Clarksdale, Mississippi (99-acre campus on Friars Point Road, 4 miles north of Clarksdale, along the Mississippi River) · Founded 1949 · Tigers
“A Delta-grown HBCU junior college where the Marching Maroon Typhoon rolls, the choir gets congressional shoutouts, and Tiger Nation runs the yard on Friars Point Road.”
Killa Kev Productions 4K footage of the Marching Maroon Typhoon in a full field run — the definitive look at the band at the end of the 2010s.
Drumline showdown: Coahoma's 'CorrupCion' percussion section battles Lane College's 'Bloody Rain' — the kind of battle footage HBCU band fans live for.
The 2018 edition of the Lane vs. Coahoma percussion battle — a year earlier, same rivalry, snares and tenors going at it.
The Typhoon vs. Fort Valley State's band at the Endymion parade, Mardi Gras in New Orleans 2019 — Coahoma's band on the biggest parade stage in the country.
The band and the Coahoma Jewels performing 'Feels Like Summer' in 2019 — a fan-favorite musical moment from the stands era.
The band — then still billed as the 'Marching Tiger' Band — performing at the 2016 Craigmont High School Battle of the Bands in Memphis, TN. A window into the pre-Buggs era.
Highlights of EMCC's 72–7 win over Coahoma on Homecoming, October 21, 2017 — the roughest modern loss, and part of the honest record.
September 28, 2013: EMCC's 90–7 Homecoming win over Coahoma tied the NJCAA record for most points scored in a game — infamous, but historic.
Gulf Coast's season-opening win over Coahoma, with postgame interviews — a look at the Tigers from the opponent's lens.
Itawamba's 44–10 homecoming win over Coahoma, with a late 28-yard Tiger field goal — Coahoma on the road in a hostile homecoming environment.
Itawamba's pregame show previewing the Coahoma matchup on homecoming — how the rest of the MACCC talks about the Tigers.
Jones 27, Coahoma 14 (September 2026) — the most recent season's game footage, the Tigers defending Miller Stadium.
NFL cornerback and return specialist (Jacksonville Jaguars); came through the Tigers program before Memphis.
NFL linebacker (Philadelphia Eagles, Denver Broncos); developed at Coahoma before starring at Colorado.
Former professional basketball player of the 1970s era, one of the school's earliest pro athletes.
Member of the Mississippi House of Representatives — Coahoma's most prominent political alumnus.
Former NCAA Division I basketball player, part of the Tigers' pipeline to four-year hoops programs.
No further notable alumni could be verified from the sources checked (Wikipedia, Princeton Review, school news, BET's HBCU 104 list). Coahoma's alumni records are thin online; additional names were not confirmed and are not claimed here.
In 1924, Coahoma County became the first county in Mississippi to provide an agricultural high school for Negroes, establishing Coahoma County Agricultural High School in the Delta. The school's own history counts this as its birth — the institution that would grow into the college. It opened under superintendent M. L. Strange, serving Black students in one of the most segregated corners of Mississippi.
J. W. Addison led the school from 1929 to 1937, followed by J. B. Wright from 1937 to 1945, guiding it through the Great Depression and the World War II years. The campus grew slowly through the 1930s and early 40s as the agricultural high school became a fixture of Black education in Coahoma County. These were lean decades when the school survived on county funding and community will.
In 1945, B. F. McLaurin became superintendent, beginning a 21-year tenure that would define the institution. McLaurin steered the school through the post-war years and the birth of the junior college, becoming the man the college still calls its first president. His name went on the vocational-technical center (1969), and his late wife Sezzie McLaurin was honored with a residence hall. The school's identity was built in his image.
In 1949, Coahoma County founded Coahoma Junior College alongside the agricultural high school, making it one of the first public junior colleges for Black students in the Deep South. The first year of operation was supported entirely by county funds. During the first two years (1949–1950), the college program was run by one full-time college director-teacher and part-time teachers borrowed from the high school division. It was a bootstrap operation from day one.
