James A. Roseboro
Jim was a well-liked student at Ashland High, outgoing in personality, popular with all who knew him, good academically, and outstanding in sports. It was apparent as a youngster playing basketball with “Bully” Rader’s Whiz Kids that he had athletic skills that would stand him in good stead in the next several years. He received nine varsity letters in high school. These included three in football and a special letter as a freshman, four in baseball, and two in basketball.
Jim scored 25 touchdowns in leading Ashland to 21 straight wins, an enviable football dynasty. A sure tackler defensively, he was named All-Ohio as a linebacker and selected to play in the annual All-Star North-South game.
As a ball handling playmaker in basketball, Jim played on teams that were 18-3 and 16-5 his junior and senior years. A great glove man in baseball, Jim was an adept fielder, but equally at home in the outfield or behind the plate, like his brother John, an earlier Hall of Famer. With a good eye at the plate, he was always a good hitter.
As one nominator said, “How many people serve as team captain in three sports and are selected class president the senior year with 177 out of 180 votes?”
His first love was football; Jim got a scholarship to play football for Woody Hayes at Ohio State despite his somewhat small stature, lettering first string all three years.
He later played in the Canadian League with the Ottawa Rough Rider and the Cleveland Bulldogs in the United Football League, resigning to coach backfield at Cleveland East Tech. From 1963-67, he taught and coached at East High in Columbus and served as city director of Youth Opportunity Program from 1967-69.
He has served as deputy director of recreation centers and youth camp counselor in both Cleveland and Columbus, as an insurance salesman, Upward Bound biology teacher at Ohio Wesleyan, and was appointed to Columbus City Council in 1971 and elected in 1972-74.
Jim was with Borden, Inc. until 1979 in a national marketing program and to 1981 with the National Center for Economic and Community Development in Washington, D.C. He then served Armco, Inc. administering a corporate philanthropic program, and in 1983 became deputy director of governmental affair for the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, He has a consulting service and served as a political action lobbyist.
Honor received include Outstanding Young Man in Columbus (Columbus Jaycees), Outstanding Young Man in Ohio (Ohio Jaycees), and Outstanding Youth Director in Nation, 1968 (Presidential Council on Youth Opportunity).
In January of 1988, he became Project Director, Minority Business Development Center, in Columbus, Ohio.
Nominator: Rick Shadel & Bud Plank
Presenter: Bud Plank
