Chadron State College Athletic Hall of Fame
A native of Mitchell where he was a member of some dominant teams in the mid-1930s, Houser may have been the only combination football lineman and distance runner in CSC annals. He reportedly started four years at center for the Eagles’ football teams beginning in 1937. He also won the two-mile at the Nebraska Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Meet in 1940 in 10:42.2 and was the runner-up the next year. Ross Armstrong said he thought Houser also won the race at the 1939 meet, but that was never confirmed.
Houser’s brother, George, also was a distance runner for the Eagles in the same era. He won the mile at the conference meet in 1940 in 4:45.2 and was second the following year. He wanted to play football, too, but said he couldn’t afford it. That’s because Roy was one of the college’s student-janitors, a job that paid $15 a month, enough to cover his board and room. But CSC rules said just one member of a family could hold one of the lucrative jobs at a time, so George had to find work off-campus and couldn’t fit football into his schedule.
In his later years, Roy he owned several electric razor sales and service outlets in California. He died in June 1984, just a few months before he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
