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LEROY “BUD” ROBERTS - INDUCTEE #67

hall of fame fast fact:

Good with a quip, Bud Roberts said upon his induction into the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame in 1985: "Thanks for letting me smell my own roses before I die. It's much better to be up here now than after I die. It would be a lot harder to be here then."

Leroy "Bud" Roberts

By the time he ended a 41-year coaching career in 1979, Leroy “Bud” Roberts had compiled seven state championships and coached 19 all-state players.

A native of Duffo, he attended schools in Cottonwood, Vera, and Wichita Falls before earning two degrees at West Texas State Teachers College.

Roberts began his coaching career at Wayside in 1937 and finished in Tulia, where he spent his last 21 years. He also farmed and ranched in Swisher County from 1937 to 1975.

Roberts helped start girls high school track in Texas, including the program at Tulia in the mid-1960s.

Roberts compiled a sparkling record of 296- 36, an achievement that helped put him into the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Hoops Hall of Fame in 1990.

He was a U.S. Army veteran of World War II and received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star.

Leroy Roberts died in 1998 at the age of 89.