TicketsRoger McClendon was born in Charleston, West Virginia. Always an athlete, he was first drawn to baseball, but it wasn't long before basketball entered the picture. "I didn't really play much basketball until I was in the eighth grade in New York where we lived," he later told the Cincinnati Post. But, just before he began high school, his family moved to Champaign, Illinois, and hoops took over.
In his freshman year at Champaign's Centennial High School, he averaged 16.4 points. His legend grew as a "string bean" sophomore. "I'm telling people Roger's the best sophomore in the state," his high school coach said that year. "He's got all the talent, he's a great team man and he's a straight-A student." But it wasn't just coaches that raved. Local basketball fans could see it, too. "The two best high school players I've seen were Earvin 'Magic' Johnson and George Gervin. You just know they'd be pros," wrote one Decatur Herald and Review reader. "The only player in Illinois who has left me with that feeling is a 6-foot-3 Champaign Centennial sophomore––Roger McClendon."
He backed up the hype in that year's state tournament. In a loss to Lakeview, McClendon was transcendent, finishing 14-for-20 from the floor, including a blistering 11-of-12 in the second half. He finished with 31 points. "They weren't layups either," noted the Herald & Review recap. "Many were twisting one-handers from around the key in an amazing display of accuracy."
The breakout year put him on recruiting radars across the country, but a lot of the hype centered around the local University of Illinois––where McClendon's father was an African American studies professor. That July, Roger attended the Illini's recruiting camp, where he first caught the attention of UI assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Tony Yates—a two-time national champion on Ed Jucker's Bearcats teams in the '60s.
The connection the two formed would prove massively important, just not in the way Illini fans hoped. Yates took the head coaching job at his alma mater the following spring, as McClendon was wrapping up a 20.1-point, 7.5-rebound, All-State season as a junior. He attended Cincinnati's recruiting camp in June, and––while Illinois head coach Lou Henson labeled McClendon as "one of the best guards in the country"––media noted his absence from the Illini's recruiting camp that July. By that fall, Cincinnati media reported interest between McClendon and the Bearcats.
For his part, McClendon shrugged off much of the theatrics, taking his five recruiting visits to commit during the early signing period, allowing him to turn his attention back to school. Throughout high school, the media constantly mentioned his stellar grades, something he cared a lot about because he kept his basketball dreams very realistic. Amidst the on-court accolades, he called the NBA "something a player with potential thinks about but, in reality, a long-shot possibility." He intended to pick a school where he could play basketball while earning an electrical engineering degree, cutting his list to five schools: Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt, Louisville, Illinois, and Cincinnati.
On November 9, 1983, he made it official, committing to the Bearcats ahead of his senior season, citing UC's co-op program and his relationship with Yates as the difference makers. The 1961 and 1962 national champion had landed another prize, signing a blue-chip recruit before he'd coached his first game in Clifton. If there was doubt about McClendon's talent, he quieted it with his senior campaign, leading his conference in scoring at 22.8 points per game and earning Parade All-America honors and a spot on the McDonald's All-American team, a first for the Bearcats.
He arrived in Cincinnati in 1984 to a program desperate for his services. Yates' Bearcats, rebuilding in the wake of the Ed Badger era, trudged to a 3-25 campaign in his first season as head coach, finishing 0-14 in the Metro Conference and 273rd of 275 teams in scoring. McClendon would have the green light from day one.
It took just two games off the bench before he assumed a starting role. He tallied 19 games in double figures, including three 20-point outings, and led his team in scoring 10 times against conference opponents alone. A team that had won just three games the year prior finished the regular season 15-12 and even turned a 17-game losing streak against rival Louisville into a sweep––beating the Cardinals twice in the regular season for the first time in 12 years. McClendon finished the year as the team's leading scorer.
In the conference tournament, the Bearcats took the opener over Tulane behind 18 points and six assists from McClendon before falling to Florida State in the semifinals. Cincy led by five points at the half. The freshman scored 17 second-half points as the lead evaporated, finishing with a career-best 27 with eight assists. "I feel for the seniors," the soft-spoken guard said after the game. The team made the NIT—its first postseason appearance in eight years—beating Kent State before falling to Marquette. McClendon led the team in scoring in both games.
McClendon's star continued to rise. In a sophomore season marked by team disappointment, McClendon again led his team in scoring with 16.5 per game. The highlight was a 35-point torrent in Louisville's Freedom Hall in January, helping the Bearcats to a comeback upset of the 13th-ranked Cardinals. McClendon scored 24 in the second half. "We were all over him, and he filled it up anyway," said a Louisville player after the game. McClendon was named First Team All-Conference after the season, the team finishing just 12-16.
The NCAA added a three-point line before McClendon's junior year. Nobody told him it was a more difficult shot. On 6.2 attempts per game, McClendon shot 47.6% from outside––still the best single-season mark in school history. Yet the struggles of the team were a continuing pattern. McClendon led the Metro Conference in scoring at 19.9 per game, but his team finished 228th nationally in scoring, resulting in another 12-16 record and another year without a postseason tournament berth. McClendon was named First Team All-Metro again.
He got some more scoring help as a senior—big man Cedric Glover tallied 18.9 points per game—yet this time, the team's defense was its Achilles heel. The Bearcats won 11 games in the 1987-88 season, though not before McClendon left his mark on the UC record book. His 1,789 career points were second in school history behind Oscar Robertson (now sixth). He'd started a program-record 108 games (which now ranks fifth). And his 709 made field goals are still the third-most behind Robertson and Pat Cummings.
After his senior year, he made a run at the NBA, but a groin injury proved to be a significant setback. He returned to Cincinnati, his professional career on hold, where he finished his degree before ultimately deciding to retire from basketball. True to his word as a high schooler, McClendon had kept his academics a priority at Cincinnati, working as a co-op student during the offseason. With an electrical engineering degree, he entered the corporate world, where he succeeded just as he had on the court.
In 2010, he became the first-ever Chief Sustainability officer for Yum! Brands in Louisville before becoming Executive Director at the Green Sports Alliance in 2019. There, he leads international sports and stadium executives, using sports as a vehicle to promote healthy, sustainable communities worldwide.
McClendon was inducted into the James P. Kelly UC Athletics Hall of Fame in 1998.