Inductees

James Roberts still remembers growing up in north Springfield and his mom not only teaching in a middle school in the 1950s and 1960s but also making sure kids – those who didn’t have much – were made to feel special.

“My mom taught special education for 28 years at Robberson,” Roberts said. “She always helped the disadvantaged kids, to the extent she would keep clean clothes in her basement room. The kids would get to change into them and, before they went home, they changed backed into the clothes they came to school in.”

Roberts never forgot those valuable lessons and so, when it came time to give back, he did enormously.

That’s why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame is honoring Roberts with the President’s Award with the Class of 2017. It’s given to an individual who supports athletics in the state and especially supports the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

The Missouri Sports Hall of Fame is a 501c-3 not-for-profit, which does not seek any taxpayer dollars but hosts numerous fundraising events, all to honor the state’s most influential figures ever to walk across the sports page.

Beyond that, the Hall of Fame staff also manages the PGA Web.com Tour’s Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper, which has gifted almost $14 million to Ozarks children’s charities in the past 27 years. (The tournament gifted more than $905,000 in 2016.)

A 1967 Glendale High School and 1971 Drury University graduate, Roberts has been a key supporter of both efforts since about the year 2000. He also has financially backed other special projects.

“It’s important that the needs of our unprivileged children and their families are served,” said Roberts, a member of the Platte Woods United Methodist Church and who is known for his energy and nose for entrepreneur opportunities.

In the year 2000, he founded and remains the Chairman and CEO of Transportation Logisitical Services and Air-X. That year, he met Jerald Andrews, the President & Executive Director of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame and the Executive Tournament Director of the Price Cutter tournament.

“Jerald was having a golf tournament in Kansas City at the club I belonged to,” Roberts said. “I thought it’d be fun to play in the tournament. And the more I thought about what he was up to with the Hall of Fame, I thought, ‘This is a good way to support things in Greene County, my home.”

Roberts, whose maternal family settled in the county in 1843, spent high school and college working at A&P Grocery on Glenstone Avenue in order to make ends meet for his family.

“It was my home and it’s great to be able to give back something to your home,” Roberts said.

Specifically, Roberts played in the MSHOF’s Celebrity Golf Classics as well as the Stan Musial Hall of Fame Championship, an 18-team elite event. All are held at the state’s finest courses.

“I won a lot of them,” Roberts said. “I usually brought in a couple of very longtime buddies and played these events.”

When Roberts heard about the Price Cutter Charity Championship, he rushed to support it. The PCCC is more than a four-day golf tournament that helps determine 50 PGA Tour cards. It also features numerous events, including a dozen pro-ams – in which Roberts was a regular.

“These are good in raising a lot of money for charity,” Roberts said. “Even when I was growing up, there were a lot of people in need.”

Roberts worked for Greene County government in handling grants, later became the first state director of the Green Thumb project. He went on to work for AARP in D.C. and Dallas, and spoke at the 1984 Republican National Convention before eventually joining Direct Pharmaceuticals. Roberts moved to Kansas City in 1986 and has been a developer of private prisons.

In Kansas City, Roberts also financially supported Park High School athletics and a Kansas City summer travel baseball team called the Sluggers. He has served on the Platte County Jail Commission and chaired the 100^th anniversary reunion of Lamba Chi Alpha Fraternity at Drury, raising $100,000 for scholarships.

Roberts is father to Matthew and Laurel, husband to Linda and owns a golden retriever, Happ, and a basset hound, Judge Dizzy Doubleday Van-Hightail.

“It’s been an interesting life to say the least,” Roberts said. “Even when there have been some dark clouds come along, I’ve been very, very fortunate. I just believe it is important to give back. Overall, I just think it’s important to help people and support friends.”