By Steve Williams
Larry Roe’s team was so good that he said other coaches were cheating to try and beat him.
It was that kind of atmosphere Roe had to coach in back in the day. It led him to name his team the Lonsdale Equals.
He told Bob Polston, the Rule High School head coach back then, about it and Polston came out and sat in the stands where he couldn’t be seen. He observed what was going on and went to the City Recreation Department to tell them about it.
“I just wanted their boys to be like everybody else,” said Roe. “We were one of a few Black teams out there at that time. Buddy Lattimore’s team in East Knoxville is the only other one I can recall.”
Roe, who is now 85, may be the winningest youth football coach Knoxville has seen since the 1960s. He finished with 414 wins, 109 losses and six ties. He coached for 48 years.
A 1959 Austin High grad, he was an offensive lineman and defensive back for the Panthers, who were coached by G.H. “Dusty” Lennon.
Roe joined the Army in 1963 during the Cuban and Vietnam crises. He was a First Class Private for four years and in the 65th Missile Battalion. He prepared for his first season of youth football in 1966.
One of Roe’s favorite wins was a 12-7 victory over Oak Ridge in a Midget Division game (13- to 14-year-olds) in 1975. Oak Ridge had been coming to Knoxville every year and winning the championship. “But I beat the Oak Ridge coach this time and was the first coach to do it,” remembered Roe. “I was coaching the boys in Lonsdale then and we had a pretty good team.”
Roe coached in all the age divisions – the Grasshoppers (7-8), Grasscutters (9-10), Minor Pee Wees (10-11), Pee Wees (11-12) and Midgets.
“David Dixson, my cousin, helped me for a while and got the Urban League to buy uniforms,” said Roe. “I just wanted to give back to the community and help the kids. Like the men did for me when I was playing and coming up. Charles Williams and others helped me when I was playing at Austin High.”
Roe’s teams played in a lot of bowl games in the area, including at Inskip-Norwood, and he knew Joe Inman, one of I-N’s best football coaches, if not the best. He also coached with Hal Young, the head coach of the Rule Baby Golden Bears for a while.
After starting at Lonsdale, Roe coached in many other programs in Knoxville, including Rule, the Alice Bell Braves, the Baby Falcons and the Raiders.
Some of Roe’s highlights include his first season in 1967 when Lonsdale had a 9-3 record … a 12-0 record in 1975 when Lonsdale beat Oak Ridge … the Rule Cutters (12-2) winning the City championship in 1977 … his 1980 Midget team at Rule (10-1) winning the City title … his 1984 Alice Bell team (16-2) sweeping the City league crown and the City-County championship … his 1986 Baby Falcons’ grasshopper team taking the City and County championships plus posting a 16-0 record. Roe also was proud to say that his youngest son Mitch was the star running back on that team.
In 1987, Roe’s oldest son, “Scrap,” was a sophomore and played at Rule High. With both of his sons playing football then, Roe put coaching on the back burner to watch his sons play.
Roe got back into football with the Raiders’ program in 1993. Dixson worked with KCDC’s Community Housing, which funded the Raiders’ program. The Raiders also practiced at that time on the Knoxville College field.
The Raiders’ Midget teams won back-to-back championships under Roe in 1998 and 1999. The last season Roe coached was 2022.
