Science Hill High School

Tom Roberts

Tom Roberts 1956

Tom Roberts competed in four sports at Science Hill, at least most of the time. He said his father, former ETSU football coach Lloyd "Preacher" Roberts, declared him academically ineligible for basketball one year and he began using the new spare time to practice throwing the shot put.

Before long, his father was helping him with it, and ultimately he won the state title throwing the shot in Memphis in 1956.

"I missed the record by a half inch," Roberts said.

He set a school record in the shot at ETSU after initially playing football at Georgia Tech, which had a staff that included Bobby Dodd, Ray Graves, John Robert Bell, Charlie Tate and Frank Broyles.

At 230 pounds, Roberts had some 75 pounds on the average high school lineman in that era.

"Tom Roberts was an animal," former Science Hill quarterback Wayne Burchfield said. "He was so much bigger than the rest of us, was well-coached by his daddy and loved to win."

Roberts red-shirted as a sophomore at Tech and had knee surgery around Thanksgiving. He said the knee had bothered him since slipping while messing around on a snow day his sophomore year of high school.

He transferred to ETSU where he competed in track two years. The Chicago Bears still drafted him with the 223rd pick in the 1960 draft and Denver also drafted him in the AFL, but Roberts didn't think his knees were up to it. He's recently had both knees replaced.

Roberts was the head football coach at football-crazy Clewiston High School (Fla.) from 1966-69, and had winning seasons each year. He also coached track at ETSU.

Cregg Moss played guard when Roberts played tackle in high school and coached the line for Roberts at Clewiston.

"Tom was a good football coach," Moss said. "I remember him being such a big kid for those days when we played. He was one of the larger kids at Georgia Tech, but he was a good athlete too."

Added Science Hill Hall of Famer Bob Taylor: "Tom was just a sophomore my senior year but you could see that he was destined to be a great one."