Union University Athletics

Roy Stewart was an outstanding three-sport athlete for the 1922-26 Bulldogs. The 172 pound left half-back started all four years for the Bulldogs gridiron squad. In 1924 he was named Most Valuable Man for the team.  He was the captain of the 1926 team. He was selected as the winner of the Dr. Hal Baker football trophy his senior season. After graduation he served as an assistant football coach under Union and NFL Hall of Famer Joe Guyon. Stewart was also an outstanding outfielder on the Bulldog baseball team and forward on the basketball squad. 

Stewart was named the Union University Top Athlete of the first 50 years of the 1900’s. 

After leaving Union he went to Murray State University as an assistant coach in 1932 and was named head coach in 1933. He served as head coach for 12 seasons compiling an impressive 60-34-11 record. He then became the Athletic Director at Murray State until he retired in 1967. The football stadium at Murray State is named Roy Stewart Field. He was inducted into the Murray State Hall of Fame in 1971. 

He is regarded as the “Founding Father” of the OVC in which he along with Eastern Kentucky University’s Charles Hughes and Western Kentucky University’s Dr. Kelly Thompson planned the creation of the Conference in 1941. He was inducted into the OVC Hall of Fame in 1977.

Stewart was also very involved on campus. He served as the President of the student body. He was the winner of the A. W. Prince Medal his senior year. As a member of the ATO fraternity he was a delegate to the ATO national convention. He also served on the Cardinal and Cream and Lest We Forget staff’s as booster editor and athletic editor.