Joseph Lawrence Roth (May 29, 1955 – February 19, 1977)[1] was a college football player and All-American[2][3] quarterback for the California Golden Bears.

[6] Originally a back-up, he started the fourth game of the 1975 season, and led the Golden Bears to the Pac-8 title as co-champions.

The season was more tumultuous, and towards the end of the year Roth's performance started to drop, but he was named an All-American and finished ninth in the Heisman Trophy voting.

[9] After the season ended, he revealed that halfway through it he had been diagnosed with terminal melanoma – apparently the metastasis of a mole removed from his face several years earlier.

According to a friend's reminiscence, during the Japan Bowl festivities Roth had agreed to sit for a thirty-minute autograph session; but finding, at the end of the scheduled time, hundreds of children still waiting, he continued to sign until every child had an autograph, after which he left the building and vomited.