In 1950, Coahoma Junior College became the first educational institution for Negroes to be included in Mississippi's system of public junior colleges. That admission mattered enormously — it moved the school from a purely county-funded experiment into the state's official higher-education structure, with access to state dollars and legitimacy. For a Black school in Jim Crow Mississippi, it was a landmark step won by persistence, not goodwill.
In 1965, Coahoma Junior College opened its doors to all students regardless of race, color, sex, national origin, or disability, in the wake of the Civil Rights Act and the desegregation battles of the 1960s. The school's history records the year plainly, but the change happened in a county where white resistance to integration was fierce. The campus continued to serve its historic Black community while formally becoming open to everyone.
In 1966, J. E. Miller succeeded McLaurin, leading the school through 1979 — thirteen years of growth in the post-desegregation era. Under Miller, the campus expanded its facilities, including a new football stadium that would later carry his name. A 2012 alumni yearbook profile recalled Miller saying he was 'proud to have stood on the shoulders of McLaurin, and proud to be at the helm in this period of growth and progress.'
In 1979, the James E. Miller Stadium was constructed on campus, named for the second president, and became the home field of the Tigers. The 2,500-seat stadium gave Coahoma football a permanent home and has hosted decades of homecomings, Delta rivalry games, and Friday-night lights in the Mississippi Delta. It was completely renovated in the 1997–98 school year with a new entrance building for ticket sales, concessions, and restrooms.
In 1980, McKinley C. Martin became superintendent/president and led the institution through 1992. His tenure spanned the 1980s recession and the long transition from a junior college with a high school attached into a modern community college. Buildings rose in this era — the Sezzie McLaurin Residence Hall went up in 1983–84, and the tornado-damaged child care training building was rebuilt in 1988 — as the campus took its modern shape.
Effective July 1, 1989, the Board of Trustees and the State Board for Community and Junior Colleges approved the name change from Coahoma Junior College to Coahoma Community College. The new name reflected what the school had become: a comprehensive community college serving the whole Delta, not just a two-year transfer school. Everything from the seal to the stationery changed with it.
On January 6, 1992, Dr. Vivian M. Presley was appointed superintendent/president, becoming the first female to head Coahoma Community College and Agricultural High School and the first woman ever to head a community or junior college in the state of Mississippi. Her appointment was a statewide milestone for Black women in Mississippi higher education. She would lead the college for more than two decades, through its district expansion and into the modern era. Around the same time, the 4,000-seat arena known as The Pinnacle was constructed (1992–93), giving Tiger basketball and graduations a real home.
In the spring of 1995, after many years without an official district, a bill was introduced and passed by the Mississippi Legislature and signed by Governor Kirk Fordice giving Coahoma Community College a formal tax district. Effective July 1, 1995, the district became Bolivar, Coahoma, Quitman, Tallahatchie, and Tunica counties. For the first time, the college had a stable, multi-county tax base — the financial foundation it operates on to this day.
In 2002, the campus added the George W. Moore Residence Hall — a modern, handicap-accessible two-story men's dormitory housing 120 students, named for former instructor and administrator George W. Moore — and the George A. Green Athletic Field House, named for former football coach George Green, with two dressing rooms, a weight room, meeting room, offices, and medical room. The Student Affairs Multi-Complex followed in 2003 with campus police, student health, mail, laundry, and the Fitness and Wellness Center. It was the most concentrated building push in the college's history.
In 2007, the college opened a 26,000-square-foot state-of-the-art Allied Health Training Center, housing the Respiratory Care, Practical Nursing, and Associate Degree Nursing programs. The building anchored the health-sciences push that has become one of Coahoma's signature strengths — its nursing and allied health programs are now among its most recognized offerings, drawing students from across the five-county district.
Dr. Vivian Presley retired at the end of June 2013 after 38 years at Coahoma, celebrated with a week of events including a Delta Blues Museum reception and a black-tie gala at the Isle of Capri. The Board of Trustees named Dr. Valmadge Towner of Marks as the college's fifth president; Towner, a Coahoma alumnus, former trustee, and DeSoto County schools administrator, took office in July 2013. 'I look forward to the challenges and opportunities of serving my alma mater,' he said. He remains president today.
