Marshall University Athletics
Marshall Athletics Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 1985
Roy Straight was Cam Henderson’s right-hand man. A graduate of Mannington (W.Va.) High School, Straight played football for Henderson at Davis & Elkins College in the early 1930s and then became a football coach at Clarksburg’s Victory High School as an assistant to Henderson’s brother-in-law, Farley Bell. When Henderson became Marshall’s athletic director and football and basketball coach, he hired Straight as his football assistant and as the athletic department business manager.
Other than a stint in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Straight remained at Marshall until 1949, including a two-year period as the athletic director. In 1947, when the football team received a berth in the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Fla., and Henderson had also committed the basketball team to play in the Los Angeles Invitational Basketball Tournament, Henderson went with the basketball team and Straight coached the football team in a 7-0 loss to Catawba College. Straight also served Henderson as an assistant basketball coach at times and was Marshall’s head wrestling coach in the 1948-49 season.
When Henderson gave up football coaching duties for Marshall, Straight took a job as the line coach at the University of North Carolina for two seasons, then returned to Huntington and went into administration in the Cabell County school system, including service as the principal at Enslow and West junior high schools and eventually Huntington High School, until he retired in 1972. Straight also served as a local football and basketball official, and coached many seasons of Little League baseball. He was inducted into the Marshall Athletic Hall of Fame in 1985.
