Jay Roberts (October 20, 1942 – October 6, 2010) was a

Canadian football Canadian football, or simply football, is a Sports in Canada, sport in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete on a field long and wide, attempting to advance a Ball (gridiron football), pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposi ...

player who played for the

Ottawa Rough Riders The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded on September 19, 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup cham ...

. He won the

Grey Cup The Grey Cup () is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested between the winners ...

in 1968 and 1969. He previously played college football at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

. He was one of the last three sport lettermen at the

where he played football, basketball and did the high jump in track. Roberts' brightest moment in a two-year hoops career at KU came when the 6-foot-4, 220-pounder's 12-foot jumper with three seconds left gave KU a 90–88, four-overtime victory over rival Kansas State in the finals of the 1962 Big Eight Holiday Tournament at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo. In 2010, Roberts died of small cell lung cancer at the age of 67. He donated his brain and spinal cord to medical research and was the first CFL player ever to do so. Later research showed that Roberts' brain showed a presence of

chronic traumatic encephalopathy Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease linked to repeated trauma to the head. The encephalopathy symptoms can include behavioral problems, mood problems, and problems with thinking. The disease often gets wor ...

(CTE), a disease linked to repeated sustenance to concussions. His son, Jed Roberts, also played in the CFL, for the

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at Commonwealth Stadium. The E ...

References

1945 births 2010 deaths American football wide receivers American football tight ends Kansas Jayhawks football players Native American sportspeople Ottawa Rough Riders players Players of Canadian football from Iowa Players of American football from Des Moines, Iowa {{Canadianfootball-bio-stub