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Repairing the Bridge Between Dixie’s Past and Future Through Film—and Football
 When he returned to the Dixie State campus two years ago as an assistant professor in the communication department, Dixie alumnus Phil Tuckett, ‘65, immediately sensed something was amiss. The campus community,including its students, faculty, staff and alumni,along with many residents of St. George and Washington County, were deeply divided on the subject on the future path of the institution.
Tuckett, just retired after a near 40-year career at NFL Films, where he served as vice president and won 33 Emmy Awards, came back to his alma mater to run the recently established Dick Nourse Center for Media Innovation (CMI). Having spent most of his professional life as a filmmaker, he thought long and hard about what he could do to help establish some common ground and begin the process of reuniting the entire Dixie community under the safe umbrella of the “Dixie Spirit.”
He harkened back to his days at Dixie, where he was a two-year starter and team captain of the Rebel football team in 1964 and 1965. Tuckett remembered feeling the “Dixie Spirit” and the connection and sense of ownership the community had with the College. With that in mind, he put the wheels in motion for the creation of a documentary chronicling the rich history Dixie College football. The documentary, entitled “The History of Dixie Football,” debuted in August during the DSC Athletics Hall of Fame weekend festivities, which included the induction of five former Rebel student-athletes, including Bob Chapoose and Richard Hafen, the first two football All-Americans in school history.
History features a number of interviews with former players and coaches, archival photos and game films, the hour-long documentary traces the history of Dixie’s football program, from its beginning in 1937 as a junior college, to present day as an NCAA Division II member institution.
Tuckett noted that he has taped more than 70 interviews with former players, coaches and fans for the documentary, each of whom spoke on how much the Dixie football program meant to each of them. In addition to the interviews, part one features two stage reenactments of important events from the program’s storied past.
The first reenactment portrays Dixie’s first-ever football game, which game, which was played originally down near the Virgin River in Bunkerville, Nev., in 1937. DSC Hall of Famer Charlie Pickett, who at age 92 is the oldest living former Dixie football player, was a member of that first-ever team and served as a narrator and consultant for the scene.
Tuckett and his production crew recreated the dirt field on the Old Blake Farm in Washington last July, while students from Pine View High School donned authentic 1937-style football uniforms, complete with leather helmets (just like in the 2008 movie “Leatherheads”) in staging the game. In addition, a number of community members from the St. George area came out in force to act as extras and fans at the game.
Though the film is a look back, Tuckett hopes to convey the message to Dixie’s current football players that those who have come before them are looking to them to carry on the proud history and tradition of Dixie football.
The film is available on DVD for purchase for $25, and all proceeds will go toward the Rebels Forever Fund, established with the Dixie College Foundation, to support student athletes and the football program.
To purchase your copy, contact Phil Tuckett at tuckett@dixie.edu.
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