Reggie Roby

[iowahaha1]

Was listening to the radio just a bit ago and I heard them say: "it would have been Reggie Roby's birthday today, he broke the racial barrier for punters." They then went on to say, "Ya sure, look at all the black punters in the league now". Just thought that was kind of ironic at this point in time.

 

[goodbyebobby]

Who cares what color he was, he was unreal.
So were his cookies

 

[ottumwan in tx]

They even named Reggie Roby Stadium after him in Miami

 

[iowahaha1]

I loved that he wore a watch when he played.

 

[Rustys Dad]

Roby was my all-time favorite punter (any level) ... Guy had a cannon ... Absolute cannon for a leg ...

 

[beatdahuskers]

Only Reggie could get 60,000 fans on their feet cheering on a 4th down and punting situation.

Reggie, Reggie, Reggie........

 

[anon_i8nzeu2gbf0ba]

Reggie also kicked FGs, but his punting was without parallel. Loved watching the young man from Waterloo.

 

[Kinnick.At.Night]

A side story.....I played baseball at Cedar Rapids Washington and graduated in the 90s. Out of curiosity, I asked my freshman coach, a long time Wash guy, who'd hit the longest home run he'd ever seen on Wash's varsity field. He immediately said Reggie Roby. And he described a home run that Reggie had hit when he was with Waterloo East that cleared an entire house in right-center field. The house with the pool. We always called it that when I played because everyone wanted to splash a ball. Nobody ever came close. I had fun a few years ago remembering that story and measuring the distance on Google Earth. It was at minimum a 450 foot shot. Reggie was something else.

 

[hawkeyeinmo]

A side story.....I played baseball at Cedar Rapids Washington and graduated in the 90s. Out of curiosity, I asked my freshman coach, a long time Wash guy, who'd hit the longest home run he'd ever seen on Wash's varsity field. He immediately said Reggie Roby. And he described a home run that Reggie had hit when he was with Waterloo East that cleared an entire house in right-center field. The house with the pool. We always called it that when I played because everyone wanted to splash a ball. Nobody ever came close. I had fun a few years ago remembering that story and measuring the distance on Google Earth. It was at minimum a 450 foot shot. Reggie was something else.

I can attest to Reggie's power with the bat. Reggie played baseball at Iowa his freshmen year before deciding his future was as a punter. We practiced in the winter on the football field. Plowed snow off the field and set up a portable mound and bases. If you hit the ball half way up the stands it was a bomb! Reggie hit one out of Kinnick stadium!.......Who was your freshman coach? Did you play for Pinky or had he retired by then.

 

[Kinnick.At.Night]

I can attest to Reggie's power with the bat. Reggie played baseball at Iowa his freshmen year before deciding his future was as a punter. We practiced in the winter on the football field. Plowed snow off the field and set up a portable mound and bases. If you hit the ball half way up the stands it was a bomb! Reggie hit one out of Kinnick stadium!.......Who was your freshman coach? Did you play for Pinky or had he retired by then.

Pinky was retired. My frosh coach was Ted Tauber.

 

[funnyfletcher]

Reggie died way too young. His son, Bry, played at Stephen F. Austin.

 

[rchawk]

After a year or two it became apparent that Reggie's placekicks at Iowa weren't all that accurate, but his punt were legendary. He flipped the field by fifty yards and was a great player for the defense.

As mentioned above, fans chanted his name when he jogged out onto the field to punt. Reggie! Reggie! Reggie! Gotta figure it's pretty rare for a punter to be cheered like that.

 

[SansSouci]

I worked with his aunt and went to East Waterloo, that family is cursed. They all die young. I’m talking forties with heart issues. He was a specimen as far as punters go.

 

[Kinnick.At.Night]

I worked with his aunt and went to East Waterloo, that family is cursed. They all die young. I’m talking forties with heart issues. He was a specimen as far as punters go.

A athletic specimen, indeed. And a wonderful man.

 

[twindman]

Cool stories guys! Too many of you to 'like'!!

 

[SoFla-Hawkeye]

Reggie was my best friend. He was my oldest son’s godfather. He was the kind of guy who was happiest when you were happy.

I used to call bullshit on his baseball stories. I met him my freshman year at Iowa so only knew of the stories from him. That was until we went to Ames one summer at the invitation of Coach Mac. We weren’t in Mac’s office 5 minutes when Coach Woodley came in. Woodley was a East Waterloo grad and former coach. Reggie jumped out of his seat and started yelling “tell him! tell him! he doesn’t believe me”. We spent the next 30 minutes listening to Coach Woodley tell stories, most of which Mac backed up, while Reggie just sat back with a shit eating grin on his face. My favorite was of Reggie hitting a baseball so hard it actually broke a hole in the side of a barn located over the left field fence. I forget where it was but everyone swore it was true. I never doubted one of his stories again.

I miss him. Tons of stories and awesome memories. Man we had fun. He would have been 59. ❤️

 

[goodbyebobby]

Pinky was retired. My frosh coach was Ted Tauber.

