Career
Roth played the 1976 season with melanoma and died 3 months after his last regular season game (and just weeks after an all-star game in Japan), in February 1977. Later that year, Roth"s number 12 jersey was retired, the only number currently retired by the Cal Football program A 1973 graduate of Granite Hills High School in San Diego, Roth led Grossmont College of El Cajon to an undefeated season and state title in 1974, and transferred to University of California, Berkeley in 1975.
The 1975 team had such stars as running back Chuck Muncie and wide receiver Wesley Walker.
Cal led the nation in total offense, remarkably gaining the same yardage both passing and rushing with 2,522 yards respectively. After the season ended, he revealed that he had played the last half of the season with melanoma, the recurrence of a previously removed tumor.
Despite his deteriorating physical condition, he honored his commitments to play in both the Hula Bowl and the Japan Bowl. According to a friend"s reminiscence, during the Japan Bowl festivities Roth had agreed to sit for a thirty-minute autograph session.
But finding, at the end of the agreed-upon time, hundreds of children still waiting, he gamely continued to sign until every child had an autograph, after which he left the building and vomited.
He died soon after in his Berkeley apartment on February 19, 1977 at the age of 21.