Former West Rome coach remembered as kind and passionate

It’s easy for a football coach to get wrapped up in a game, but Robert Green made an effort to take just as much interest in his players’ lives. And they were grateful for everything he did.

Green, who was an assistant coach at West Rome High School under Nick Hyder before heading up the program from 1974-1977, died last Monday in Gainesville. He was 78.

“He was more like a father figure than a coach,” Rome City Commissioner and former player Craig McDaniel said. “He was just a very soft-spoken fellow. He never raised his voice. He never said a word of profanity or talked down to a player.

“When you’re a young guy, you’re looking for role models, and guys like him and Hyder were just very good role models.”

Green was the third head football coach at West Rome, after Paul Kennedy and Hyder, and posted a record of 30-13-5 in his four seasons, including going 10-2-1 in his first season at the helm and leading the Chieftains to the 1974 Class AA state title game.

McDaniel, who graduated from West Rome in 1971, was an offensive lineman under coach Green’s instruction and recalled how he would teach them the trap plays that became a staple of the Chieftain’s offense.

“He was a good head coach and knew a lot about football,” McDaniel said. “He touched the lives of a lot people.”

Mike Weaver, who graduated in 1977, played for Green after he was named head coach and was there when West Rome fell to Americus 6-9 in the state title game.

“Coach Green was a fine Christian man and his wife was just a great lady,” Weaver said. “He was a tremendous asset to West Rome. Everyone loved him, and he was very passionate about the game. He would sometimes get so fired up in the locker room at halftime tears would stream down his face.”

His wife, Sandra Davis Green, was a teacher at West Rome as well and his families were active members at West Rome Baptist Church.

“Every single person that I have talked to who has heard, the initial response is how he was such a good, good man,” his daughter Debbie Green McAfee said. “Yeah, it’s sort of cliché, but I think he represented one of the best men who ever lived. From his kindness to his compassion, generosity, caring of his players; he just represented a very kind-hearted person that is hard to find.”

As a child in elementary school at the time, McAfee said it was only as an adult that she was able to grasp the kind of influence her father had in the West Rome community.She said she remembers how much her father would go out of his way to make sure black players were made a part of the team and all of its activities during a time when segregation was still evident in the South. He would pick them up for practices, drive them home and bring them over to the house to grill steaks when they were some of the top players on the team.

“The thing about Rome was, he always put other people first,” his wife said. “Whether helping emotionally or financially, he never let anybody know just how much he did for the team, the players and the coaching staff. I just think that was one of the most important things about his time there.”

After his time at West Rome, Green became an assistant coach at Gainesville High School under legendary coach Bobby Gruhn and retired from there.

He then took the job as the head football coach at The Donoho School, a private school in Anniston, Alabama. He spent 10 seasons there, from 1991-2001, leading them to two 10-2 seasons and finishing with a 65-54 record.

His 40-year coaching career at an end, Green returned to Gainesville and spent time enjoying life with his six grandchildren, taking them on the water any chance he got. Weaver, who now has a law practice in Gainesville, said he always enjoyed seeing Green when he stopped by in recent years.

“He’s always been a very special person to me and a great man, and I’m a better man for having known him.”