Jessie Marshall

Jesse Marshall Meant Double Trouble for
Centenary Basketball Opponents

Jesse Marshall is the first African-American to play sports at Centenary College. He broke the color barrier in the basketball season of 1968 and along the way probably broke the hearts (and maybe some bones) of players on many opposing teams.

Belying his demeanor off the basketball courts, Jesse (6-foot-7 and 225 pounds) was a rough and ready guy under the backboards on the court. In his first year at the Kings Highway campus, Jesse averaged basketball's coveted double-double per game (double figures in two phases of the game). He scored 15.9 points and grabbed 10.2 rebounds each time he suited up for a game.

But Orvis Sigler, former coach and athletic director at Centenary, points out things might have been different. When scouts watched Jesse play they marveled at his explosive dunks. "In his first season with us, the NCAA outlawed the dunk shot," Sigler laments.

Marshall began his basketball career at Princeton High School in the eastern part of Bossier Parish, playing for Coach John Crockett. He was a starter for four seasons for Crockett. Coach Floyd Wagstaff signed him to play for Tyler (Texas) Junior College, where he fit into the school's proud basketball tradition. Jesse was named the Most Valuable Player in the Apaches' region of the National Junior College Athletic Association.

When Centenary College's new Basketball Coach Joe Swank went looking for talent before the 1968 season, he convinced Marshall to return closer to home. Marshall became the lone player from Louisiana on Swank's first Centenary team.

Marshall is one of 22 Centenary College players with over 500 career rebounds to his credit, 505 in 52 games over two seasons, a 9.9 per game average.

The NCAA's dunking ban lasted from 1967 until 1976. Given Jesse's 15-point scoring average as a Gent, Centenary fans are left to wonder what his stats might have been if the rules makers hadn't horned in.