Business, Culture and Media 2022

Mississippi's Top 50 Most Influential

Wright Thompson is a senior writer for ESPN, executive producer of TrueSouth, a contributor to The Atlantic. He has covered a wide range of sports issues, from football, basketball, and baseball, to car racing, sports history, and bullfighting.

Thompson’s 2010 article Ghosts of Mississippi inspired the 2012 ESPN 30 for 30 series documentary film The Ghosts of Ole Miss, which he narrated, about the 1962 football team’s perfect season and concurrent violence and rioting over integration of the segregated university by James Meredith. He also narrated the ESPN 30 for 30 film Roll Tide/War Eagle.

He is also the author of The Cost of These Dreams and Pappyland. Thompson is a native of Clarksdale, and now lives with his family in Oxford.

Mississippi Top 50 is an annual list of the people who are judged to be the most influential leaders in the state. This bipartisan selection of leaders comes from the ranks of elected and appointed officials, economic development professionals, business, media and government affairs. The awards are presented by Y'all Politics and WJTV, and sponsored by Kinetic Staffing, Mississippi Farm Bureau, Capitol Resources, Tower Loan and The Payne Group. Awardees were nominated through an open process. Follow MSTop50 on Twitter @MSTop50 or on Facebook to keep up with news and updates about MSTop50 winners and events.

The 8th Annual Mississippi Top 50 will be held March 12, 2025. Nominations are now open through January 20th.

Business, Culture and Media 2022