Glenn E. Roberts coached the Highland Cavaliers from 1964-66.
The Pound native is probably the best-known basketball player to come from Southwest Virginia and has been recognized by several professional and historic organizations as one of the first people to popularize the jump shot in basketball.
Roberts was born on October 25, 1912 in Pound and was the second-oldest of seven boys. He attended Pound High School, graduating in 1931. The school did not field a team for his freshman and sophomore years,and his junior squad went 28-2 and his senior season the team went 35-0. He was an all-state player at PHS, and five other brothers were all-state in basketball as well.
He then attended Emory & Henry, playing from 1931-35 and scoring 2,013 points (1,531 against college schools and 482 vs. independent pro and semi-pro teams) over 104 games. This came during the center-jump era in basketball, where the ball was returned and a new jump ball was held after every score. This occurred with the clock running, which could shave up to 8-10 minutes off the clock during an average game. He averaged 19.4 points a game but regularly scored in the 30s. He had 40 points against the House of David independent squad, while being guarded by a 7'0" center. He was a four-time All-Smoky Mountain Conference MVP and All-Conference player and also named All-State all four seasons at E&H. In 1935 he earned a spot on the Helms Foundation All-America First Team.
He appeared twice in
Ripley's Believe It Or Not, including one time being featured in an illustration drawn by a young artist in his first professional drawing. The artist? Charles M. Schulz.
After graduating with honors from E&H, he taught and coached girls' basketball at Norton High School for two seasons, winning district titles both seasons. In 1935 the Akron Firestone Non-Skids of the National Basketball League offered him a spot on their team, and the opportunity to both play and get paid for it appealed to him. He only played one season with Akron, but helped lead them to the NBL Championship and a 24-3 record despite not being the main star of the team. (The NBL merged with the Basketball Association of America in 1949 to become the NBA -- their winning percentage for that season still stands as the NBA record for best percentage in a season.)
He left the team after one season and settled down, getting married and taking the Firestone job. He, along with four of his brothers, were exempted from military service in World War II due their work at Firestone being critical for the war effort. So Roberts came out of "retirement" in basketball in 1944 to join those brothers barnstorming the Southern Appalachian region playing basketball to raise money for the war effort. One game against the V-12 Naval Aviators from Milligan College in Norton (the Navy used several area schools to train their officers during the War -- Milligan, Carson-Newman, Berea, and Emory & Henry are local examples that trained cadets who would get their degrees from the school and then be commissioned as naval officers) saw the Roberts five win 36-33 and raise over $50,000 in War Bonds.
After the war he focused on his tire business, which was based out of Wise County. In 1964, Clinch Valley College hired him to coach their basketball team. The college was a two-year school at the time, but was beginning the process to transition to a four-year institution, which was approved in 1966 and occurred over 1968-70. Roberts would work at his business until 3:30 p.m.and then go to the college for practice.
The 1964-65 team, which had been 2-12 the year before, not only became the first team to have a winning record in school history (1954-65 at that point) but had a 10-5 record. The record for the 1965-66 team is not currently available, though some sources have it as 14-6. After the end of his second season, Roberts went back to his business, which he managed until his death in 1980.
He is in the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame, Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, and Emory & Henry Sports Hall of Fame. There is a movement to get him into the Naismith Hall of Fame, feeling that he is being slighted because he did not play in the Northeast. The Naismith Hall of Fame does have an article about
him and his jump shot, which can be found here.
Other sites about Roberts
Emory & Henry Sports Hall of Fame
Small College Basketball Hall of Fame
Wikipedia Article
Â
