Reginald Henry Roby (July 30, 1961 – February 22, 2005) was an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who was a punter in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) for 16 seasons during the 1980s and 1990s. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for the

Iowa Hawkeyes The Iowa Hawkeyes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa. The Hawkeyes have varsity teams in 22 sports, 8 for men and 14 for women; a 15th women's sport will be added in 2023. The teams partici ...

and was recognized as a consensus All-American. He played professionally for the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South divisio ...

, Houston/Tennessee Oilers, and

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

of the NFL. Roby died of a heart attack at his

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

home in 2005.

Early years

Roby was born in

Waterloo, Iowa Waterloo is a city in and the county seat of Black Hawk County, Iowa, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census the population was 67,314, making it the eighth-largest city in the state. The city is part of the Waterloo – Cedar Falls ...

. In addition to playing

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

, he was also a standout

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

on the

Waterloo East High School Waterloo East High School in Waterloo, Iowa, United States is a public high school consisting of approximately 1000 students in grades 9–12. It is a part of the Waterloo Community School District. History The school was founded at its cur ...

baseball team, and was drafted by

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

. Instead, he chose to attend college.

College career

Roby attended the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

, where he played for the Hawkeyes from 1979 to 1982. Despite the fact that he had experience at

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

and possessed a strong arm, Hawkeyes head coach

Hayden Fry John Hayden Fry (February 28, 1929 – December 17, 2019) was an American college football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Southern Methodist University (SMU) from 1962 to 1972, North Texas State University—now known ...

made the 6'4", 250-pounder a punter and kick-off specialist, also using him for long range field goals. Before Roby arrived, the Hawkeyes had not had a winning season in 20 years. With Roby, the 1981 team earned its first Rose Bowl invitation in 23 years on the strength of a 6-2 conference record (8-4 overall) and co-

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

championship with

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

. Roby set an

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

season record with a 49.8-yard average. In 1982, he led the nation with a 48.1-yard average. His career average of 45.4 yards ranks among

's best and is still a school record. Reggie was also given the kick off duties and routinely kicked the ball through the uprights at Iowa, a total of 26 times. He was 28-34 for PAT's and was 11–27 in FG attempts, mostly from long range.

Professional career

As a professional, his 38.7 net average led the league in 1986, and his 45.7 average yards led the NFL in 1991, and he set a Pro Bowl record with 10 punts in the 1985 game. His 58.5-yard single-game average on September 28, 1986, remains a Dolphin team record. At

Rich Stadium Highmark Stadium is a stadium in Orchard Park, New York, in the Southtowns of the Buffalo metropolitan area. The stadium opened in 1973 as Rich Stadium and is the home venue of the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). It was ...

, Roby punted the ball a team record 77 yards, but the punt was returned 70 yards. He completed the only pass attempt of his career, a 48-yarder to

John Booty John Fitzgerald Booty (born October 9, 1965) is a former American football defensive back in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Jets, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Phoenix Cardinals, the New York Giants, and the Tampa Bay Bucca ...

in 1995. Roby was selected as a punter for the NFL's 1980s All-Decade Team. In the Dolphins 1992 divisional round 31–0 win over the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

, he planted 4 of his 8 punts inside the Chargers 20-yard line, including 3 inside the 7. Roby played in Super Bowl XIX with the Dolphins, though he had a below average day, averaging just 39.3 yards per kick and failing to put any of his 7 punts inside the 20. "I was trying to kill the ball, and I kicked it bad", said Roby after the game. "I didn't hit one well. I was scared -- scared to make a mistake. It was the worst game of my life, counting high school, college, counting everything." Dolphins coach Don Shula said following the game "We're supposed to have the best punter in the football, but today, he didn't punt like he was the best." However, it is notable that despite Miami's #1 ranked offense during the 1984 season, which set numerous NFL records, he still made the

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players. The format has changed thro ...

that year. Roby played sixteen seasons in the NFL and had 992 punts for 42,951 yards. His career yards per punt average was 43.3, with a net average of 34.0. He had 298 punts beyond the 20-yard line and 112

touchback In American football, a touchback is a ruling which is made and signaled by an official when the ball becomes dead on or behind a team's own goal line (i.e., in their end zone) and the opposing team gave the ball the momentum, or impetus, to trav ...

s. Roby helped popularize the now-standard two-step approach and often wore a watch to gauge his hangtime. He was one of a handful of

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

kickers in National Football League history. He was one of the only kickers, to this day, to punt the ball without jumping. In 1993, Roby's financial difficulties led to his filing for

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

. The Miami Dolphins had cut him after the 1992 season largely because a corollary of this filing would have meant he could have become a free agent and left Miami at any point of the following season, but he continued to play professionally until 1998 and later became marketing and development director for Backfield in Motion, a non-profit group mixing athletics and academics to help inner city boys.

