Robert M. "Bobby" Jelks, a native of Tylertown, enrolled at PRC on a basketball scholarship but he also participated in football, track and boxing. He was instrumental in leading in the 1935 Wildcats to a basketball championship.

Jelks was such an outstanding athlete he recieved a football scholarship to Union University in Tennessee, where he graduated and later returned to serve as chairman of the physical education department and as coach.

In 1953 he elected to change professions and spent spent the last years in the life in the general insurance business. He served for 15 years as a member of the Union University Board of Trustees and for 10 years as a board member of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

In 1974, Jelks was Union University's Distinguished Alumini Award. In 1978 he was chosen Paris-Henry Country Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year.