A Lifetime, A Legacy: John Roberson - Humble but Exalted Athlete, Educator, and Coach
John Roberson
Accomplished athlete and educator John Roberson died July 25 at age 91.
By all accounts, the humble Stone Harbor native and Cape May Court House resident was exalted by the many people whose lives he affected.
While a Middle Township High School student, Mr. Roberson was a running back who led the Panthers football team to the co-county championship in 1947. His alma mater honored him by retiring his jersey number, 27, in 2018. He also played basketball and ran track in high school.
“None of that fazed him,” son Craig Roberson says, as he nods toward a wall covered with a wide variety of award plaques in the family’s cozy Cape May Court House living room. “Dad was so humble,” he adds. While Mr. Roberson was “grateful” for acknowledgement of his talents, “it was more important for him to touch people’s lives,” his son says.
Craig Roberson adds that his father attracted the interest of the Pittsburgh Steelers, “but the Korean War interfered.” Mr. Roberson served his country in Kentucky and Korea after being drafted into the U.S. Army in the early 1950s. Rather than pursue an NFL career after the war, he married his high school sweetheart, Dorothy May Wooten, and completed his education at Indiana University. There, he earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in health and physical education, and also competed in football and track.
Mr. Roberson next pursued a career in education, starting with three years at Wilberforce (Ohio) University. In the early 1960s, he returned to Middle Township High School as a physical education teacher and eventually football and basketball coach. The school’s former football star set a cordial tone there as a teacher.
Retired Superior Court Judge Raymond A. Batten, a Middle Township High School alum and longtime Roberson family friend, muses upon the presence of the “tall, statuesque” teacher in his early years on the faculty.
There’s an intersection by the boys’ locker room at MTHS, a spot that could be congested during class changes, the judge explains.
“John – in his shorts, sneakers, and skin-tight T-shirt – stood at that intersection between every class change keeping peace with his big smile and [upbeat] conversation,” Batten reminisces. “John’s influence and power came from his humility; he was the consummate gentleman.”
The popular teacher and coach reveals one secret of his success as an educator in “Miracle on 81st Street,” a recently released documentary written, produced, and directed by retired English teacher Jim Talone in conjunction with the Stone Harbor Museum.
“I never had one problem in all my years as a teacher at Middle with a student,” Mr. Roberson said in the film. “I found out that if you respect a student, they will respect you.”
“Miracle on 81st Street” is available for viewing on YouTube. It tells the story of the small black community that took root in Stone Harbor a century ago.
Mr. Roberson was born into this community of families led by hardworking men who found steady work as laborers and industrious women who did domestic work and more. Their surnames were Anderson, Harmon, Hall, Johnson, McCargo, Pryor, Rodriquez, Taliaferro, Thompson, Wright, and Roberson.
The film’s narrator, Rev. Douglas Moore of the First Baptist Church of Whitesboro, describes early-20th century Stone Harbor as “this safe harbor where prejudice was not ingrained.”
Mr. Roberson weighed in on the subject of segregation and racism in “Miracle on 81st Street” with an anecdote and personal observations. Stone Harbor’s old Park Theater on 96th Street designated a small corner section of seating in the back for African Americans.
“The movie theater was terrible,” Mr. Roberson noted, until one night when he went to the theater with three of his buddies who said, “Come on … we’re going to go down and sit in the center,” which they did. When “the guy” in charge at the Park asked them to move to the rear, they simply said, “No, we’re going to watch the movie here,” and that was the end of it, Mr. Roberson said before adding that they “broke the rules,” but that he did not right the wrong alone.
As for his time as an elementary and high school student in Stone Harbor and Middle Township, “I was treated by the students themselves as a friend and we got along well,” Mr. Roberson mused. Of his return to Middle Township High School to teach and coach for 33 years, he said: “I wanted to be where I could work with children to help form their lives.”
“John was revered by his players and ex-players and everyone he taught,” says recently retired MTHS boys’ basketball coach Tom Feraco. “In today’s coaching world, it’s hard to please everyone. Everyone loved John Roberson,” Feraco asserts.
“John was well-respected, a very humble guy,” says his friend Bernie Blanks, president of Concerned Citizens of Whitesboro, Inc., where Mr. Roberson served on the board. “It seems strange not being able to stop by John’s house and say ‘Hello.’”
Concerned Citizens of Whitesboro is a nonprofit group dedicated to social and economic development of Whitesboro for its residents’ sake. This historic African-American community was named after George Henry White. White, an African-American who served his native North Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1897 to 1901, then later became a Philadelphia banker and co-founded Whitesboro.
“Doing things for the kids,” like his involvement in Concerned Citizens’ Camp Rainbow summer camp for children, "was first and foremost for Mr. Roberson," Blanks says.
In the early 2000s, Mr. Roberson made a decision that would further assist Whitesboro’s young people. During the drive home from a trip to Florida with their wives, Blanks and Mr. Roberson discussed initiating a Concerned Citizens golf tournament to raise revenue for a college scholarship fund. Blanks wanted to name such a tournament after Mr. Roberson, who wanted no part of that proposal. After some verbal arm-twisting and pointing out to his friend that “your name would be a big draw,” Mr. Roberson agreed to the idea, Blanks recalls.
Since its inception in 2003, Concerned Citizens’ annual John Roberson Golf Tournament has been the group’s major funding source for its scholarship program. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were no tournaments in 2020 or 2021. Supporters near and far are looking forward to resuming the event in memory of Mr. Roberson on May 13, 2022 at the Avalon Golf Club.
“John did not play in the tournament,” Blanks says. “He was the ambassador,” driving around on a cart from hole to hole with a photographer, spreading cheer throughout the event.
In the spring of 2016, the tournament’s lively namesake was also instrumental in launching a project to clean up, add trees, and lay down a decent road at Household of Ruth Cemetery, a Whitesboro community resting place that was badly in need of attention, Blanks notes.
Now Mr. Roberson has been laid to rest. His beloved wife Dot had a massive stroke immediately after his death and died just seven weeks later. Like every family, they had their ups and downs, Craig Roberson says. In 2007, the Robersons tragically lost their son, John Jr. A stray bullet came through the window of his home in Greenville, S.C., and killed him as he shielded his wife, says his brother.
“Mom and Dad were together for 68 years in marriage and four years in high school. That’s 72 years!” says their surviving son. “They loved each other so much.” The couple shared divine love as members of the First United Methodist Church of Cape May Court House.
When it came to parents, “I was really, really blessed!” Craig Roberson says with a sigh.
