Growing up in the small-town of Magee, Mississippi, football was ingrained in the very fabric of Kris Mangum’s life. The future All-SEC tight end was not only the son of a former NFL player and a football coach, but his older brother followed a similar path to the pinnacle of the sport. From a young age, he knew that he was going to follow in their footsteps.

“Football definitely runs in my family,” Mangum said. “With my Dad playing and coaching football and my brother playing football, it’s just something I always wanted to do. I think the thing that most appealed to me, even from a young age was the team aspect of it. Unlike any other sport like baseball or basketball where you can have one great player take over a game, in football it takes 11 guys working toward the same goal. I’ve always loved that about the game.”

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By the time he was a senior in high school, Mangum was a highly rated tight end and caught the eye of the Alabama Crimson Tide. Again, following in the footsteps of his family members, he headed to Tuscaloosa and played significant time as a freshman on the Crimson Tide’s National Championship team in 1992 under the legendary Gene Stallings.

However, family duties called him home to Mississippi and he would transfer and finish out his career at Ole Miss and become one of the best tight ends in the country on a struggling Rebels team. Despite the team’s struggles, Mangum would not trade his time in Oxford for anything in the world.

“I came to Ole Miss in a strange time in the team’s history,” he said. “We didn’t do a lot of winning, but I loved every bit of my time there. I made some great friends and I’m still a season ticket holder at Ole Miss. I try to make four or five games a year and there’s nothing like The Grove at a Rebels home game.”

Drafted in the seventh round of the 1997 NFL Draft by the still fledgling Carolina Panthers, Mangum would spend the next decade in Charlotte, including being a starter on the team’s 2003 NFC Championship squad.

Mangum retired in 2006 and spent a year away from football before the opportunity to coach presented itself. In 2008, Mangum would become the tight ends coach at the University of Southern Mississippi. It was with the Golden Eagles that he ultimately decided the path his career and life post-football would take.

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“I knew I couldn’t stay home all the time and not do anything, but I also knew that the coaching life wasn’t going to be something I wanted to have either for me or my family,” Mangum said. “Someone approached me about a job in banking and it turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. I started on the ground floor and worked my way up. The thing I enjoy most is that in this world, just like in football, if you put in the hard work, you see the results.”

He started out at the bottom of Magnolia State Bank in his home state of Mississippi. He went back to school, learned the banking business and ultimately worked his way up to becoming CEO. While his playing days are far behind him, he still finds ways to quench his competitive fire on a daily basis. Often times, he has found, the world of business and finance can be just as competitive as the world of football.

“In this world just like in football, it takes a great team to have any kind of success,” he said. “If you’re all working hard, working together, and if you don’t give up, you’re going to find success. I think it’s an easy parallel to draw between football and the business world. Don’t give up and support your teammates and that’s how you win.”

Coaches' Notes