Dr. Robert Ford and attorney Bobby Robinson have been supporting high school football in Warren County as long as they have lived here.

On Friday night, they will be honored for that dedication.

The Red Carpet Bowl committee will honor Ford, a Hazlehurst native, and Robinson, a McComb native. Each will receive a plaque, a copy of the first Red Carpet Bowl program and a RCB shirt. The ceremony is scheduled to start at 5:45 p.m. at Vicksburg Memorial Stadium where this year’s games will be played.

“We want to pay homage to a couple guys that have been doing this for a long time,” said past RCB chairman Rickey Mitchell. “It’s well deserved.”

The Red Carpet Bowl began in 1962 as a fundraiser game for the late Leo Puckett, a local high school player injured in a game. It has continued as an annual tradition, with money raised going to scholarships to area students and other student-related purposes.

This year, Warren Central High School is scheduled to play Clarksdale at 6 p.m. The Vicksburg Gators will battle the nationally ranked South Panola Tigers 30 minutes after the first game ends.

“It’s an honor,” said Ford, a former physician for Warren Central’s football team who joined the committee soon after moving to Vicksburg in 1983.

Ford chaired the team selection committee for several years and he said there were many restless nights trying to sign teams after what started as a postseason bowl game was changed to be the first game of the season in 1989.

“Let me tell you, that’s probably the hardest job of all the committee members,” longtime RCB member Travis Wayne Vance said. “He spent many a restless night wondering which teams would be playing.”

Ford’s son, Kevin, played football for Warren Central before moving on to play at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Dr. Ford said his son is now a committee member.

Robinson enrolled at Ole Miss in 1961 and played on the freshman team. The offensive guard captained the 1964 team and in his three seasons in Oxford, the Rebels won two Southeastern Conference championships and the 1962 season’s Sugar Bowl over Arkansas. The win capped a perfect 10-0 season.

He spent time coaching at the United States Military Academy before moving back to McComb in 1970. By 1971, he had already moved to Warren County. One of the first things he did was to join the Red Carpet Bowl committee.

“Back then, I just wanted to be part of a bowl game,” said Robinson. “I’m proud to have been a part of something good for the community, something that leaves the community better off than it was.”

Robinson has not been a committee member for about five years, saying it was time to leave it up to the younger guys.

“Bobby Robinson was a team player, not only in college and as a lawyer, but with the Red Carpet Bowl,” Vance said. “He was everywhere you needed him to be.”

Robinson recalled his tenure on the committee during the largest transition. When the state started a playoff system, various postseason events around the state vanished. The locals, however, were committed to keeping the Red Carpet Bowl going.

“We decided to make it the first game of the year,” Robinson said. “That bowl game literally sat on the edge of disappearing for several

years.”

One ticket covers admission to both games and tickets will remain available Friday night.