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His grandfather would tell his father. His father would tell him.
And Collis Temple III always took it to heart, whether it was about basketball, academics or life in general.
“You can’t get ahead if you stay in the bed,” they would say.
Whether it was hitting an empty early morning gym to shoot a couple hundred jumpers or getting in some extra study time, the kid who was known as CTIII as a basketball player at LSU has always overachieved. At 6-foot-7, he is one of Baton Rouge’s taller successful businessmen.
Like his grandfather and father before him, Collis III is a beacon of education, capped on Jan. 7 when he was appointed by Gov. Bobby Jindal to the Louisiana Board of Regents, which oversees the state’s institutions of higher education.
And if you don’t know the story, there’s some rich academic irony there.
His grandfather, Collis Temple, tried to leave his home in Amite to go to LSU, but the university wasn’t going to allow a black man to do so. So the story goes that LSU actually appropriated funds to pay his way to go to Michigan State.
And then Temple’s son, Collis Jr., was recruited by Press Maravich—father of Pete Maravich—from Kentwood High School and became the first African-American basketball player at LSU. His stories alone of overcoming obstacles and prejudice could fill this magazine. The former pro basketball player is also a successful businessman, influential in many ways in the Baton Rouge area. And very proud of the way education has benefited his three sons—Collis III, Garrett, who’s 28 and an NBA basketball player, and Elliot, who’s 32 and a construction project manager.
“It’s interesting that my grandfather couldn’t come to the flagship university, and now his grandson is helping make decisions about all of higher education in the state of Louisiana,” Collis III says.
Few former athletes could be more suited to have input about academics.
Collis III, a star player at University High, redshirted his second year at LSU. In his five years on campus, he not only graduated in business as a third-year sophomore but also earned his master’s in sports management, holding two degrees as a fifth-year senior.
“Education for the Temple family was in their genes,” says Dale Brown, who inherited Collis Jr. when he took over as the LSU coach in 1972. They remain best of friends.
“The day Collis Temple III was born [on Sept. 1, 1979], I sent him a full scholarship,” Brown says proudly. “I wrote him a letter and said that knowing your grandfather, knowing your father and mother, from this day I offer you a full, four-year scholarship at LSU. He’s still got the papers.”
Brown was retired by the time Collis III got to LSU, yet not only followed his career but also that of his younger brother Garrett, whose time at LSU included a trip to the 2006 Final Four. Garrett is now a pro player and a fixture for the Washington Wizards.
Both were renowned for outworking everyone and maximizing their physical skills. Collis III, now 35, did the same in the classroom, where he credits his mother, Soundra, as much as his dad.
“She instilled in me that ‘how you do anything is how you do everything.’ So if I was in it, I wanted to compete in it. That carried over into everything.”
His wife, the former Britney Hurst, a Baton Rougean who graduated from Tulane, is pregnant with their third child. Collis III is the national sales director for Primerica, recruiting and training to build financial agencies.
“He had a lot of determination and understood that academic achievement was far more important than athletics, although athletics are important, too,” says the 62-year-old Collis Jr., who earned his master’s in education in 1979.
Accordingly, his son is “extremely grateful” for having those values instilled in him by his grandfather, who passed away in June 1996, and Collis Jr.
“I would not have the lifestyle that I have,” he says. “[That] lifestyle is because of what I do and how I think, and that came from them.”