Career statistics

;Regular season , - ! style="text-align:center;", 1983 ! style="text-align:center;",

MIA Mia, MIA, or M.I.A. may refer to: Music Artists * M.I.A. (rapper) (born 1975), English rapper and singer * M.I.A. (band), 1980s punk rock band from Orange County, California * MIA., a German rock/pop band formed in 1997 * Mia (singer) (born 1983) ...

, 16 , , 74 , , 3,189 , , 43.1 , , 36.5 , , 26 , , 11 , - ! style="text-align:center;", 1984 ! style="text-align:center;",

, 16 , , 51 , , 2,281 , , 44.7 , , style="background:#cfecec;", 38.1 , , 15 , , 10 , - ! style="text-align:center;", 1985 ! style="text-align:center;",

, 16 , , 59 , , 2,576 , , 43.7 , , 34.7 , , 19 , , 8 , - ! style="text-align:center;",

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

! style="text-align:center;",

, 15 , , 56 , , 2,476 , , 44.2 , , style="background:#cfecec;", 37.4 , , 13 , , 9 , - ! style="text-align:center;", 1987 ! style="text-align:center;",

, 10 , , 32 , , 1,371 , , 42.8 , , 38.2 , , 8 , , 3 , - ! style="text-align:center;",

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

! style="text-align:center;",

, 15 , , 64 , , 2,754 , , 43.0 , , 35.2 , , 18 , , 9 , - ! style="text-align:center;", 1989 ! style="text-align:center;",

, 16 , , 58 , , 2,458 , , 42.4 , , 35.3 , , 18 , , 6 , - ! style="text-align:center;",

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

! style="text-align:center;",

, 16 , , 72 , , 3,022 , , 42.0 , , 35.6 , , 20 , , 3 , - ! style="text-align:center;",

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

! style="text-align:center;",

, 16 , , 54 , , 2,466 , , style="background:#cfecec;", 45.7 , , 36.4 , , 17 , , 7 , - ! style="text-align:center;",

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

! style="text-align:center;",

, 9 , , 35 , , 1,443 , , 41.2 , , 34.3 , , 11 , , 3 , - ! style="text-align:center;", 1993 ! style="text-align:center;",

WAS Was or WAS may refer to: * ''Was'', a past-tense form of the English copular verb ''to be'' People * David Was (born c. 1952), the stage name of multi-instrumentalist and songwriter David Weiss * Don Was (born 1952), the stage name of bass guita ...

, 15 , , 78 , , 3,447 , , 44.2 , , 37.2 , , 25 , , 10 , - ! style="text-align:center;",

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

! style="text-align:center;",

, 16 , , 82 , , 3,639 , , 44.4 , , 36.1 , , 21 , , 12 , - ! style="text-align:center;",

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

! style="text-align:center;", TB , 16 , , 77 , , 3,296 , , 42.8 , , 36.2 , , 23 , , 7 , - ! style="text-align:center;", 1996 ! style="text-align:center;", HOU , 16 , , 67 , , 2,973 , , 44.4 , , 38.0 , , 25 , , 7 , - ! style="text-align:center;", 1997 ! style="text-align:center;", TEN , 16 , , 73 , , 3,049 , , 41.8 , , 35.6 , , 25 , , 1 , - ! style="text-align:center;", 1998 ! style="text-align:center;", SF , 14 , , 60 , , 2,511 , , 41.9 , , 34.3 , , 14 , , 6 , - , - class="sortbottom" style="background:#eee;" ! style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career ! 238 , , 992 , , 42,951 , , 43.3 , , 36.2 , , 298 , , 112

Death

On February 22, 2005, Roby's son, Julian, found him without a

pulse In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the cardiac cycle (heartbeat) by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the n ...

in their Nashville home. The cause of death, although not officially reported, was believed to be a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

. He left behind four children and his wife Melissa. In the days after his death, former Miami Dolphins head coach Don Shula praised Reggie Roby, saying "his booming kicks often helped us win the field position battle."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roby, Reggie 1961 births 2005 deaths 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American people African-American players of American football All-American college football players American Conference Pro Bowl players American football punters Houston Oilers players Iowa Hawkeyes football players Miami Dolphins players Players of American football from Iowa San Francisco 49ers players Sportspeople from Waterloo, Iowa Tampa Bay Buccaneers players Tennessee Oilers players Washington Redskins players