He was one of the last three sport lettermen at the University of Kansas where he played football, basketball and did the high jump in track.
Roberts' brightest moment in a two-year hoops career at KU came when the 6-foot-4, 220-pounder's 12-foot jumper with three seconds left gave KU a 90–88, four-overtime victory over rival Kansas State in the finals of the 1962 Big Eight Holiday Tournament at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo.
In 2010, Roberts died of small cell lung cancer at the age of 67.
He donated his brain and spinal cord to medical research and was the first CFL player ever to do so.
[5] His son, Jed Roberts, also played in the CFL, for the Edmonton Eskimos.