Brad Gaines Shares Emotional Memories Of Chucky Mullins On What Would've Been His 55th Birthday
The emotions are still raw for Brad Gaines all these years later since the death of Chucky Mullins.
It was Gaines, the father of OutKick's Riley Gaines, a Vanderbilt fullback, that Mullins hit head-first in the back on that fateful October Homecoming Day in 1989 in Oxford, Mississippi. The impact left Mullins with four shattered vertebrae and paralyzed in a Memphis hospital.
Mullins would eventually return to the Ole Miss campus in 1990 to attend school, but in May 1991, Chucky suffered a pulmonary embolism and died at age 21.
Monday would've been Mullins' 55th birthday.
"When something like this happens, you have one person, well, two people, but one person whose life will never be the same. Ever. I don't know if I would want to keep living (in Mullins' situation)," an emotional Gaines told OutKick Hot Mic host Jonathan Hutton.
Brad Gaines Reflects On The Chucky Mullins Story | Hot Mic With Hutton And Withrow
In the Emmy-nominated "It’s Time: The Story of Brad Gaines and Chucky Mullins," ESPN told the story of how Gaines developed a deep friendship with Mullins after the injury and how Brad visits Mullins' grave three times a year and has done so since 1991.
"I always take my tools and cleaning supplies and take care of his stone," Gaines said in the documentary.
While the hit took the life of Mullins, Gaines also suffered.
"There were many nights when I did not sleep where I would get up in the middle of the night and walk around campus and have this labor on my mind," the Vandy fullback said of his life after the hit.
"There are times I feel guilty," Gaines told ESPN's Chris Connelly. "What I felt like was, I didn't cost this guy his career, I cost him his life."
(The full documentary can be found here.)
‘It’s a love story'
During his appearance Monday on Hot Mic, Gaines shared the story of how SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey approached him during Riley Gaines' senior season to tell him thank you for allowing the conference to be a part of the ESPN documentary.
Sankey told Brad that the documentary is still one of the most-watched SEC Storied segments in ESPN history.
"It's a love story," Brad told Hutton. "Between he and I. Between Chucky and Mississippi. Between Chucky and Alabama (Mullins' home state). The fans. The sport. It's a love story. Simply."