From 2014 to 2017, Dr. Kerry Anne Simon served as assistant director of bands at Coahoma, working under the MMT program before joining Mississippi Valley State in August 2017. On May 14, 2019, she was appointed band director at MVSU — the first woman band director in school history and the first female band director in SWAC history. Her formative years leading sections and drilling students at Coahoma were part of the path that made history at Valley.
In September 2018, the Delta rivalry with Mississippi Delta Community College produced one of the wildest finishes in either program's history. Coahoma led 26–20 with four seconds left at Jim Randall Stadium in Moorhead; Mississippi Delta quarterback Tyrique McAfee hit Raheem Moore on a 48-yard Hail Mary touchdown as time expired, and Spencer Romero's extra point gave the Trojans a 27–26 win. Two years earlier, Coahoma had ended a three-year losing streak to Delta in Moorhead — the rivalry never lacks for drama.
In fall 2021, the college named Eddie L. Buggs Jr. as the new director of the Marching Maroon Typhoon Band. Buggs, a Morris Brown College graduate with roughly 19 years of post-secondary directing experience — including assistant director at Mississippi Valley State and director of bands at Mississippi Delta Community College — was brought in to rebuild and raise the program. In 2023, he was named the college's Humanities Teacher of the Year, a sign of how quickly he became a campus fixture.
On December 27, 2022, Coahoma named Terrence Metcalf — a Clarksdale native, consensus first-team All-American at Ole Miss (2001), and third-round 2002 NFL Draft pick who played seven seasons and went to Super Bowl XLI with the Chicago Bears — as its new head football coach. Metcalf had joined the staff in summer 2022 as offensive line coach, and in his first season the Tigers led the MACCC in rushing at 198.9 yards per game. Bringing a hometown Super Bowl veteran home to lead the Tigers was one of the biggest coaching hires in school history.
Beginning with Mardi Gras 2023 in New Orleans, the Marching Maroon Typhoon under Eddie Buggs became a fixture of Mardi Gras season, marching the multi-mile parade routes in New Orleans (2023, 2024 — including the Krewe of Nomtoc parade) and Mobile, Alabama (2024, 2025 — including the Mammoth parade). Buggs has said the goal is to grow the invitations bigger: 'the goal is to expand our visits and get invited to even bigger parades such as Macy's, the Rose Bowl Parade, or D-Day Parade in France.' The band also earned a donation from the Southern Poverty Law Center's 'Mississippi Got Now' initiative for the largest school turnout at a voter-awareness event.
On November 8–9, 2025, the Marching Maroon Typhoon performed as the featured collegiate exhibition band at The Grand Royale Marching Invitational in Austell, Georgia — a major milestone for the program, sharing the field with some of the nation's elite high school bands. Earlier that fall, Homecoming 2025 packed a week with tradition: Dawning of the Tigers, the Sidewalk Art Competition, Battle of the Classes, Gospel Fest, a student concert featuring Dee Mula, a Presidential Gala headlined by Gary 'Lil G' Jenkins of Silk, the downtown Clarksdale parade, and the Tigers facing East Mississippi at Miller Stadium. Fall 2022 enrollment stood at 3,122.
In 2026, Congressman Bennie G. Thompson recognized the Coahoma Community College Choir for representing Mississippi on a global stage — the choir was scheduled to perform 'Amazing Grace' accompanied by a 300-piece international orchestra as part of the acknowledgment of the United States. President Towner called the college's choral music program, led by Dr. Kelvin Towers, a 'prestigious tradition' built by generations of students. Under Towers's leadership, the choir has become one of the institution's most visible ensembles, a fitting bookend to a school that has always treated music as central to its identity.
