October 11, 2019

Ask anyone who attends a Poplar Bluff Mules football game if they know super fan Connie Chaney Taylor and you’ll get a resounding “oh yes!” every time. R-I staff member and Poplar Bluff alumnus Anita Gaebler Cates described Taylor as “... one of the most loyal Mules football fans I have ever known, probably only outweighed by my father (the late R-I and community icon, Dale Gaebler). ...

Amber Hornbeck
Ultimate football fan, Connie Taylor, of Poplar Bluff, showing off her Mules pride during a recent home game.
Ultimate football fan, Connie Taylor, of Poplar Bluff, showing off her Mules pride during a recent home game.DAR/Amber Hornbeck

Ask anyone who attends a Poplar Bluff Mules football game if they know super fan Connie Chaney Taylor and you’ll get a resounding “oh yes!” every time.

R-I staff member and Poplar Bluff alumnus Anita Gaebler Cates described Taylor as “... one of the most loyal Mules football fans I have ever known, probably only outweighed by my father (the late R-I and community icon, Dale Gaebler). She is in the stands rain or shine, with her cowbell and Jack, that’s her stuffed mule head’s name; first name Jack, last name ---.”

Taylor, a 1964 graduate of Poplar Bluff High School, epitomizes the passion she holds for her alma mater and its football teams.

Connie Chaney Taylor as a Poplar Bluff High School senior in 1964.
Connie Chaney Taylor as a Poplar Bluff High School senior in 1964.Photo provided

“Once a Mule, always a Mule,” she said with a smile.

She said she “got hooked” on football at an early age. Taylor’s late father, Charles Chaney, took his then 12-year-old daughter to a late November game between heady rivals, Poplar Bluff and Sikeston. The Chaney family had roots in the Sikeston area, so attending the hometown rivalry game was a must. Taylor remembered snow falling that night, which made the atmosphere “just magical.”

“That was it for me ... I fell in love right then with football” she added.

The Poplar Bluff SHO-ME Marching Band in 1964.
The Poplar Bluff SHO-ME Marching Band in 1964.Photo provided

Taylor said she “always loved sports,” and took her role as “tomboy” of the family seriously.

“I was always outside playing baseball and football with the boys in the neighborhood,” she recalled.

By her freshman year of high school, Taylor’s love of sports was the deciding factor in setting her goal to pursue a college degree in physical education. Her unrelenting school spirit also guided her desire to become active in many school clubs and organizations. She played clarinet in the SHO-ME Band and the pep band, was active in the pep club, art club, Future Teachers of America, Physical Education Majors, officials club and the Spanish club throughout high school.

Mules mascot circa 1964.
Mules mascot circa 1964.Photo provided

After high school, Taylor enrolled at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to study physical education. An illness during her time at Arkansas State University forced her to leave college early. Taylor later met and married her husband, Paul.

When the Taylors’ son, Brian, was born, Connie Taylor knew he would grow up having the same passion for sports as both his parents. It proved an easy task for Taylor and her husband to raise an athletically minded son, with Paul Taylor being an avid fisherman and golfer and Connie Taylor, a golfer and football fanatic.

“I guess I kinda rubbed off on him a little bit,” said Taylor about her son.

When Brian became active in school and civic league sports early on, Taylor said her school spirit “amped” up again as she and Paul supported their son’s athletic participation.

Brian, a 1990 PBHS graduate, is now a successful Poplar Bluff businessman and longtime member and officer of the Mules Booster Club. Brian and his wife, Melissa, a PBHS math teacher, are raising another Taylor athlete, their 16-year-old son, Gatlin.

Ever the consummate fan, Taylor is never without a button on her lapel bearing the image of her grandson, Gatlin, her favorite Mules Football player.

Taylor has amassed an impressive collection of Mules memorabilia over the years. She wears her high school homecoming pin from the 1960s each year to the present year’s celebration and can be seen at every Mules game with her signature Mules tote packed full of items she uses to cheer from the stands.

One well known piece of memorabilia Taylor has owned for more than 60 years, is an antique maroon cowbell.

When Taylor was a freshman in high school, she mentioned to her late Uncle C.D., an antiques collector, that she was looking for a cowbell to ring “when the Mules get a touchdown.” Her love of football and her school spirit motivated Taylor in wanting something to really “get the crowd going” and “rev ‘em up” during the games.

Uncle C.D. obliged his niece and the maroon cowbell’s legend was born. In fact, the bell is so notorious, some past school administrators and game officials have threatened to ban Taylor from using it.

Taylor shows no signs of slowing her enthusiasm for Mules football. She promises the familiar clanking of her cowbell will be heard at every game for all long as she can physically ring it.

“Oh gosh yes!” Taylor exclaimed when asked of future plans to attend Mules games after her grandson graduates.

“I just love the atmosphere ... there’s nothing better ...”

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