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, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player who was a punter in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

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

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the Iowa Hawkeyes and was recognized as a consensus

All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

. He played professionally for the

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

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 of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East ...

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (colloquially known as the Bucs) are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC S ...

, Houston/Tennessee Oilers, and

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the 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 NFL. Roby died of a heart attack at his

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

home in 2005.

Early life

Roby was born in

Waterloo, Iowa Waterloo is a city in and the county seat of Black Hawk County, Iowa, Black Hawk County, Iowa, United States. As of the 2020 United States census the population was 67,314, making it the List of cities in Iowa, eighth-most populous city in the st ...

. In addition to playing

high school football High school football, also known as prep football, is gridiron football played by High school (North America), high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular high school sports, interscholastic sports in both c ...

, he was also a standout

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

on the

Waterloo East High School Waterloo East High School in Waterloo, Iowa, United States is a state school, 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 foun ...

baseball team, and was drafted by

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

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

. Instead, he chose to attend college.

College career

Roby attended the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or 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 organized int ...

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

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

and possessed a strong arm, Hawkeyes head coach Hayden Fry 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, among others) is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1 ...

championship with

Ohio State The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one of the largest universities by enrollme ...

. Roby set an

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

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. 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, Roby punted the ball a team record 77 yards. He completed the only pass attempt of his career, a 48-yarder to John Booty 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 in the National Football League (NFL). The Chargers played in San Diego, California from 1961 until 2016, before relocating back to the Greater Los Angeles area, where the franch ...

, he planted 4 of his 8 punts inside the Chargers 20-yard line, including 3 inside the 7. Roby played in

Super Bowl XIX Super Bowl XIX was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Miami Dolphins and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion San Francisco 49ers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion ...

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 (since 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's All-star, star players. The format has changed ...

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 that 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 travel ...

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 known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

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 deb ...

. 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 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

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

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

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

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

! style="text-align:center;", MIA , 16 , , 59 , , 2,576 , , 43.7 , , 34.7 , , 19 , , 8 , - ! style="text-align:center;", 1986 ! style="text-align:center;", MIA , 15 , , 56 , , 2,476 , , 44.2 , , style="background:#cfecec;", 37.4 , , 13 , , 9 , - ! style="text-align:center;",

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

! style="text-align:center;", MIA , 10 , , 32 , , 1,371 , , 42.8 , , 38.2 , , 8 , , 3 , - ! style="text-align:center;", 1988 ! style="text-align:center;", MIA , 15 , , 64 , , 2,754 , , 43.0 , , 35.2 , , 18 , , 9 , - ! style="text-align:center;",

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

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

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

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

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

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

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

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

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

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

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

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

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

! style="text-align:center;", TB , 16 , , 77 , , 3,296 , , 42.8 , , 36.2 , , 23 , , 7 , - ! style="text-align:center;",

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

! style="text-align:center;", HOU , 16 , , 67 , , 2,973 , , 44.4 , , 38.0 , , 25 , , 7 , - ! style="text-align:center;",

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

! style="text-align:center;", TEN , 16 , , 73 , , 3,049 , , 41.8 , , 35.6 , , 25 , , 1 , - ! style="text-align:center;",

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

! 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, the pulse refers to the rhythmic pulsations (expansion and contraction) of an artery in response to the cardiac cycle (heartbeat). The pulse may be felt ( palpated) in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surfac ...

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 Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

. He left behind four children and his wife Melissa. In the days after his death, former Miami Dolphins head coach

Don Shula Donald Francis Shula ( ; January 4, 1930 – May 4, 2020) was an American professional American football, football player, coach and executive who served as a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) from 1963 to 1995. He played seven s ...

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 sportsmen 21st-century African-American sportsmen 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 Waterloo, Iowa San Francisco 49ers players Tampa Bay Buccaneers players Tennessee Oilers players Washington Redskins players