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Willie Roaf, a Pine Bluff High School graduate, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame at Canton, Ohio, this past weekend. This fall, students at PBHS will have their own Hall of Fame celebration for Roaf.
NFL representatives will place a bronze plaque honoring him inside his alma mater and have a ceremony in his honor at the school. Roaf, named an All-American in 1992 while playing for Louisiana Tech, was a first round draft pick the following year by the New Orleans Saints. He played nine seasons with New Orleans and four with the Kansas City Chiefs on the road to Canton.
“From a local scenario, this will let kids know if you are willing to work, stay focused and keep your nose clean, you can reach the top of your area of work,” Roaf’s father, Clifton, said. “It’s important for our kids to have as a role model someone like Will.”
During the ceremony, the students will also learn about another former Zebra, Don Hutson, who’s in the Hall of Fame. The 1931 PBHS graduate, an All-American at Alabama who played 11 seasons with Green Bay, was inducted into the Hall as a charter member in 1963.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“That means a lot, only two of us from Pine Bluff in the Hall,” Roaf observed. Roaf was one of two Arkansans to be inducted this year, joining Rivercrest graduate Cortez Kennedy, who played 11 years as a defensive tackle for the Seattle Seahawks.
The rarity of someone from Pine Bluff entering the Hall made the induction special for Roaf, the third of Clifton and Andree Roaf’s four children. Clifton is a dentist, and Andree, who died in 2009, was the first black Arkansas Supreme Court justice.
Willie Roaf resides in Anaheim, Calif., owning rental properties there, and in Kansas City, Mo. He has three daughters and one son.
Billy Long, Roaf’s strength coach in Kansas City, holds Roaf the person in high esteem.
“He is a better person than he is a football player,” Long said. “He’s a hell of a football player. But he’s a better man and a better daddy than he is a football player.”
That’s a legacy that should be considered along with the NFL plaque at PBHS.
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The voter-approved economic development sales tax generated revenues of $3.5 million for its first year of collection, Lou Ann Nisbett, president and chief executive officer of The Economic Development Alliance of Jefferson County, told the Pine Bluff-Jefferson County Port Authority Board of Directors meeting Wednesday.
Thus far, the Economic Development Board has appropriated $329,000 to Horizon Foods and $73,000 to Vivone Bioscience for industry start-ups. Vivone occupies laboratory space at the Pine Bluff Arsenal, while Horizon has taken over the former Tyson Foods poultry plant on West Second Avenue in Pine Bluff.
Port Authority Board President David Bush said he’s hopeful the tax may soon generate “something with the port.”
Nisbett cited a recent Southern Growth Policies Board commentary, describing the report as an informative account of the “challenge and opportunity” offered by a current workforce skills gap.
The paper, authored by Allen Rose, Sullivan University System vice president for business and governmental relations, noted that there are approximately 600,000 unfilled jobs in American manufacturing sector.
Many companies today can’t find the skilled individuals needed for current advanced manufacturing workplaces, the article observed. The “talent shortage” within industry must be addressed for the nation’s manufacturing sector is to compete in the global economy.
Our colleges and universities can reduce the “talent shortage.”