NATCHEZ — Gene McGehee credits his athletic success to two things.

The then five-foot-nine point guard said he tried to out hustle everyone on the basketball court and football field, and he also tried to out talk them.

“I used to try to make (opponents) mad at me,” McGehee said. “I would tell them how ugly their girlfriends were. I did a lot of talking in football at the line of scrimmage, asking guys, ‘What’s the count? Is it on one or is it two?’”

The former basketball and football star from old Natchez High School was a gamer, said close friend Tony Byrne.

“He was tough as Hell,” Byrne said. “Whoever the best player was on the opposing team, Gene guarded that guy.”

McGehee said former Natchez basketball coach A.I. Rexinger would always match him up with the other team’s best shooter.

“I had a way of shutting them down,” McGehee said. “I picked them up full court. Sometimes when they would call timeout I’d follow him over to his bench. I was all over him.”

McGehee led a deep Natchez High team to three consecutive Big Eight titles in basketball, from the 1948 season to the 1950 season.

In football, McGehee said one of his proudest moments was when the 1949 Natchez High squad faced Pascagoula High School in the Shrimp Bowl.

After high school, McGehee searched for a program in state to continue his playing career. He tried out at Delta State, where his former teammate Fred Foster went on to letter in several sports.

McGehee said Delta State overlooked him because of his size, despite his self-confessed abilities as a jump shooter.

McGehee said his loud personality and his hustle stemmed from his desire to prove his doubters wrong.

“I felt a chip on my shoulder all the time,” McGehee said. “I hustled and played hard.”

McGehee would play basketball and football at Copiah-Lincoln Community College. He said coaches with the football program called him to try out, but he left the football team midway through the season to keep pace with his teammates on the basketball team.

“They thought I had a lot more foot speed than I had,” McGehee said. “I had a particular way to pick up things on defense. I could look at the running backs eyes, and nine out of ten times that told me where he was going to go.”

McGehee’s advice to young athletes: play like you are five-foot-nine, 130 pounds.

“You’ve got to play your hardest 100 percent of the time, not just in games, but in practice,” McGehee said.