LEE ROY SELMON: Remembering USF Athletics' Guiding Light on the 10th Anniversary of His Passing
By Joey Johnston
Excerpt from the book "The Silver Stampede, 25th Anniversary of South Florida Football" available now for purchase at the USF Bookstore.
Lee Roy Selmon.
The name carries enormous clout in the sports world and remains on the short list of Tampa Bay royalty.
He was among the finest athletes ever produced by the University of Oklahoma, a national champion, a College Football Hall of Famer, a consensus All-American, an Academic All-American as well.
He was a cornerstone of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the NFL's first overall draft pick in 1976, a perennial Pro Bowler and the league's Defensive Player of the Year in 1979. He was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1995 and named the franchise's first Ring of Honor inductee.
For years, the Selmon name was part of a popular barbecue restaurant chain. It adorns the Crosstown Expressway, a well-traveled thoroughfare that connects much of the area to downtown Tampa.
That Selmon name still reverberates around USF. You can't write the history of USF football without including Selmon in the first chapter. He rallied the community and provided fundraising muscle. He was the face of the program, a respected, credible source of inspiration and vision. From 2001-04, he served as USF's athletic director.
As former USF athletic director Paul Griffin put it when he lured Selmon away from a banking career in 1993: "Potentially, we've hired the most effective builder of relationships that this university could ever have. I've never heard a bad word said about Lee Roy Selmon. I think the only people who don't like him are. maybe a bunch of former offensive tackles and quarterbacks."
Even now, a decade after his shocking death at age 56 that rocked the USF community and the entire Tampa Bay area, Selmon influences USF student-athletes, many of whom were in elementary school when he passed.
USF's Selmon Mentoring Institute provides a three-year program. and one-on-one mentoring for student-athletes as they prepare for professional life. An offshoot is the Enhancing U program, which teaches leadership, social engagement and career development.
"Lee Roy was a great athlete, but also a great scholar," former USF president Judy Genshaft said. "He always cared about the students first. He would say, 'Get yourself to concentrate. Get yourself to focus. Do your schoolwork. Don't get into trouble. And you'll be OK.' When those students listened to Lee Roy and followed his instructions, they were OK.
"He cared about them and where they were going in life. He had seen professional athletes over the years who ended up in bankruptcy or got into trouble. They hadn't finished their degrees and they were stuck. He believed in that form of education. Lee Roy just stood for all the right things, and it's really important for us to carry on his legacy."
Selmon's legacy began in Eufaula, Okla., a two-stoplight town in America's heartland. As the youngest of nine children, he grew up on a farm, where his father was a struggling sharecropper.
The home had no indoor plumbing, no refrigerator, no air. conditioning.
And no complaints.
"We sure didn't live in a bed of roses," Selmon once said. "To others, it probably looked like we had nothing. But in reality, we had everything."
The Selmon boys pushed a plow behind mules on the 160 acres of. rented land. They baled hay, tended 150-pound hogs and playfully squirted each other while milking the cows. They were busy with farm chores, school, odd jobs and studying. The family's tiny black-and-white television, which got just one channel, was used only on weekends.
On Saturdays, the Selmons hitched their riding wagon to a team of mules for the seven-mile ride into town. They brought bowls and spoons for ice cream treats underneath a shade tree.
Money was earmarked for survival and the church collection plate. The boys used a tin can for a football and eventually became star players for the Eufaula High Ironheads.
At Oklahoma, Selmon's Sooner teams were 43-2-1. He played on the defensive line with brothers Lucious and Dewey — each was a first-team All-American and an honors graduate. It prompted a popular bumper sticker: "Thank God For Mrs. Selmon."
The Bucs were an NFL expansion team in 1976, but Selmon was the easy choice for the franchise's first draft selection and the No. 1 overall pick.
"The Oklahoma people spoke of him in awe and it didn't take a genius to pick him," said Ron Wolf, who was the Bucs' vice president of football operations. "He had the strength of a 1,000-pound man. He was quick as a cat, I don't think there has been a better first pick in the draft — ever."
Selmon had 78.5 sacks in nine NFL seasons — his career was cut short by a back injury — but his best qualities couldn't be equated.
Let the players talk.
Former Bucs linebacker Richard Wood: "He was Superman. Even when Lee Roy would bash their heads in, the other guys respected him so much that, deep down, they loved him, too. There was never any celebrating or dancing, nothing bombastic. I think his curse word was 'heck.' ''
Former Bucs tight end Jimmie Giles: "The way he got off the ball, that burst, it was pure attitude. It was something that came from within, a God-given gift. He wanted to dominate you — and he would dominate you — but he didn't want to hurt you. He didn't want to embarrass you, either."
The opponents noticed.
"There were plays I never even touched him," former San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Bubba Paris said. "It was a major accomplishment just to get my hands on him. He was never a national icon, never a smooth-talking guy like Howie Long or anything. But the people who really understand what greatness is, the ones who strap on the helmets and put on the uniforms, they know what Lee Roy Selmon is all about. Lee Roy was out of this world."
Selmon was prepared for post-football life. He had been a banker in the offseason and easily transitioned into a financial career. He wasn't there just for show. A co-worker once called the office at 6:30 a.m., hoping to reach his supervisor. Selmon answered the phone.
"I remember he told me an idea he had about mentoring athletes and preparing them for their lives post-college, when they might have an enormous amount of celebrity and money, knowing it wouldn't always be there forever," said Jim Warren, who was senior vice president of First Florida Bank when Selmon was hired. "He wanted them to learn responsibility. I remember thinking, 'Well, here's another example of what this man is all about.' "
More than establishing the football program, Selmon's continuing impact on USF student-athletes is his true legacy. To many who are guided by the program that was his passion and enter the Selmon Athletics Center each day, it might be just a name lost in history.
But what a name.
"I never got to meet him, and I will always regret that," former USF football coach Willie Taggart said in 2016. "I do feel his spirit. I wake up every day, come to work and try to do something. that emulates what he did. The Selmon name is gold."
