Herb Royer (1985) - Marshall Athletics Hall of Fame

Herb Royer

Induction:
1985
Class:
1937

In his four years at Marshall, Herb Royer never missed a practice or game, doing all of the play-calling and most of the punting and passing as a single-wing tailback on offense and a safety on defense. An all-state football player at Dunbar (W.Va.) High School, where he also played basketball and ran track, Royer was recruited to play football at Marshall by Coach Tom Dandelet, then thrived when Cam Henderson took over the program. Royer was named to the All-Buckeye Conference team in his junior and senior seasons, helping the team to the league championship with a 9-0-1 record as a senior captain in 1937, when he also served as Marshall’s student body president and also received honorable mention on the Associated Press Little All-America Team. The following summer, he and teammate Bill Smith represented the College All-Stars in an exhibition game against the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles.

Royer signed a professional contract with the Detroit Lions, but chose instead to return to Marshall as an assistant coach for Henderson. He entered the U.S. Navy during World War II, serving as a coach for the military base teams. After the war, Royer became an assistant coach at Virginia Tech, returned to Marshall as Henderson’s assistant with the football and basketball teams for a year, then became the head football coach at West Virginia Tech from 1949-51, leading the Bears to the 1949 West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title – their only outright league championship – and was named the West Virginia Coach of the Year.

After a stint as the head coach of the football and basketball teams at Logan High School, Royer became Marshall’s head football coach in 1953, re-installing the single wing attack as Marshall’s main offense. Royer remained Marshall’s coach through the 1958 season, logging a career record of 21-31-2, and was the coach who integrated the Marshall football program when he recruited African-American athletes Roy Goins, Ray Crisp and others to the program. Royer later became a professor in Marshall’s education program until he retired in 1980. Royer is enshrined in the Logan High School Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Marshall Athletic Hall of Fame in 1985.