The school's own athletics site calls it the Delta Rivalry Game: two Delta junior colleges — Coahoma in Clarksdale, Mississippi Delta in Moorhead — playing for the northern Delta. The series has produced modern classics: in 2018, Mississippi Delta beat Coahoma 27–26 in Moorhead on a 48-yard Hail Mary touchdown as time expired; in 2019, Delta stunned Coahoma 29–27 at Coahoma's Homecoming with a game-winning TD with 8:02 left; in 2021, Coahoma won 21–6 on Homecoming at Miller Stadium with a 'lights out' defensive performance; and in 2022 the Tigers rolled 47–10 in Moorhead to go 3–0. Turnovers, heartbreakers, and blowouts — it's the game circled on both calendars every year.
EMCC is the MACCC's powerhouse, and Coahoma has mostly been on the wrong end of this one — but the losses are part of the school's story. In 2013, EMCC's 90–7 Homecoming win over Coahoma tied the NJCAA record for most points scored in a game; in 2017, EMCC won 72–7 over Coahoma on Homecoming. Facing the Lions (the Last Chance U program) is the measuring stick, and Coahoma's 2025 Homecoming game against East Mississippi drew a packed Miller Stadium crowd despite the mismatch.
A competitive North Division matchup with recent history on Coahoma's side: the Tigers opened the 2020 season with a 37–23 upset win at Itawamba in Fulton — head coach Travis Macon's first win — in front of a sold-out crowd, and later beat ICC 44–10 in a homecoming matchup. These games have become the statement wins of Coahoma's modern football rebuild.
🥁 Marching Maroon Typhoon (MMT)
The Marching Maroon Typhoon is Coahoma's public face — Buggs calls it the college's primary public-relations ambassador, representing the school, Clarksdale, the Delta, and Mississippi wherever it marches. The band is known nationally among HBCU band circles (filmed extensively by Killa Kev Productions in 4K), fields the Coahoma Jewels dance team, and drills year-round for Mardi Gras-length parades. Its historic claim — Consuella Carter's 'greatest band in the South' and her flying split for majorettes — gives the modern Typhoon a legacy to live up to.
The school's first full-time music director, namesake of the Barron-Miller Center for Fine Arts. Built the music program in its early decades.
A legendary figure in the band's history: a 2012 alumni yearbook recalled that when Carter directed the bands, 'we had the greatest band in the South.' She is credited with inventing the flying split for majorettes. Under her, Coahoma's band played the groundbreaking of Mississippi Valley State College, a Mound Bayou welcome celebration for Congressman Dawson featuring gospel great Mahalia Jackson, the national COGIC convention, and the Memphis Cotton Carnival.
Served as assistant director of bands at Coahoma from 2014 to 2017 before joining Mississippi Valley State, where she became the first female band director in MVSU history and the first female band director in SWAC history in 2019. Her Coahoma years were her proving ground.
Named director of the Marching Maroon Typhoon in fall 2021. A Morris Brown College graduate with ~19 years of post-secondary experience, previously assistant director at Mississippi Valley State, pep band director there, and director of bands at Mississippi Delta Community College. Rebuilt the program into a Mardi Gras-season fixture (New Orleans and Mobile, 2023–2025), earned an SPLC 'Mississippi Got Now' donation for voter-engagement turnout, took the band to the Grand Royale Marching Invitational in Georgia (2025), and was named CCC's 2023 Humanities Teacher of the Year.
No Greek-letter organizations; no Divine Nine chapter at Coahoma Community College appears on any of the nine national chapter rosters (all nine checked), and no chapter activity could be verified in the school's catalogs, news releases, or athletics pages. As a community college, organized Greek life is effectively absent here.
Still digging this up — check back soon.
Built in 1969 and named for the school's first president, housing industrial trades — hotel restaurant management, industrial maintenance, carpentry, welding, culinary arts, and automotive technology. The anchor of Coahoma's career-technical mission for over half a century.
Constructed in 1978 and named for a 30-plus-year Board of Trustees member and board president. Houses career-technical offices, collision repair technology, and culinary arts — the hands-on trade programs the Delta workforce actually needs.
