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C.R. ROBERTS

No Fear of First

Por USC Athletics Black History Month

17 de February de 2015

By Caroline Deisley

“You name it, I’ve seen it,” says C.R. Roberts on a picturesque Southern California day.

Roberts’ life resembles that of a Hollywood motion picture filled with celebrity encounters, countless stories and most importantly a lifetime of overcoming hardships despite the world’s continuous exclusion. His brain is filled to the brim with endless memories - some good, some that still bring heartache and frustration - but more than anything, within C.R. Roberts lies this inexplicable desire to not let anything or anyone hold him back.

“I’ve always been the first at everything,” he says. “I don’t know why, I guess it’s just my personality.”

Fourteen years before Sam Cunningham famously opened the eyes of Alabama football, C.R. Roberts accomplished the same feat in the state of Texas. His story, for one reason or another, has largely fallen under the radar in the 60 years since.

Maybe being born on February 29 (1936) was a sign that C.R. Roberts was never going to fit the status quo, but his uniqueness is the very thing that allowed him to thrive in a world that wished for him the very opposite.

“All my life, I’ve been fighting racism. It’s been the most important thing,” says Roberts. As he reminisces about his childhood, his throat tightens, and he releases a long sigh that sounds like the exhale of an entire generation of African-Americans who spent every day fighting for their rights while fearing for their lives. Growing up in Mississippi, lynching was a regular dinner conversation from the time that Roberts could comprehend the English language. Roberts, like many other black children, was forced to mature way beyond his years in order to survive.

“As a kid, you had to walk into a place and within 60 seconds decide whether you should be there or not,” he explains. “You walk into some places and your life is in danger because you’re not supposed to be there and you get lynched for being there.”

While most white parents were instructing their children to look both ways before crossing the street, Roberts and other black kids growing up in the South were learning how to protect their lives.

“Get our son out of Mississippi or they’re going to kill him.” Roberts will never forget overhearing his mom say this when he was in third grade, just before his family packed up everything on a whim and headed west. Roberts didn’t know it yet, but this decision to move, based purely on a mother’s instinct, altered the course of his life forever and opened up a door enabling Roberts to not just break barriers, but to shatter them.

C.R. ROBERTS

All the traumatic memories gathered and lessons learned growing up in Mississippi, all the football games in high school that ended with fans throwing rocks and dirt at the team bus, it was all of these experiences that prepared Roberts for a lifetime full of firsts.

Though Oceanside High School was a drastic improvement from the community where Roberts was born, Southern California still presented a challenge for C.R. to find his fit. Ultimately, he emerged on the football field. In his senior year, Roberts was named the 1953 California Football Player of the Year after scoring 65 touchdowns – the most in San Diego County to this day. He originally planned on attending West Point University as he was heavily involved in ROTC, however, he soon realized that athletics would be his best shot at attending and graduating from a quality school.

Unwilling to leave the favorable Southern California weather, Roberts originally set his sights on UCLA. Roberts remembers being at a UCLA fraternity party during a recruiting visit and people jokingly asked him where he was going to play. Everyone assumed he would choose UCLA because he would have a greater opportunity to actually see the field, but the man who always had to be different wanted to prove his friends wrong, so he chose USC.

Upon arriving at the school, Roberts faced backlash amongst students as one of the only outsiders on campus. This, however, didn’t translate to his experiences on the football field. Roberts credits this to his coaches’ support, his ability to prove his worth and the competitive nature of his teammates.

“I’ve always had the best team,” says Roberts. “When you’re a kid, you don’t know the real world. I only saw it as one way. The guys liked to win, that’s why they played the game.”

The desire to win ended up being the deciding factor in the University’s decision to allow Roberts to travel with the team for its game against Texas in 1956, despite the state law that enforced segregation.

“I didn’t really get the picture,” remembers Roberts. “The coaches kept trying to tell me that the game was not that important. They tried to talk me out of traveling, saying we were going to win all the rest anyway.”

Roberts ignored his coaches’ hesitation and since neither school would cancel the game because of their competitive nature, Roberts loaded onto the team bus with every intention of making a statement that weekend.

As the Trojans headed to the airport, something unexpectedly symbolic happened, as the bus driver suddenly turned on a black radio station for the first time ever. For a second, all the racial tension dissipated as Roberts hummed along to his favorite song, ‘One Mint Julep’, as if Hollywood was providing a soundtrack to his personal motion picture. He felt, for a moment, like the whole world was behind him.

C.R. ROBERTS

C.R. ROBERTS

C.R. ROBERTS

C.R. ROBERTS

The moment was short-lived, however, as the trip to Texas served as a reminder that the whole world did not see things the same way. Upon arrival, the team tried three different hotels before finally finding one that would break the rules and allow its black players to stay. The maids at the hotel were black, and upon seeing Roberts and his one other black teammate, they tried to convince him to leave before he got in trouble. He remembers feeling the greatest sense of satisfaction when he was able to smile and say, “No ma’am. I’m here as part of the USC football team. I’m allowed to be here.” Soon after, every black person that lived in the area came to visit, sneaking in the back entrance and trading staff uniforms just so they could greet the black USC players staying in a white hotel.

“That night, maybe every black person in town must have come by to see us,” says Roberts. “They were just so proud to see us in that hotel.”

The climax of Roberts’ story played out to perfection as he rushed for 251 yards and three touchdowns in just 12 minutes. He made such an immediate statement in front of the rowdy, segregated Texas crowd that the USC coaching staff pulled him from the game in fear of riots.

“I was upset that they didn’t want me down there,” Roberts says emphatically. “Damn right, I had something to prove to them.”

Roberts returned to USC as a hero. In fact, alumni flew back on the team plane and the exhausted running back couldn’t catch a wink of sleep with the amount of boosters coming up to congratulate him. His accomplishments that day in Texas would end up being his legacy at USC.

He went on to spend four years in the National Football League for the San Francisco 49ers in the legendary ‘all-initial backfield.’ He spent the rest of his life inspiring a new generation of pioneers as a teacher and fighting racism wherever it confronted him.

“I’ve spent my entire life deciding when to boycott and when to fight back,” says Roberts. “I owe most of that to my mother. A mother is unbelievable in the life of a kid. She prepared me for everything by possessing what it takes to get things done, no matter the obstacle.”

Listening to Roberts talk now is like a trip through a time machine, stories spanning 50 years that often seem to blur the line between fact and fiction. Stories like the time he discovered Sonny and Cher at a ‘Battle of the Bands’ competition he organized for Hawthorne High School. Or, the time he was pulled over for no apparent reason and ended up speeding off into the night in his ’57 Chevy. With a lifetime of stories in his mental diary, the Southern California native has always had a desire to produce a motion picture based on his life.

At age 78, he’s still a man with a hunger for doing the things no one says he should. Whether navigating the world of Hollywood, or pursuing a new adventure, C.R. Roberts will never let anyone hold him back.

C.R. ROBERTS

Footnotes

USC Athletics thanks the USC Black Alumni Association (usc.edu/baa) for its support.

FootNotes

USC Athletics thanks the USC Black Alumni Association (usc.edu/baa) for its support.

© 2026 USC Athletics Black History Month

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