WVU Sports Hall of Fame

Inducted: 2008

Written by Bryan Messerly

E. Roy Lester, a native of Spencer, W.Va., was a three-sport letterman in football, basketball and baseball from 1946-49.

One of the few three-sport lettermen, he served as a center on the basketball team, played 21 games and scored 27 points in his career. Lester also was an end for the Mountaineers’ 1949 Sun Bowl team under the direction of head coach Dudley S. DeGroot. Throughout his career on the football team, he had 16 receptions for 259 yards and two touchdowns. As an outfielder for the baseball team, Lester lettered from 1947-49. In his final two seasons, Lester collected 53 hits and held a .339 batting average.

After graduating from WVU with a degree in political science, Lester went on to play for the Philadelphia Eagles’ farm team, the Paterson Panthers, in New Jersey in 1949. In 1950, he began his coaching career with a two-year stint at Walton High, in Walton, W.Va., and then moved to Allegany High in Cumberland, Md.

From 1958-68, Lester was head coach at Richard Montgomery High, in Rockville, Md., where he posted an impressive 86-10-1 record. At the completion of his final season in 1968, he held a record of 25-consecutive victories.

After a remarkable coaching career at the high school level, Lester was hired as head coach at Maryland in 1969 and served in that capacity for three years. He also served as assistant coach with the Terrapins for three seasons.

Lester resides in Gaithersburg, Md. He has four children: three boys, Roy Jr., Chris and Tommy, and one girl, Amy.