Remembering History: 1968 the year Rosa A. Temple High Buccaneers went undefeated

VICKSBURG, Miss. (VDN) — Rosa A. Temple High School was known for many things, one of which is the story of the undefeated 1968 boys’ basketball team that continues to be a huge part of Warren County’s history more than five decades later.

From 1959 to 1971, Temple High School was recognized for its athletic achievements. The boys’ basketball team lived up to that standard, going undefeated in 1968.

By the start of the 1968 season, the Buccaneers were the defending state champions. Head coach Lavern McClelland and assistant coach Belton Dent led a roster that included starters Carl Jackson, Marshall Sanders, Harold Gibson, Robert Jones, and Robert Ferguson.

Jackson and Sanders were the team’s top scorers, while Jimmy Larry contributed off the bench. The Buccaneers went 29–0 and won the Big 8 Championship. Despite segregation and limited media coverage of Black high school sports, the Buccaneers’ dominance was widely known in Mississippi.

Several members of the team went on to play at the collegiate level. Jackson played for St. Bonaventure and was inducted into the school’s hall of fame in 2001. Sanders captained the Harvard University basketball team, and Ferguson played at Millsaps.

McClelland won Coach of the Year three times. He died in 2013, one day before his 81st birthday, and remains the last boys’ basketball coach in Vicksburg to have an undefeated varsity season.

Student worker Walter Wright spoke about McClelland in a 2020 interview with VDN.

“Everything he touched, he won,” Wright said. “He is one of the best coaches of all time, and I put him on a higher level than John Wooden.”