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Business executive to be honored for lifelong contributions to Mississippi sports

Jackson, Miss., (June 13, 2019) – C Spire CEO Hu Meena will receive the 2019 Rube Award for his lifetime contributions to Magnolia state sports, according to the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, which announced his selection Wednesday.

Meena will receive the award Aug. 3 at the 2019 Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame induction banquet presented by Sanderson Farms at the Jackson Convention Center. The Rube Award is named for the late Michael Rubenstein, the executive director of the MSHOF and Museum for its first 16 years of operation and a passionate advocate for the state’s sports heroes and traditions.

As the longtime CEO of Mississippi-based C Spire, Meena oversees an innovative and growing telecommunications and technology services company that provides wireless voice and data, a suite of advanced ultra-fast broadband internet services to consumers and data, cloud and managed services to businesses across the Southeast.

A native of Clarksdale in the Mississippi Delta, Meena grew up playing sports and has been a life-long coach, teacher and fan of high school, college and professional sports in the Magnolia state. During his time with C Spire, the company has become one of the leading supporters of Mississippi sports activities and programs at all levels.

“Whether it is playing sports, coaching youth sports or supporting sports-related events and programs, Hu has worked his entire life to shine a bright light on our state and tell the incredible story of how sports is so inextricably tied to our culture, our way of life and our rich traditions,” said Bill Blackwell, executive director of the MSHOF.

Blackwell said Meena’s selection by the MSHOF board of directors was guided, in part, by the executive’s passionate involvement in Mississippi sports through time and resources and the special, long lasting impact C Spire, under his leadership, has made on local, state and national sports programs and activities.

C Spire has been heavily involved in sports at the high school, college and professional levels for over 30 years, providing millions of dollars in donations through its private, non-profit Foundation to support scholarships, activities and programs that give student-athletes the opportunity to succeed in the classroom, on the field and in life.

In perhaps the biggest ground-breaking program, Meena led efforts through The Gameplan to work with the Mississippi Department of Education and the Mississippi High School Activities Association to provide web-based and on-site workshops and curriculum to help thousands of high school student-athletes succeed and attend college so they could pursue their dreams.

A second major initiative under his watch – the award-winning Y’all vs. Us-Bright Lights Football program – changed the face of high school football in the Magnolia state and across the country through original sports programming and content featuring live, prime-time telecasts of local, regional and national high school rivalries.

Blackwell said C Spire has a long history of support, involvement and sponsorship for high school and college sports and athletics, including the state’s public and private high schools, the eight publicly funded colleges and universities, historically black universities and colleges, private institutions and community colleges.

In conjunction with the MSHOF, C Spire has been the title sponsor of the C Spire Outstanding Player Awards program for 22 years. Each year, the state’s outstanding college player in football, men’s and women’s basketball and baseball is recognized and honored for excellence by coaches, fans and scouts.

This will be the 8th presentation of the Rube Award. Previous winners are Dave “Boo” Ferris, Ben Puckett, Archie Manning, George Bryan, Gov. William Winter, Ron Polk, and Tyrone Keys.

About C Spire
C Spire is a diversified telecommunications and technology services company that provides world-class, customer-inspired wireless communications, 1 Gigabit consumer Internet access as well as a full suite of dedicated Internet, wireless, IP Voice, data, cloud and managed services for businesses. This news release and other announcements are available at www.cspire.com/news. For more information about C Spire, visit www.cspire.com or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cspire or Twitter at www.twitter.com/cspire.