Draft:Robert Sterling Sr.

Robert Sterling Sr.
Portrait in 1993
Born	(1918-08-06)August 6, 1918 Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	April 4, 2019(2019-04-04) (aged 100)
Alma mater	Montclair State University
Occupations	Athlete coach

Robert M. Sterling Sr. (August 6, 1918 – April 4, 2019) 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.

Early life and education

Sterling 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 in 1938 at Panzer College of Physical Education and Hygiene in East Orange (which later became part of Montclair State University). 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. 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. 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.

Military service

Sterling 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. 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.

Career

Sterling 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.

In 1957, Piscataway Township High School opened and Sterling accepted a job as the school's athletic director. He was also head of the physical education and health department. He brought with him to Piscataway a number of his departing Rutgers colleagues. Sterling remained in that position until his retirement at the end of December 1986 at the age of 68.

Basketball officiating

Sterling 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).

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

• Newark Athletic Hall of Fame (1993)
• Frank C. Corrigan Memorial Award, North Jersey Board of Approved Basketball Officials (1997)

Personal life and death

Sterling 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. 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.

References

This page will be placed in the following categories if it is moved to the article namespace.

Categories:

• 1918 births
• 2019 deaths
• Sportspeople from Newark, New Jersey
• Baseball players from New Jersey
• Track and field athletes from New Jersey
• Basketball coaches from New Jersey
• People from Dunellen, New Jersey
• Montclair State University alumni
• Rutgers University faculty
• West Side High School (New Jersey) alumni