As the celebrations were underway on the magical Ole Miss National Championship run, one guy, in particular, seemed to be enjoying the moment just a little bit more than the rest of his teammates. That guy was the Captain himself, Tim Elko. Through his time at Ole Miss, Tim Elko has become a legend. There’s not a question in the world that Elko is one of the most beloved Ole Miss Baseball players of all time. Some around Ole Miss have even mentioned the possibility of honoring Elko and what he did for the Ole Miss Baseball program by building a statue outside of Swayze Field.

All month long, Head Coach Mike Bianco had joked with the media about building Elko a statue outside of Swayze, to which; Elko responded on Sunday by saying, ” I don’t really want one. I kind of just want one of all of us holding the National Championship trophy. That’s all I want.”

Later in the press conference, Mitch Davis of TheMitchDavisShow.com asked Tim about his legacy at Ole Miss and what the program meant to him.

Elko responded with grace by saying, ” Ole Miss means the world to me. I had to make a decision last year about what I was going to do, and I remember following the draft, I was praying and trying to figure out what I was going to do, and God told me that I’m not done here at Ole Miss. I listened to that, and I was like, all right, well, let’s do this thing then. I came back, and it was the best decision I could have ever made. It was a crazy road to get where we are, but I remember after we lost to Mississippi State at home, I called my sister in the car, and she knew that obviously we were struggling, and it was kind of taking a little bit of a toll on me.
I remember talking to her, and she just said, you’ve got just to trust God. He didn’t bring you back here for no reason. I remember hanging up the phone, and I was praying out loud, talking to God, and just asking Him, what’s going on here? How did I come back here? This isn’t going how I thought it was going to go. I remember just hearing one word that He was telling me in the back of my head, and it was “believe.” That’s all He was telling me, was believe, believe, believe. I was like, all right. I’m going to believe. I’m going to believe. I’m going to do it. I tried to harp on that to the guys and keep the spirits up, and boy was God right. We just had to keep believing, man, and we kept believing and fighting. We won a national championship for Ole Miss and all the past players and all the fans across the country and for the state of Mississippi and the University of Mississippi. We did it. We’re national champs.”

At the end of the day, the legacy of Tim Elko will forever live in the folklore of Ole Miss Baseball. What Tim Elko was able to do as a Rebel will give kids across the state of Mississippi hope about what can happen with Faith, hard work, and a little bit of belief in yourself. During his time at Ole Miss, Tim Elko represented everything that makes College Baseball so pure. There’s not a guy on this Ole Miss Baseball that deserves this National Championship more than Elko himself. Elko alone forever changed the landscape of Ole Miss Baseball for generations to come.