”

Thomas played as a guard on the high school football himself, and he ran distance events in track for Natchez High.

His brother, Carl “Little Flop” Thomas, was the team’s quarterback.

“He didn’t play much on offense because he couldn’t learn the plays,” McGehee said. “When he did play offense, Little Flop would call the plays, and the next thing out of his mouth when the huddle broke would be instructions to his older brother. He had to explain his assignment to him.”

Thomas worked for Armstrong Tire Company, and he and his brother both served in the military.

Thomas served twice, once in World War II and again in Korea, and his brother died in Korea.

Thomas named a trophy named after his little brother.

“Flop was always talking about him too — he missed his brother,” McGehee said. “He gave that trophy to the boy in school that the coaches would always nominate.”

Thomas had not been able to travel to football games or do much work with the National Football Foundation in the past several years, but even so, his friends say he was still the biggest Ole Miss fan they knew.

He had a room in his house dedicated to Rebels memorabilia, and he even got to meet former Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron while in the nursing home.

“I didn’t get to go to the funeral, but I heard a rumor that he didn’t die until after Ole Miss beat LSU,” Byrne said. “I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it makes a good story.”