VWSD Athletic Hall of Fame to induct seven new members on Thursday

Published 11:00 am Tuesday, August 30, 2022

Seven Warren County sports legends will take their place in history Thursday night when they are inducted into the Vicksburg Warren School District Athletic Hall of Fame.

Coaches Dellie C. Robinson and Robert Erves, basketball stars Kelvin Reed and Donna Brown-Wynn, football players Arthur “Bobo” Harris and Jimmy Sweet, and baseball player Bowen Woodson will comprise the Hall’s Class of 2022.

The group will be inducted Thursday at 6 p.m., at City Auditorium. Tickets to the induction banquet $20 and are available in advance at the VWSD athletic department office or at the door on Thursday night. Payment at the door is by cash or check only.

Email newsletter signup

Sign up for The Vicksburg Post's free newsletters

Check which newsletters you would like to receive
  • Vicksburg News: Sent daily at 5 am
  • Vicksburg Sports: Sent daily at 10 am
  • Vicksburg Living: Sent on 15th of each month

The inductees will also be honored during Friday’s Vicksburg vs. Warren Central football game at Warren Central’s Viking Stadium. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are available through GoFan.co.

The Class of 2022 will bring to 45 the number of athletes and coaches who have been inducted to the VWSD Athletic Hall of Fame since it was founded in 2016.

Here is a look at this year’s inductees:
• Dellie C. Robinson, the longtime Vicksburg High boys’ basketball coach, headlines the group. He led the Gators to the 2003 MHSAA Class 5A championship, and to the state championship game in 2011 and 2014 during a 25-year run.
Robinson won nearly 800 games in almost 30 years as a coach at Vicksburg and Canton High School. He was at VHS from 1992 to 2017 and won more than 400 games there.

• While Robinson was known as one of the best basketball coaches in Mississippi, Robert Erves made his mark on the coaching world as a versatile jack of all trades.

Erves coached Vicksburg’s football, track and powerlifting teams at levels ranging from eighth grade to varsity for nearly 30 years. He had an undefeated season with Vicksburg’s eighth-grade football team and led the school’s powerlifting team to the MHSAA Class 5A championship in 2003.

Erves also had a standout football career as a student in the VWSD. He played at Temple High School, then Warren Central from 1969-72, before starring at Mississippi Valley State.

• Arthur “Bobo” Harris was a star football player and track athlete for Vicksburg High in the early 1980s and went on to play football at Southern Miss.

Harris, the Gators’ quarterback his senior year, played in the 1982 Mississippi All-Star Game and was an all-state selection at three different positions. He was also selected as the student-athlete of the year in Mississippi.

• Kelvin Reed was one of Warren Central’s top boys basketball players in the late 1980s. He led the Vikings in scoring as a sophomore, and steals and assists as a junior and senior, and was twice selected to The Vicksburg Post’s All-County team.

Reed averaged 15 points, 7 assists and 3 steals per game over three varsity seasons.

After high school, Reed moved on to Pensacola Junior College in Florida. He set the school’s assists record and led the team to the 1993 NJCAA Division I national championship.

• Jimmy Sweet was a standout football player and track athlete at Temple and North Vicksburg from 1970-73.

Sweet was part of the Temple team that won the 1970 Red Carpet Bowl and Black Big 8 championship, and then scored 18 touchdowns in three seasons at North Vicksburg.

After his playing career, Sweet spent 28 years working for the Vicksburg Police Department and was involved in a number of community organizations and programs.

• Bowen Woodson was an outstanding two-sport athlete for Vicksburg High from 2005-08.

In baseball he was a first-team all-state and Mississippi all-star selection, batted over .400 twice, and led the Gators to the MHSAA Class 4A championship series in 2008.

In soccer, Woodson was an all-state goal keeper and The Vicksburg Post Player of the Year in 2008. In the 2007-08 season he posted seven shutouts as the Gators reached the Class 4A semifinals.

Woodson went on to play baseball at Tulane. He played six positions in his career and started 149 games over four seasons.
Woodson was also a two-time member of the Conference USA All-Academic team and is working toward his Ph.D in civil engineering at the University of Texas.

• Donna Brown-Wynn was a three-sport athlete — basketball, track and field and softball — at Vicksburg High. She was the softball team’s MVP in 1989 and won state championships in track in several events, but excelled the most in basketball.

Brown-Wynn played at Mississippi State and was a four-year starter at point guard. She set an MSU record for 3-pointers in a game that stood for nearly 20 years.

After her playing career, Brown-Wynn went into coaching. She spent two years as an assistant at Mississippi State, then 13 more on the staff at Belmont University in Nashville.

Since 2003, Brown-Wynn has returned to her hometown each summer to host the week-long Play 2 Wynn basketball camp.

VWSD Hall of Fame inductees
c-Coach
Class of 2016
Tony Smith (Warren Central football)
Carl Blue (Warren Central football)
Sean Brewer (Warren Central football)
Cynthia Hall (Vicksburg basketball)
Barry Hassell (Vicksburg tennis)

Class of 2017
Michael Phelps (Vicksburg basketball)
Taylor Tankersley (Warren Central baseball)
c-Robert Morgan (Warren Central football)
Eddie Burns (Vicksburg football)
George Nasif (Vicksburg foootball)
Mary Logue (Warren Central basketball)
Jackie Pettway (Warren Central softball)

Class of 2018
c-Lucy Young (Warren Central softball, soccer)
c-Houston Markham, Jr. (Vicksburg football)
Michael Dottorey (Vicksburg football)
Sylvester Stamps (Vicksburg football)
Monique Varnado (Vicksburg track and field)

Class of 2019
Jay Hopson (Warren Central football)
James Jones (Vicksburg football)
Michael Sweet (Vicksburg football)
Justin Henry (Vicksburg baseball)
Jackie Martin-Glass (Warren Central basketball)
Gates Weaver (vicksburg soccer)

Class of 2020
Brian Darden (Warren Central football)
c-Cardell Jones (Vicksburg football)
Jamie Greer
c-Bobby Huell (Vicksburg football)
Kenneth Johnson (Warren Central football)
Makitta Wynn
Richard Blackmore (Vicksburg football)
Leo Cage (Warren Central football)

Class of 2021
Lum Wright Jr. (Warren Central football)
Keith Wright (Warren Central football)
Larry Carter (Warren Central football)
Marvin Flowers (Vicksburg football)
Casey Younger (Vicksburg football)
c-James W. Knox (Vicksburg football)
Jordan Henry (Vicksburg baseball)

Class of 2022
c-Robert Lee Erves, Jr. (Vicksburg football/powerlifting)
Arthur “Bobo” Harris (Vicksburg football)
Kelvin Reed (Warren Central basketball)
c-Dellie C. Robinson (Vicksburg basketball)
Jimmy Sweet (Temple/North Vicksburg football
Bowen Woodson (Vicksburg baseball/soccer)
Donna Brown-Wynn (Vicksburg basketball/track/softball)

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

email author More by Ernest