When Southern Miss signed a little-known quarterback from Reserve, Louisiana named Louis Lipps in the summer of 1980, few outside the coaching staff expected much. Four years later, Lipps walked off the field at M.M. Roberts Stadium as one of the greatest playmakers in school history. Months after that, he became a first-round Draft pick. By the end of his rookie season with the Pittsburgh Steelers, he wasn’t just another former Golden Eagle.
He was the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year.
As Lipps celebrates his 64th birthday this week, it’s the perfect time to remember one of Southern Miss’ greatest success stories, a player who perfectly represents what Golden Eagle football has built its reputation on for decades: finding overlooked talent and turning it into NFL greatness.
This Sunday, August 9, Lipps celebrates his 64th birthday, making this week’s Former Golden Eagle Spotlight the perfect time to look back at a player whose journey embodies what Southern Miss football has historically done as well as almost anyone: find a player others overlooked, give him an opportunity and watch him become a star.
Louis Lipps grew up in Louisiana and played his high school football at East St. John High School in Reserve, roughly 30 miles west of New Orleans.
And Southern Miss almost never got him.
Lipps played quarterback in high school and wasn’t heavily recruited coming out of East St. John. His connection to Hattiesburg came through Jerry Fremin, a former Southern Miss offensive lineman who was working as an assistant coach at East St. John. Fremin alerted Southern Miss to the versatile athlete.
The Golden Eagles listened. Lipps became a late addition to Southern Miss’ recruiting class, signing during the summer before the 1980 season. It wasn’t the kind of signing that generated national headlines.
Four years later, he would be an NFL first-round draft pick.
Finding a Home in Hattiesburg
Lipps didn’t immediately become Southern Miss’ featured receiver. As a freshman in 1980, he caught only two passes for 28 yards. But Southern Miss quickly discovered another way to get the football into his hands: Special teams.
Lipps returned three kickoffs for 61 yards and eight punts during his freshman season, offering an early glimpse of the explosiveness that would eventually make him one of the NFL’s most dangerous return specialists.
It was also a pretty good time to be coming of age as a Golden Eagle.
Southern Miss went 8-3 in 1980 and reached the Independence Bowl. A year later, the Golden Eagles finished 9-1-1 and earned a trip to the Tangerine Bowl. Lipps missed three games in 1981 because of a severe thigh injury, but his role in the offense began to grow. He caught nine passes while averaging more than 20 yards per reception and scored his first collegiate touchdown.
The lightly recruited quarterback from Reserve was becoming a legitimate Division I receiver.
Then came 1982.
Lipps became a full-time starter during his junior season and led Southern Miss with 38 receptions for 468 yards and two touchdowns. He was just as dangerous returning punts, averaging 12.2 yards on 23 returns and taking one back for a touchdown. His performance earned him second-team All-South Independent honors.
But that season is remembered in Hattiesburg for something much bigger. On November 13, 1982, Southern Miss walked into Bryant-Denny Stadium and beat Alabama, 38-29. The victory snapped Alabama’s 56-game home winning streak and came in Bear Bryant’s final season as head coach.
It remains one of the landmark victories in Southern Miss football history. Lipps was part of a Golden Eagle team proving it could line up against the biggest programs in the South and win.
And his senior season would prove he belonged on that stage, too.
Lipps saved his finest Southern Miss season for last. In 1983, he caught 42 passes for 800 yards and five touchdowns, averaging an impressive 19 yards per reception. He added 40 punt returns for 464 yards, again ranking among the nation’s top return men.
Southern Miss finished 7-4 under coach Jim Carmody, but the record doesn’t tell the entire story. The Golden Eagles went to Oxford and hammered Ole Miss 27-7. The following week, Southern Miss defeated Mississippi State 31-6 in Jackson.
That meant Lipps and the Golden Eagles had beaten both SEC programs in Mississippi on consecutive Saturdays. Southern Miss also defeated Memphis, Louisiana Tech and Louisville that season. Lipps earned first-team All-South Independent honors and honorable mention All-America recognition.
When Lipps’ Southern Miss career ended, his numbers were among the best the program had ever seen. He finished with 91 receptions for 1,477 yards and eight touchdowns, averaging 16.2 yards per catch. During his final two seasons alone, Lipps caught 80 passes for 1,268 yards and seven touchdowns.
Then there were the punt returns. Lipps returned 78 punts for 827 yards, averaging 10.6 yards per return. Remember, this was the early 1980s. Southern Miss wasn’t operating the type of pass-heavy offense that produces receivers with 100 catches in a season. The Golden Eagles averaged only about 15 passing attempts per game in 1983. Lipps still managed 800 receiving yards.
