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Robert M. Sterling Sr. (born August 6, 1918) was an American athlete, physical training instructor, coach, athletic administrator, and basketball official. He was a three-sport coach at Rutgers University in New Brunswick for more than 10 years, refereed basketball games in New Jersey and was one of three founders of the New Jersey State Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Robert Sterling Sr. | |
|---|---|
 Portrait in 1993 | |
| Born | August 6, 1918 |
| Died | April 4, 2019 |
| Alma mater | Montclair State University |
| Occupation(s) | Athlete and coach |
Early life and education
editSterling was born in Newark, New Jersey on August 6, 1918, three months before his father died during the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. He was the second child and only son of Praxeda and Milford Hugh Sterling, a native of Jersey City, New Jersey and a U.S. Navy veteran. Sterling attended the Fourteenth Avenue School, Robert Treat Junior High School and West Side High School in Newark. At West Side, Sterling was the starting first baseman on the school's baseball team in the mid-1930s.
Sterling enrolled at Panzer College of Physical Education and Hygiene in East Orange, in 1938. He earned four varsity letters each in soccer, basketball and baseball at Panzer and was a starting member of the school's basketball team that won 44 consecutive games between 1938 and 1940, a national record at the time.[1] As a pitcher on the baseball team, he once won five games in 10 days and also threw a no-hit game against Savage College of New York City on April 28, 1938.[2] Sterling earned a master's degree in administration and supervision from Rutgers University in 1947 and later taught as an adjunct professor in the Rutgers Education School.[3][4]
Military service
editSterling enlisted in the service in Newark on February 2, 1942, a month after graduating and two months after the start of World War II. He remained in the Newark Armory's induction center as a physical fitness and recreation instructor for eight months before being promoted to corporal and getting transferred to Maxwell Field in Montgomery, Alabama. There, he served as an aviation cadet physical fitness instructor. His next stop as a U.S. Army Air Corps PT instructor was Turner Field in Albany, Georgia, where he authored an illustrated fitness booklet entitled “Turner’s Twenty Toning Techniques.” He allowed the booklet to be published under the name of his commanding officer who, as a thank-you, sent Sterling to Officer Candidates School (OCS) in Miami Beach, Florida. At OCS, Sterling was chosen a squadron leader and put in charge of the local hotel where the rising officers lived. He graduated from OCS as a Second Lieutenant on May 29, 1943.[5] His first assignment as an officer was at the primary flight school in Jackson, Tennessee, where he again served as an aviation cadet physical fitness instructor. When that school closed, Sterling was reassigned as the officer in charge of aviation cadet physical fitness at Taylor Field in Ocala, Florida. He served in Ocala from December 10, 1943, until September 14, 1944. When Taylor Field closed, Sterling was sent to Smyrna, Tennessee, before he requested a reassignment to Shaw Field in Sumter, South Carolina. At Shaw, he was both a physical fitness instructor and coach. From January 22 to February 3, 1945, Sterling completed a physical training instructor's course at the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center before returning to Shaw Field. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on February 26, 1945. Sterling was separated from the military at Shaw Field on March 21, 1946, and discharged at Mitchell Field in New York.[6]
Career
editSterling was offered a position as an assistant professor of physical education at Rutgers University–New Brunswick. Included in his responsibilities was serving as assistant coach of the soccer, basketball, and baseball teams. His family lived in faculty housing in the University Heights section of Piscataway, New Jersey, across the Raritan River from New Brunswick. In his 11 years at Rutgers, Sterling coached three All-American athletes (Art Brinkman, Harding “Pete” Peterson, and Ray Van Cleef), along with three others who became members of the university's Athletics Hall of Fame. Two members of his team went on to star with the Rutgers varsity and were later voted into the school's hall of fame – Larry Gordon and George “Swede” Sundstrom. Sterling left Rutgers in 1957 after Mason Welch Gross, the university's provost, decided to de-emphasize athletics. Hardest hit was the football program, which lost Frank R. Burns. At the time this was happening, Piscataway Township was in the midst of opening its high school and Sterling accepted a job as the school's athletic director and head of the physical education and health department. He brought with him to Piscataway a number of his departing Rutgers colleagues.[7][8] Sterling remained in that position until his retirement at the end of December 1986 at the age of 68.[9]
Basketball officiating
editSterling refereed high school and college basketball games from 1947 through the 1972–73 season, including many county and state championships in New Jersey. Under the tutelage of Vincent dePaul Farrell, Newark's city recreation director, he became an international official and refereed at the VII Central American & Caribbean Games in Mexico City (1954); the Pan-American Games in Mexico City (1955), Chicago (1959) and Winnipeg, Canada (1967); the 16th South American Basketball Championships in Cali, Colombia, (1955), and the Central American Basketball Championships in Guatemala (1966).[10]
Sterling was the longtime director of the Rutgers Prep Basketball Camp. He was also the announcer at New Jersey's state high school track and field championships for many years.
Honors and recognition
editPersonal life and death
editSterling married Florence M. O’Mara of Millburn, New Jersey, on June 27, 1943, while he was in the service and she was teaching and coaching at a women's college outside of Philadelphia.[13] The couple had three children – Robert Jr. and twins Sally and Guy Sterling. The family lived in Dunellen, New Jersey, for many years. Florence died at home on May 31, 2004. Sterling died of natural causes in hospice care on April 8, 2019. He was buried with his wife and daughter in the family plot at St. Teresa of Avila Cemetery in Summit, New Jersey.[14]
References
edit- ^ "44th in Row for Panzer" (PDF). The New York Times. 1940-12-21. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
- ^ "Panzer Ends Perfect Year: John Marshall Conquest Is 40th Straight for Panthers" (PDF). The Star-Ledger. 1940-01-01. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
- ^ "Panzer Boys Win Non-Athletic Honors" (PDF). The Star-Ledger. 1942-01-01. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
- ^ "Who's Who Award Among Students in American Colleges and Universities in 1941-42" (PDF). Myles Zhang. Who’s Who. 1942-06-06. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
- ^ "Army Air Forces: Officer Candidate School" (PDF). Myles Zhang. Army of the United States. 1943-05-29. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
- ^ "Separation Qualification Record" (PDF). Myles Zhang. Army of the United States. 1946-03-21. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
- ^ "Six Area High Schools Form Mid-State League" (PDF). The Courier News. 1970-04-24. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
- ^ "Joe Namath Generation Called "Brightest Ever"" (PDF). The Courier News. 1970-04-24. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
- ^ "1997 Annual Banquet of the North Jersey Board of Approved Basketball Officials" (PDF). Myles Zhang. North Jersey Board of Approved Basketball Officials. 1997-03-25. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
- ^ "Winds Blow and Score Soars" (PDF). The Courier News. 1966-05-04. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
- ^ "6th Annual Newark Athletic Hall of Fame, 1993 Induction Ceremony" (PDF). Myles Zhang. Newark Athletic Hall of Fame. 1993-06-17. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
- ^ "1997 Annual Banquet of the North Jersey Board of Approved Basketball Officials" (PDF). Myles Zhang. North Jersey Board of Approved Basketball Officials. 1997-03-25. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
- ^ "Certificate of Marriage" (PDF). Myles Zhang. St Rose of Lima Church in Short Hills, NJ. 1946-03-10. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
- ^ Guy Sterling (2019-04-04). "Bob Sterling's Funeral Home Eulogy" (PDF). Myles Zhang. Sheenan Funeral Home, 233 Dunellen Ave, Dunellen, NJ. Retrieved 2024-07-28.