Pinky, lol. Roger was all state and hit something like .270.....

Tauber was like the natural when we were young, I was not.

 

[wneff]

Was listening to the radio just a bit ago and I heard them say: "it would have been Reggie Roby's birthday today, he broke the racial barrier for punters." /QUOTE]
Greg Coleman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Coleman

 

[NevadaHawk]

I recall Coach Fry saying Iowa just landed the best recruit we could get when Reggie committed to the Hawks. At first, I thought Hayden was going to announce we had a stud QB coming to Iowa. When he said we got the best punter in the country I was a bit disappointed. But, when I saw how Reggie could totally flip the field with his monster punts, I understood what Coach Fry meant and I was completely happy we had Reggie on our team.

 

[funnyfletcher]

Reggie had a brother who played minor league ball didn't he?

 

[SoFla-Hawkeye]

Reggie had a brother who played minor league ball didn't he?

His brother Mike spent some time in the Giants organization.

Why is Reggie not in the CFHoF?

 

[Obviously Oblivious]

Reggie was my best friend. He was my oldest son’s godfather. He was the kind of guy who was happiest when you were happy.

I used to call bullshit on his baseball stories. I met him my freshman year at Iowa so only knew of the stories from him. That was until we went to Ames one summer at the invitation of Coach Mac. We weren’t in Mac’s office 5 minutes when Coach Woodley came in. Woodley was a East Waterloo grad and former coach. Reggie jumped out of his seat and started yelling “tell him! tell him! he doesn’t believe me”. We spent the next 30 minutes listening to Coach Woodley tell stories, most of which Mac backed up, while Reggie just sat back with a shit eating grin on his face. My favorite was of Reggie hitting a baseball so hard it actually broke a hole in the side of a barn located over the left field fence. I forget where it was but everyone swore it was true. I never doubted one of his stories again.

I miss him. Tons of stories and awesome memories. Man we had fun. He would have been 59. ❤️

I assume you're talking about Coach Mike Woodley (UNI grad). He was our head FB coach in HS for 5 seasons and I think we lost maybe 4 games total while he was there. He was also my specialty coach in track. Great guy, great family. Loved to laugh and tell stories. We hit it off very well, he seemed to like the fact that I was also a Waterloo transplant in rural north Iowa. Never got to know Reggie unfortunately, but as an Iowa fan/student I would leave the tailgate parties early so i could go watch him warm-up prior to kickoff.

 

[SoonerBeAHawk]

Roby was my all-time favorite punter (any level) ... Guy had a cannon ... Absolute cannon for a leg ...

Well, duh ...

Of course Ray Guy had an absolute cannon but what about Roby ?

(Btw, I actually thought (Ray) Guy when I read that, but my brain does short circuit often.)

 

[SoonerBeAHawk]

A athletic specimen, indeed. And a wonderful man.

Never occured to me before but that is his signature pose, isn't it?

Change the uniform and still he would be instantly recognizable. No one ever, before or since, got their leg that high. So cool.

 

[Hawkdome]

Simply loved watching Reggie punt. He always made my day.

 

[SoFla-Hawkeye]

Never occured to me before but that is his signature pose, isn't it?

Change the uniform and still he would be instantly recognizable. No one ever, before or since, got their leg that high. So cool.

 

[Fan In Black]

Roby averaged 43.7 ypp is Fr year. He dropped to 40.6 as a So. Fry would platoon Roby with Tom Nichol is Jr year. Tom punted inside the 40. Roby broke NCAA record that year with 49.8 ypp. He did all the punting his Sr year and averaged 48.1 yyp.

CSB...he had 28 inch thighs. Fry once said "He has the strongest leg Ive ever seen. Hes liable to kick one 80 yards, but its also liable to go over the press box"

 

[Quintana]

his left foot never left the ground. he was a machine.

 

[Quintana]

im just going to leave this here...

 

[SoFla-Hawkeye]

 

[abby97]

I went to West Waterloo and Reggie went to East. We would go East's games just to watch Reggie kick and punt. I remember him kicking the ball out of Sloan Wallace Stadium in Waterloo and over the house across the street.

 

[Titanhawk2]

So colleges like Grambling, Southern, they all had white kids punting for them back in the day?

 

[SoFla-Hawkeye]

So colleges like Grambling, Southern, they all had white kids punting for them back in the day?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2018/10/05/sports/white-kickers.amp.html

 

[HawkRugged17]

One of the more interesting NFL plays ... involving Reggie Roby

 

[BBHawk]

One of the more interesting NFL plays ... involving Reggie Roby

View embedded media

I looked up the definition of "CF" in the dictionaly and found this video...

 

[iavagabond]

Never occured to me before but that is his signature pose, isn't it?

Change the uniform and still he would be instantly recognizable. No one ever, before or since, got their leg that high. So cool.

He was definitely listening the day his coach said ”you need to follow through!”