Dr. Sparky Reardon on His Legendary Career as Dean of Students at Ole Miss

As we close season 16, I have a guest today that goes all the way back to season one of the show—well, actually, for me personally he goes back way further than that, but more on that in a moment. Dr. Sparky Reardon was one of my very first guests on season one of I’d Rather Be Reading, and I encourage you to go back and listen to that episode from 2021 if you enjoy this conversation, which I know you will. I have said this on the show before—I am originally from Kansas, and when I moved to Oxford, Mississippi to go to graduate school and work at the University of Mississippi, better known as Ole Miss, I didn’t know what to expect. Back when I was a very junior graduate assistant working in Greek life at Ole Miss, Sparky was my boss’s boss’s boss. Despite that, he was friendly, approachable, and quickly became like a father figure to me. I’m not alone. As his new book The Dean: Memoirs and Missives shows, Sparky tends to have that paternal effect on the hundreds of thousands of students he interacted with during his time as Dean of Students at Ole Miss. When it comes to Oxford and Ole Miss, Sparky is about as legendary as they come. He’s, in my mind anyway, on the level of the Mannings or any other beloved Ole Miss figure. I met Sparky in 2009, and we have kept in touch even after I moved from Oxford in 2013. We went out for brunch maybe a couple of years ago, and it was like going to brunch with a famous person for how many people came up to the table to say hello. He is like everyone’s favorite mayor, minus the politics of it all. I think you listeners will enjoy Sparky’s Southern drawl and his endless stories, many of which are captured in The Dean. I stayed up late—a rarity for me these days—and could not put this book down. Sparky is originally from Clarksdale, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta, if you’re not familiar; after serving at Ole Miss for years, he became Dean of Students in 2000, a position he held until his retirement in 2014. You can imagine the thousands of stories Sparky collected in that role over all of those years, from the hilarious to the tragic. He is a deeply, deeply talented writer—more than your average memoirist—and myself and so many others have been begging him to write this book for years. I am so glad it’s finally out in the world, and I’m thrilled to talk to him about it. When he’s not writing bestselling books and going on tour to support it, he enjoys his porch in Taylor, Mississippi—which is a beautiful porch, I might add—a good cigar, a sip of scotch, and the occasional poker game. You’ll love him, just like we all do.

The Dean: Memoirs and Missives by Dr. Sparky Reardon