By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Now in his 15th year as Tennessee Tech University's Faculty Athletics Representative, Dr. Jeff Roberts continues to serve and support Golden Eagle student-athletes and the Athletics Department at not just the Ohio Valley Conference level, but at a national level.
Roberts recently accepted an appointment to serve on the Faculty Athletics Representative Association (FARA) Executive Committee as the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Representative. He will serve as one of 17 members of the FARA Executive Committee.
"I value and enjoy FARA and I'm in a position now where I can return the favor, helping to provide other FAR's programming and advice so as to do their job with maximum impact," Roberts said. "To me, it's about paying it forward; to help an organization that has helped me. It's a great honor and a privilege to serve in this capacity. I'm excited to have the opportunity."
In his 15 years serving Tech Athletics, he has attended FARA meetings in Baltimore, New Orleans, San Diego, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Denver, and Atlanta, often providing summary reports of the sessions to his fellow OVC FAR's. Roberts has attended nearly as many NCAA Regional Rules Seminars as FARA meetings and served the NCAA on the Amateurism Fact-Finding Committee from 2009-2012.
"There seem to be two main roles or duties that I will be fulfilling in this position," Roberts explained. "Planning the FARA meetings for the upcoming year and advocacy for all 127 FCS institutions with the NCAA national leadership. So planning and being a liaison are the two main aspects, alongside FARA's main goals of ensuring academic integrity, institutional control of athletics, and student-athlete welfare."
Roberts has served the OVC on the Bylaws, Awards, and Graduation subcommittees and currently sits on the Championships Cabinet. Always eager to learn and gain new experiences, Roberts has made visits to all 12 OVC campuses and has attended each OVC postseason tournament or championship event at least once while the Golden Eagles competed.
"The bottom line is I enjoy it," Roberts expressed about traveling to events. "I enjoy sports. I enjoy interacting with the student-athletes and the coaching staffs. I feel like if I can show up and give them some encouragement, I can help make a difference. I still remember being one of the few staff members who were able to attend the NCAA Championships when the tennis team went up to Ohio State [May 14, 2016].
"I saw [former Tech tennis student-athlete and current assistant coach] Edu [Mena] give the No. 1-ranked player in the country, from my alma mater, more than he could handle. That was just precious and I will never forget that for as long as I live. It's great to see our students succeed and wonderful to see them compete."
Since joining the Tech Athletics family, he has served on search committees for all but one of the current Golden Eagle head coaches, as well as for key administrative positions such as Director of Athletics, Director of Sports Medicine, and Director of Athletic Performance.
He has chaired the Student-Athlete Appeals Committee at least 25 times and has also served on the University Athletics Committee for more than 20 years. Upon being appointed to the TTU Sports Hall of Fame Selection Committee in 1995, Roberts drafted new selection procedures that remain in use to this day.
"My favorite aspect of being FAR is nominating and presenting awards to our student-athletes," Roberts said. "The OVC Scholar-Athlete Award is hard to beat and probably my favorite. Every year, that evokes a special feeling of accomplishment when one of our candidates wins."
On Nov. 3, 2020, the OVC announced its six recipients of the 2020-21 Scholar-Athlete Award, including Golden Eagle volleyball senior Ali Verzani. She represented the fifth Tech student-athlete to take home the honor in the last five years and 35th in the history of the award.
"Jeff has been an invaluable member of our Athletics family and our University," Tech Director of Athletics Mark Wilson said. "His commitment to his position as Faculty Athletics Representative has been instrumental in our success on a number of fronts and I can never express enough gratitude to the lengths he goes to assist us and, more importantly, our student-athletes.
"He never hesitates to represent our programs at any level, serving on numerous committees that just help strengthen our department. This is just another example of his great leadership and commitment and I am eternally thankful we have him in our family here in Cookeville."
Joining the Tennessee Tech University faculty in 1991, Roberts was named as the chairman of the Department of History in 2002. Outside of athletics, he has served on the Faculty Senate since 1993 – including terms as Secretary and President. He served on the Academic Council for over two decades before moving to the Administrative Council in 2015.
An active member of the Cookeville Rotary Club since 1993, Roberts has served as Club President (2002-2003), District Assistant Governor (2006-2009), District Rotaract Chair (2009-2012), and as a faculty member of the District Leadership Academy (2010-2016). He is currently the Club Foundation Chair.
Roberts earned his B.A. in 1981 from Cornell University. He received his master's from The Ohio State University in 1984 and accepted his Doctor of Philosophy from Ohio State in 1990.
Photo by Thomas Corhern