His production had to be viewed within the football world in which he played.
NFL teams certainly noticed.
The 1984 NFL Draft represented the payoff for the player Southern Miss had taken a chance on four years earlier. With the 23rd overall selection in the first round, the Pittsburgh Steelers selected Louis Lipps. Think about that transformation. A lightly recruited high school quarterback who signed late with Southern Miss had become a first-round NFL wide receiver.
And Lipps didn’t need much time to prove Pittsburgh right. In his NFL debut against Kansas City, he immediately flashed the big-play ability that had made him so dangerous in Hattiesburg.
By the end of his rookie season, Lipps had caught 45 passes for 860 yards and nine touchdowns, averaging 19.1 yards per reception. He also led the NFL with 656 punt-return yards and scored 11 total touchdowns.
He made the Pro Bowl. He earned All-Pro recognition as a returner and was named the 1984 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. Lipps somehow got even better in Year Two. During the 1985 season, he caught 59 passes for 1,134 yards and 12 touchdowns, once again averaging more than 19 yards per reception.
He earned his second consecutive Pro Bowl selection. In an era when Pittsburgh was trying to establish a new identity following the legendary Steelers teams of the 1970s, Lipps became one of the franchise’s biggest offensive weapons.
He would spend eight seasons with Pittsburgh. One of his finest later seasons came in 1988, when he caught 50 passes for 973 yards. He followed that with 944 yards in 1989 and led Pittsburgh in receiving in 1989, 1990 and 1991 after tying for the team lead in 1988.
By the time his Steelers career ended, Lipps had accumulated 358 receptions for 6,018 yards and 39 receiving touchdowns with Pittsburgh.
His final NFL stop brought him close to home. Lipps appeared in two games for the New Orleans Saints in 1992, bringing his professional career full circle back to Louisiana. His overall NFL totals finished at 359 receptions, 6,019 receiving yards and 39 receiving touchdowns.
When Louis Lipps’ playing career ended, he did not return permanently to Louisiana or Mississippi. Instead, he made Pittsburgh home.
The city that had embraced him as a first-round draft pick became the place where he built his life after football. Lipps moved into the mortgage industry and worked as a mortgage banking officer with Steel City Mortgage Services in Pittsburgh.
He also remained connected to the game and the Steelers organization. Over the years, Lipps has participated in alumni events, fantasy camps, charity races, autograph sessions and speaking engagements. In 2013, he helped chair the Steelers’ annual 5K benefiting the Art Rooney Scholarship Fund, and he has frequently returned for team functions and interviews.
That relationship with Pittsburgh remains strong today. Lipps still appears at Steelers events, takes part in interviews about his career and interacts with generations of fans who remember the explosive receiver from Three Rivers Stadium. In April 2026, he was announced as one of several former Steelers scheduled to participate in NFL Draft festivities..
More than 30 years after his final NFL game, Lipps remains a recognizable figure in western Pennsylvania. Steelers fans still occasionally greet him in public with the long, unmistakable cry that once echoed through Three Rivers Stadium:
“Louuuuu.”
For Lipps, Pittsburgh became more than the city where he played football. It became home.
A Golden Eagle Forever
Southern Miss eventually made sure Lipps’ place in school history was permanent. He was inducted into the Southern Miss M-Club Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.
Pittsburgh followed years later.
In 2021, Lipps was selected for the Steelers Hall of Honor, joining the collection of players who helped define one of the NFL’s most storied franchises.
Louis Lipps wasn’t a can’t-miss recruit. Southern Miss discovered a high school quarterback that most major programs weren’t fighting over and brought him to Hattiesburg late in the recruiting process.
Four years later, he left as an honorable mention All-American. Months after that, he was a first-round NFL Draft pick. And before his rookie season was finished, he was the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. More than four decades later, that’s still one of the great player-development stories in Southern Miss football history.
And as Louis Lipps celebrates his 64th birthday this Sunday, it’s worth remembering just how good No. 8 was in black and gold, long before NFL fans discovered him on Sundays.
Southern Miss career: 1980-83
Position: Wide Receiver / Return Specialist
Career receiving: 91 receptions, 1,477 yards, 8 TD
NFL Draft: Pittsburgh Steelers, 1st Round, No. 23 overall (1984)
NFL career: Pittsburgh Steelers (1984-91), New Orleans Saints (1992)
NFL honors: 2× Pro Bowl, 1984 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year
Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame: 1994
Steelers Hall of Honor: 2021
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