Education
Ohio State University.
basketball coach basketball player
Ohio State University.
Born in Columbus, Ohio, Roberts played for Ohio State University"s 1960 National Collegiate Athletic Association champions, and later played in the National Basketball Association for the Syracuse Nationals before going into coaching. Roberts also played with Hall-of-Famers Jerry Lucas, John Havlicek, and Bobby Knight. Coach Fred Taylor also was a Hall-of-Famer for Ohio State.
He starred at Columbus East High School under coach Jackie Moore as a 6"6", 220-lb forward.
Future Ohio State University teammate Mel Nowell also starred for Columbus East. Roberts ended up at Ohio State when schools like Georgia Technical and Ohio University advised they had curfew rules for blacks like Roberts.
The Buckeyes had few black players at that time, but coaches Floyd Stahl and Fred Taylor made him feel welcome. Roberts, fellow senior Dick Furry, and Larry Siegfried were returnees that were joined by super sophomores Lucas, Havlicek, and Nowell in 1960.
Roberts was a senior co-captain who provided veteran leadership to the sophomore stars on that team
All five starting Buckeyes—Roberts, Havlicek, Lucas, Siegfried, and Nowell—were drafted to play in the National Basketball Association, a rare feat considering there were then just nine National Basketball Association teams. Roberts did play for Ohio State in the 1960 United States Olympics trials, but drew little attention away from his teammates and the many Amateur Athletic Union players who came to take their place on that team regardless of performance. Roberts was drafted in the third round by the National Basketball Association"s Syracuse Nationals.
He was a reserve at both forward positions behind stars Dolph Schayes, Lee Shaffer, and Johnny Kerr.
He played with the Nats three seasons, with the Nats making the playoffs each year under coach Alex Hannum. The Nats were very good, but could not get past the Boston Celtics in their division.
Feeling that his race was limiting his opportunities, Roberts declined to stay with the team when they became the Philadelphia 76ers in 1963. He did return to play for the Kentucky Colonels of the American Bar Association for one season in 1967, the American Bar Association"s first year.
He was disappointed to again be a reserve.
He later became an assistant coach for Western Michigan in the Mid-American Conference, then Iowa in the Big Ten, before being an assistant for the National Basketball Association"s Golden State Warriors and coach First Rate (at Lloyd's) Attles for five years.