Class of 1979

Roland Day

Roland Day was an honored institution in Petersburg long before his 28 years of coaching were done at Petersburg High School; not only because he developed so many stars who later had brilliant careers at the college level, but because he was universally loved, especially in Petersburg.  The feeling was strongly mutual.  Day, a native of Columbus, Georgia, once said of his adopted home city, “This is my home.  I have raised my family here.  Petersburg is part of us, and it has been good to us.”
 
Quite naturally, after he bowed out of active coaching, Day served the city in three positions—Director of Petersburg’s recreation department, supervisor of physical education programs for the public schools, and coordinator of the city’s Civil Defense organization.  Day first began coaching while serving in the Navy, taking the reins at Woodrow Wilson High School in Portsmouth in 1917.  He later coached at Virginia Tech and Lynchburg College before accepting the Petersburg post in 1926.
 
Petersburg did not have a winning season until his 1929 team posted a 6-4 record.  From then until 1950, however, he suffered only through one other losing year.  From 1932 through 1945, his strongest clubs registered 114 victories while losing only 24 games and tying in 10.  Two of his teams were undefeated the 1933 squad going 12-0 and the 1937 group 10-0.  Among the hundreds of athletes who left him to go on to star college careers were Eric Tipton and Aubrey Gill at Duke University, Marvin Bass at William and Mary, and Will Rogers and Dick Boisseau at Washington & Lee.  In May of 1970, Petersburg paid honor to Day for his 50 years as a coach.
 
His philosophy in coaching was to “concentrate on fundamentals.  Never give the boys over 15 plays a season, but see to it that they learn those 15.  They get plenty of blocking and tackling drills.  We believe in that strongly.”  Upon his retirement in 1970, it was noted that in 28 years with Petersburg’s famed Crimson Wave, Day coached every sport: baseball, basketball, wrestling, track and field, and of course football all in his first 20 years.  His unbeaten 1933 team played in a post season game in Jacksonville, Florida on New Year’s Day, and many say that contest gave birth to the now-famed Gator Bowl.