From California to Michigan and points in between, former Rosa A. Temple High School athletes laughed, hugged and reminisced about their time at one of the most athletically rich schools in Mississippi.

A tribute to how the Temple High Bucs became such a force in the Magnolia State Activities Association Big Eight Conference from the mid 1960s, one only had to look at coaches who came back to see their former players. It included a list of Who’s Who among the great Southwestern Athletic Conference football coaches like Jackson State’s W.C. Gorden, Alabama State’s Houston Markham and Texas Southern’s Hyland Adams.

Before they became known in the SWAC, all three were head coaches at Temple.

The school, which is now Vicksburg Junior High, stayed open from 1959-1971 when the schools in Vicksburg were integrated.

The legend of the Buccaneers, though, still lives.

&#8220I’ve coached at Tennessee State and Texas Southern and I’ve now been practicing law for 30 years, but Temple High is where my heart is,” said Adams, who helped start the Bucs on their winning path as the football coach in 1963-64.

Gorden coached for 10 years at Pike County AHS (now South Pike) before being hired by Temple principal James E. Stirgus in 1966. Gorden led the Bucs to their first Big 8 state title with a perfect 11-0 season.

&#8220I was very fortunate to have 13 seniors who had a lot of talent. We also had a great quarterback in Bill Triplett and he led us to an undefeated season,” Gorden said.

Triplett went on to gain fame as the starting quarterback at Michigan State University in 1968-69. He was one of the first black football players out of Mississippi to gain notice nationally.

Triplett said it started in high school because Temple’s strength as a team caught the eye of then Vicksburg Evening Post sports editor Billy Ray.

&#8220Mr. Ray was pretty progressive for his time and it was a very significant thing for him to name me the MVP of the County in football,” Triplett said.

Gorden agreed.

&#8220Back then, most of the black schools got very little in the way of coverage. Billy Ray covered Temple High School. We got us a lot of publicity and people knew about us,” Gorden said.

Triplett was able to meet a friend of coach Bob Devaney, who later turned Nebraska into a national power. Devaney was working at the time for Duffy Daugherty at Michigan State. Daughtery met Triplett after he gave a speech at St. Aloysius and later signed him to a football scholarship.

&#8220Getting to play at Michigan State was great. I started at quarterback my sophomore year and we beat Notre Dame. Our only loss in the Big Ten was to Ohio State, 25-21, and they were No. 1 in the nation,” Triplett said.

Markham, who was an assistant to Gorden at Temple, said Triplett was special.

&#8220He was a runner even though we didn’t run the option. We would just roll him out and he was such a good passer,” Markham said. &#8220It was a thrill for me to see him play on TV against Notre Dame and Ohio State.”

&#8220The coaches there cared about our well being,” he said.

Vicksburg attorney Marshall Sanders helped lead the Bucs to back-to-back Magnolia State hoops titles in 1967 and 1968. The 1968 team went 29-0 against a national schedule.

&#8220I dare say, there’s never been another undefeated team since then. Not in Vicksburg,” Sanders said.

The 6-foot-5 forward, though, was more than just a talented player. The teachers and administrators like Stirgus, showed him the importance of education. Sanders attended Harvard.

&#8220There was a system in place that demanded excellence from the choir to the track team. The teachers were tops. We had the mindset that we had to be the best,” said Sanders, who’s been an attorney in Vicksburg for 28 years.

Master of Ceremonies Ron Queen, who played for Adams, said the coaches instilled pride early on.

Even the school’s first white baseball coach, Melvin Whitfield, learned how special Temple was.

&#8220I was an educated redneck from an all-white school at Mississippi College. But I needed a job. Mr. Stirgus hired me and I’m thankful he did. It was and is the best high school I ever worked at,” Whitfield said.

Even though Templs has been closed for more than 30 years, Queen evoked memories throughout the event.

&#8220We were the thrill on the hill,” Queen told his audience. &#8220There was something going on at Temple High.”