20 Facts About Doug Roby

Douglas Fergusson Roby was an American sportsman and Olympics official.

Doug Roby was vice president and president of the United States Olympic Committee and one of two American members of the International Olympic Committee.

In February 1920, Doug Roby transferred to the University of Michigan, where he worked his way through college by racking balls in a billiards parlor six hours a day.

Doug Roby played for the Michigan Wolverines in 1921 and 1922 both as a left fielder in baseball and a fullback in football.

Doug Roby graduated in a degree in business administration in 1923.

Doug Roby played professional football for one year with the Cleveland Indians in 1923.

Doug Roby was the starting tailback in all seven games for the Indians in 1923, scoring one touchdown and kicking an extra point.

Doug Roby joined the American Metal Products Company, a Detroit-based automotive parts manufacturer in 1926, and retired as board chairman in 1963.

Doug Roby was the company's president in 1958 when a furnace being used to temper automobile seat springs exploded, collapsing the roof of the company's three-block-long plant, causing injury to several workers.

Doug Roby began a fifty-year career as an athletic official by serving several terms on the University of Michigan's Board in Control of Athletics.

From 1939 through the 1960s, Doug Roby sought to bring the Olympics to Detroit.

Doug Roby was quite hurt that Detroit prevailed over Los Angeles in the competition before the American Olympic Committee for the right to bid for the games.

Doug Roby had called the USOC executive board into session immediately after the protest; they issued a two-page statement apologizing to the IOC and the Mexican hosts for the act, saying no action was planned but hinting that no further demonstrations would be tolerated.

Doug Roby later defended the decision in an interview with The New York Times, saying:.

At the 1968 Olympics, Doug Roby condemned members of the rowing team from Harvard that publicly endorsed the demonstrations.

Doug Roby sent a letter to Harvard's coach criticizing his alleged involvement.

Doug Roby resigned from the IOC in 1985 and retired from the USOC in 1986.

Doug Roby died of heart failure at a nursing home in Ann Arbor.

Doug Roby was 94 years old at the time of his death in 1992, making him the oldest living U-M letterman.

Doug Roby was survived by a son, Douglas F Roby Jr.