Jonesville’s Chris Shivers is a true champion &045; Professional Bullriding champion that is. He has one, million-dollar, ride under his buckle, and come next month about this time he’ll get a shot at &uot;Little Yellow Jacket,&uot; a mean one in Colorado Springs, CO.

The April 19 event indeed has our own Chris astride Little Yellow Jacket, advertised as &uot;the richest eight seconds in sporting history!&uot; It’ll be live on NBC, it says, and it has Little Yellow Jacket weighing in at 1,600 pounds to Chris’ 145.

The announcement even has &uot;Jacket&uot; wearing No. 61 and currently the defending PBR Bucking Bull of the Year. His owners are &uot;Berger Bucking Bulls,&uot; Tom Teague and Bernie Taupin. And Jacket’s just six years old, no less.

Ellis Crooks, the Miss-Lou’s up-to-date fan of PBR, goes in for this PBR, and it’s also on television. But Ellis informed me of this upcoming event. And if you aren’t sure you would like Pro Bullriding, I invite you to tune in April 19 to Ford Truck’s &uot;Million-Dollar Bounty&uot; riding.

It ain’t easy, as the saying goes, but 24-year-old Chris Shivers has certainly made it look easy on occasion. Pull for the young home area champion. Again, it happens April 19th in Colorado Springs, Co. And on the tube!

Just pull for Chris, and I’ll tell him when I see him again that his fans over this way are pulling for him. Nothing like local athletic heroes. Ride ’em, Chris!

Mississippi State’s Bulldogs deserved better when they played and lost to Butler 47-46 last Friday night in the NCAA Tournament. I know &045; you gotta get it done, not talk about what might have been. But, heck, you just have to suppose sometime. It was so close!

Ole Miss suffered something like that loss a few years ago in the same Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center. Indiana pulled the last-second rug from under the Rebels that year. But enough of what happened five years ago!

Coach Rick Stansbury’s Bulldogs were at the finish line with a one-point lead when Butler’s Brandon Miller sped to the basket with over 16,000 fans roaring. Gosh, he made it. And, gosh, just six seconds remained in the game. Not enough time. State had to go home. And 7,000 Maroon fans had made the trip!

One writer wrote that &uot;Butler’s heroics meant March Sadness for State.&uot; Butler seemed ready from the beginning, and you can’t knock the Bulldogs that much because they hung tough all the way.

But it was a first-round NCAA Tournament game and a stunner for the Bullies. Many had thought State would be in the final four, but feisty lil’ ole Butler did what smaller schools do once in a while. Upset.

The Bulldogs were ranked 20th in the land prior to the big Butler game, and the 47-46 Butler loss was indeed rated an upset. But you gotta deliver, and the Bulldogs just weren’t up to it this time.

Sometimes little things work prior to a game, and this time a little ole saying on Butler warmups that said, &uot;A Dog Fight&uot; caught State flat-footed while Butler’s Bulldogs applied their game plan.

The MSU Bulldogs don’t have to hang their heads, though. Truth of the matter, State’s got a really good boys basketball team!

Glenvall Estes is a longtime columnist for The Natchez Democrat.