Jan. 2, 2008
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| Rosevelt with his wife, Kristen. |
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Everyone has a story. Some stories are more interesting than others, and some stories have stories within them that are never told. For Rosevelt Noble, it’s the stories within his story that truly make him remarkable.
A former defensive back for Vanderbilt, Noble was able to balance the challenge of competing at a high level in the classroom and on the playing field to such an extraordinary level that he received his bachelor’s degree in three years. After earning his bachelor’s degree, Noble went on to earn a master’s degree and PhD.
Now, Noble has transferred his innate ability to balance multiple challenges during his days in college to his career.
Besides bouncing back and forth between his jobs as a sociology professor at Vanderbilt and the director for the Workforce Investment Act for the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, Noble is attending class – yes, more class, doing weekly community service, coaching a flag football team, writing a book, serving as a freelance photographer and trying to make time for a social life.
While that in itself makes for an interesting story, it is the little stories that truly define who Noble is.
You can tell people that Noble grew up poor in Kankakee, Ill., but Noble’s story is about himself, his brother, two sisters and parents sleeping in the same room of an efficiency apartment.
His story is about how he got his family their first microwave by winning a raffle at school.
“Our baseball league had a raffle when I was 10, and all the kids in the league were responsible for selling the raffle tickets,” Noble said. “They gave a scooter to whoever sold the most raffle tickets. When I saw that scooter, I made up in my mind that next year I was going to win that scooter. I developed a plan that every morning during the summer, I would get up and walk to the store, and I would sit out in front all day with my baseball uniform on asking people if they wanted to buy raffle tickets.
“I did this everyday for like three or four weeks selling these tickets. By the end of the raffle, I may have sold 2,500 tickets and the other kids weren’t even close. That day at the raffle, they raffled off 10 prizes, and I won five of them in addition to the scooter.
“My baseball coach had to take me home that day because I had so much stuff. That is how we got our first microwave, and how I got a Nintendo. I felt like a kid at Christmas.”
Noble’s story is about how the statistics say that he should be in jail right now.
“I came from one of those demographic backgrounds where statistically, I should be in jail,” Noble said. “My mom had my brother when she was 13, she had me when she was 16, she had my sister when she was 17 and she had my youngest sister when she was 21, so by the time she was 21, she had four kids. Statistically that is the profile of a broken-home situation. Despite the circumstances and characteristics of how we grew up, both my parents have actually always been together. Against all odds you have to refuse to become a statistic or you have to find a way to succeed.”
His story is about how he raised funds so he could attend a National Leadership Conference that he was chosen for.
“My senior year of high school I was selected to be one of two students from Illinois at a National Leadership Conference,” Noble said. “When I looked at the bill, I knew my parents couldn’t afford to send me there, so having the experience of developing a plan and having it come to fruition at that point and time was important.
“My old baseball coach had a radio show, and I did an interview over the air and got the word out that way. I typed up letters, I went to all these different churches and stood up during church announcements and told them who I was. It was about positioning yourself to be ready for an opportunity and when an opportunity knocks, you have to be willing or ready to let that person or opportunity in. You have to be open minded in recognizing where opportunities come from.”
His story is about how he grew up loving Notre Dame and how he was certain he would play football for the Irish.
“I was Notre Dame crazy,” Noble said. “I took senior class pictures in Notre Dame paraphernalia. I went to Notre Dame on a couple of official and unofficial visits.”
His story is about how he was recruited by Notre Dame and a host of others until, suddenly, the phone calls stopped coming.
“When the day came where coaches could start offering me, I was stuck waiting for letters and waiting for the phone to ring,” Noble said. “We’ve never come to a clearance, but I believe Notre Dame started a rumor that I had committed to them and others backed off, so my scholarship offers started dwindling. When (Vanderbilt) found out that I hadn’t (committed), I was flown down within a week.”
His story is about making a five-year plan as a senior in high school with the goal to graduate in three years.
“When (former Vanderbilt coach) Gerry DiNardo recruited me,” Noble said, “one of my first questions was, `Can I graduate in three years?’ He was kind of surprised by it, but I had a five-year plan that I laid out for him there. My plan was to come to Vanderbilt and get a bachelor’s degree in three years and with those last two years of eligibility, to get a master’s degree. I don’t know where it came from, but I’ve always been really focused on academics and seeing the big picture and realizing that athletics was just a means to the end kind of thing.”
His story is about the people that doubted he would ever accomplish his five-year plan.
“I was on a mission,” Noble said. “There were a lot of naysayers saying that I was crazy and it would never happen.”
His story is about the perception that he was too driven by academics and did not put the same effort into athletics.
“There was a perception that I was more academic-focused and in certain groups that wasn’t too tasteful,” Noble said. “They wanted me to watch 10 hours of film with them every night, but I chose not to do that.”
His story is about how an argument with a former assistant coach over his commitment, to football led to him earning his teammates respect over the course of a 12-minute span and the nickname of “Running Ro-Ro.”
“In my head it became my mission to show him that I could do both (academics and football) better than anybody he’s probably ever seen,” Noble said.
“We had to do a winter conditioning test, where you had to run 12 minutes on a treadmill and if you were a defensive back, you had to run for 2 minutes at 7.5 mph, 2 minutes at 8 mph, 2 minutes at 8.5 mph and 6 minutes at 9 mph.
“With my teammates there cheering me on, I ran the entire test at 9 mph on an incline. Ever since then, everyone called me Running Ro-Ro.”
His story is about being inducted into the National College Football Hall of Fame not because of his playing ability, but because of his service to the community and academic success.
“There was a semester where I did over 100 hours of community service by myself,” Noble said. “I strived to be tops in my class not just tops among athletes.”
His story is about how he has never stopped giving.
“What I do a lot of now are speaking engagements,” Noble said. “I’ve spoken at different elementary schools and the YMCA Bridge program. I’ve got a motivational speech I give called `Free Knowledge.'”
His story is about being a mentor and steering a 14-year-old down the right path after his friend was involved in a shooting.
“I meet with him every Tuesday when I get out of class,” Noble said. “I go meet with him for an hour, and we do different things on and around campus. I try to expose him to a college campus and try to make sure he doesn’t wind up down that path, too.”
His story is about wanting to continue his education despite already holding three degrees.
“It is kind of a running joke around (the office), but I’m working on my associate’s degree,” Noble said. “I’m taking a photography class from Nashville State. I usually take one class per semester on photography.”
His story is about finding new opportunities.
“I’ve always had a passion for photography, but it wasn’t until the last two or three years that I started thinking about it in a business sense,” Noble said. “It is one of those areas where I didn’t realize how creative I was until I kind of took off with it a little bit more.
His story also is about finding time to coach Vanderbilt’s women’s flag football team, while also making time to write a book about former African-American student-athletes at Vanderbilt.
But most importantly, his story is about family and education.
It is about his recent marriage to his wife, Kristen, who is a 2003 Vanderbilt graduate and former manager for the women’s basketball team. It is about her working toward her dual MD and PhD degrees.
It is about both of his sisters attending graduate school and his mom and brother working toward their bachelor’s degrees.
Lastly, his story is about how one man has made such an incredible difference.
