The Hound Dogs name is an homage to Tupelo's best-known native, the "King of Rock 'n Roll" Elvis Presley, in particular his cover version of "Hound Dog", which became that song's best-known version and one of Presley's best-known recordings in general.[3] (They are the second football team to use the name in homage to Presley; the first, the Memphis Hound Dogs, was a proposed NFL expansion team that was not accepted to the league upon its expansion in 1995.)
On August 16, 2011 the team announced that Martino Theus would be the team's first ever head coach.[4] On March 20, 2012, head coach Martino Theus was fired after an 0-3 start for the Hound Dogs.[5] Former indoor player, Eric Bingham was hired as his replacement.[6] However, when the UIFL stepped in when owner Marty Cooper couldn't afford the team, the UIFL took over the team and named Martino Theus the head coach once again.[7] The Hound Dogs cancelled all remaining home games, but fulfilled all their remaining road games.
On April 24, 2012, the league announced that it had taken over operations of the Mississippi Hound Dogs due to financial difficulty,[8] and modified their schedule to make them a travel-only squad.[9]
There were several changes to the schedule made when the league took over operations of the Hound Dogs. The May 14 game against the Western Pennsylvania Sting was cancelled, and the May 26 game against the Florida Tarpons was originally scheduled to be a home game, but the schedule was changed to play the game in Florida.
