Ralph Roberts
Ralph Roberts played at Wayland for coach “Copper” John Campbell and in 1951 his Wasps made the school’s second trip to the State tournament. They won their first game in the Sweet 16 against Lyon County 82-47 but dropped the quarterfinal game to DuPont Manual 77-45. The 1952 Wayland team had three players who played college ball: Fred Fraley played at Furman, Paul Hopper played at Marshall, and Roberts was an All-Conference guard at Pikeville College along with teammate Grady Wallace and Bobby McCoy as they won the junior college championship of Kentucky.
Ralph Roberts began his coaching career at Fleming-Neon High School in the 1960-61 season. His Pirates won 15 games while losing 10 that season, according to an article in The Mountain Eagle. The Kentucky High School Basketball Encyclopedia differs greatly, reporting that season as 27-4. There is also a discrepancy for Roberts second year at the school, with the newspaper reporting 19-4 and the Encyclopedia, which says 17-11. The third season, according to the Mountain Eagle, was 12-10 while the High School Basketball Encyclopedia says it was 17-12. The newspaper reported the season wins and losses while the Encyclopedia reported all games, including postseason. However, there were no postseason wins in those years.
There is a consistent discrepancy between the Encyclopedia and the Newspaper. We can only speculate which is correct.
Roberts stayed at Fleming-Neon through the 1966-67 season and in the last four of those his team won four District titles. There were six teams in the District in 1964, five after Dunham merged with Jenkins. He would coach Fleming-Neon until the end of the 1966-67 season, concluding with a District Tourney title. His time at Fleming-Neon ended with four titles in his last four years at the school. According to a Letcher County newspaper the gym was a concern during most of Roberts’ time coaching there and some practices and games were held elsewhere but as we saw, the teams he coached there adapted very well to the situation.
Roberts next went to McCreary County in the 12th Region for the seasons of 1967-68 and 1968-69, winning a District title in the 1969 season while finishing 27-5.
He would then move to Cumberland, back once again in the 13th Region, where he guided the Redskins from the 1969-70 through the 1973-74 seasons.
After leaving Cumberland, Roberts headed back to McCreary County to coach the Indians once again, this time from 1974-75 to 1977-78, staying there until the closing of the school in 1977-78. During those four seasons his team won 93-while losing 30, with two District and one Regional title in those four years. The school closed after that 1977-78 season but Roberts was to be the coach at the new McCreary Central High School for its first season, going 21-9 in 1978-79.
Roberts returned to Cumberland to coach in 1979-80 and stayed through 1980-81. The Redskins went 31-19 in those two seasons before Roberts was on the move once again. This time it was to Prestonsburg, back to the 15th Region near where he had played his high school basketball, for the 1981-82 season and 1982-83 season. Roberts led the Blackcats to a two year record of 31-25. He then was on the move once more. Again it was back to familiar territory.
For the 1982-83 season Roberts was back at Cumberland, a school that had not won a District championship since Roberts’ four consecutive wins, the last in the 1973 postseason. This time Roberts stayed through the 1989-90 season and in those last seven seasons at the helm for the Redskins his record was 127-69 with three District titles.
Mr. Roberts coached in the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th Regions. He coached Pirates, Redskins, Indians and Blackcats. According to the KHSAA records he stands in the top 20 in the state in all time wins for boys basketball coaches with 615 wins and had 254 losses. A very successful career for a very fine player and coach.
