Wendell Ladner (1978) - Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame

Wendell Ladner

Induction:
1978

There are but a few players in the history of Southern Miss athletics who it would be fair to say were legends. Players who were so good at their sports that they transformed that sport to another level. But one of those players was Wendell Ladner, who in the three short years of his basketball career at Southern Miss carved himself a spot in the history books of the school that few will ever equal.
   When you first think of Ladner you think of great rebounders and that he certainly was. In his career he was able to haul down 1,256 rebounds in just 76 games, an average of 16.5 per game, a mark no one has ever come close to. The three seasons that he played at Southern Miss were the three highest totals by a player for rebounds in a season.
   But he also was an incredible scorer, averaging 20.5 points per game, a plateau that no one else in school history has ever reached in their career and finishing as the 11th all-time scorer in school history.
   Ladner had been a high school All-American at Hancock North Central High School and hailed from the town of Necaise Crossing, Mississippi. He followed his brother, Berlin, and came to Southern Miss. After leading the freshmen team in scoring and rebounding in 1966-67, he was ready to move to the varsity the following year.
   In his first season with the varsity in 1967-68, Ladner immediately became the star of the team. He led the team in scoring and rebounding that season with averages of 21.4 and 16.4, respectively. His 409 rebounds and rebounding average were both school records. Ladner would score what would prove to be his career high, 38 points in just the fourth game of his collegiate career against Northwestern Louisiana. he would follow that with 36 points a few games later against West Virginia Tech. Four times that year he would record 24 or more rebounds in a game, including a career high 29 against Northwestern Louisiana.
   The 6-5, 240-pound Ladner would led the team again in scoring and rebounding during the 1968-69 season averaging 22.4 points and 16.4 rebounds. The 411 rebounds set another school record.
   As a senior in 1969-70 Ladner led the team in scoring and rebounding for a third straight year, averaging 17.9 points and a school record 16.8 rebounds a game. His 436 rebounds that season were also a school record.
   Fourteen of the top 16 rebounding performances in a game by a Southern Miss player are owned by Ladner, including a school record 32 vs. Pan American during the 1969-70 season. Three times in his career, all during the 1969-70 season, Ladner grabbed 30 or more rebounds in a game.
   He was selected by the New Orleans Bucs in the second round of the 1970 American Basketball Association Draft and played several years in the ABA for New Orleans, the Kentucky Colonels and the New Jersey Nets.
   Ladner was and is a legend at Southern Miss, a Hall of Famer unlike any other