The 2,500-seat football stadium opened in 1979, named for president J. E. Miller, and remains the Tigers' home field. Completely renovated in the 1997–98 school year with a new 1,678-square-foot entrance building with ticket sales, concessions, and restrooms.
Built during the 1983–84 school year and named for the late wife of first president B. F. McLaurin. A two-story dormitory housing 52 female students, with lounges, lobbies, and kitchenettes — the campus's long-standing women's housing.
A campus building heavily damaged by a tornado in 1984 was completely renovated in 1988 to house the Child Care Training Center — a recovery story the school still notes in its catalogs.
Originally constructed in 1965 as a small gymnasium for the high school, the building was renovated in 1990–91 into the fine arts center, named for the school's first full-time music director Zee Barron and president J. E. Miller. It now houses the Henry Dorsey Studio, Thomas A. Richardson Studio, Georgia A. Lewis Theater, Eddie Mae Jackson Drama Laboratory, and Miriam Green Writer and Artist Laboratory.
Constructed in 1992–93, this 34,474-square-foot arena seats more than 4,000 for basketball games, graduations, and community cultural events, with four classrooms, athletic dressing rooms, a permanent stage, a press box, and a videotaping area. It is the largest venue on campus and the site of everything from hoops to Homecoming concerts.
Originally built in 1992 in the Coahoma County Industrial Park on Highway 49 and expanded in 1997; renamed in 2015 for alumnus, former instructor, and board member Ned Gath Wright. Houses adult basic education/GED, workforce training, and customized training for business and industry.
Built in 1997 on the south end of campus east of Friars Point Road — a 4,252-square-foot one-story frame home that houses the college president, a visible symbol of the institution's permanence.
A modern, handicap-accessible two-story men's dormitory housing 120 students, named for the late former instructor and administrator George W. Moore. Built as suites, it doubled the quality of men's housing on campus.
Named for former football coach George Green, with two dressing rooms, a state-of-the-art weight room, meeting room, three offices, reception area, laundry room, and medical room — the Tigers' football operations home.
A state-of-the-art facility housing campus police, student health services, student laundry, student mail, and the Fitness and Wellness Center — consolidating student life services under one roof.
A 26,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility for Respiratory Care, Practical Nursing, Associate Degree Nursing, and other allied health programs — the physical foundation of Coahoma's nursing and health-sciences reputation.
Coahoma's staff skews hometown: the president is an alumnus, the head football coach is a Clarksdale native, and the athletics operation runs its own media arm — coahomasports.com plus WCQC 91.3 FM 'Tiger Nation Radio.' Former CCC football assistant T. C. Taylor (later an assistant at Texas Southern and NCCU) is now head coach at Jackson State, a notable branch of the Coahoma coaching tree.
Fifth president since July 2013; Coahoma alumnus and former trustee. A Delta native known for stretching limited state dollars while keeping a strong fund balance.
Leads the celebrated CCC Choir — the ensemble that earned 2026 congressional recognition from Rep. Bennie Thompson and a performance with a 300-piece international orchestra. Also the music department chair who hired band director Eddie Buggs.
Leads the Marching Maroon Typhoon since 2021; 2023 Humanities Teacher of the Year.
Named head coach December 27, 2022. Clarksdale native, consensus All-American at Ole Miss (2001), third-round NFL pick, seven seasons including Super Bowl XLI with the Chicago Bears. (Note: Travis Macon led the program 2020–2022 and appears in some recent JC football coverage of his former school; the 2026 head-coaching status was not re-verified.)
Coahoma feels like what it is: a small, rural Delta HBCU where the band, the choir, and the football team are the social calendar. Clarksdale is the 'Home of the Blues,' and that musical identity runs through campus life — from the Typhoon on the field to the choir on a global stage. Homecoming is the biggest week of the year, pulling alumni and the whole five-county district into town. With about 3,100 students, it is small enough that the dorms, The Pinnacle, and the yard are all one tight community.