Every Tuesday during the offseason, High School Football America (HSFA) will run a feature called Turnback Tuesday. We start today with former NFL quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III, who is now a college football analyst with ESPN.
HSFA co-founder Jeff Fisher wrote about RG3’s time at Copperas Cove in Texas in his 2018 book High School Football in Texas: Amazing Football Stories From the Greatest Players of Texas.
Below is the segment on Griffin in Fisher’s book:
High School Football in Texas: Amazing Football Stories From the Greatest Players of Texas
Griffin’s life began on another continent. He was born in Okinawa, Japan where his parents, Robert Jr. and Jacqueline were stationed in the Army. When they retired from military duty, they settled in Copperas Cove.
Robert Lee Griffin III was born February 12, 1990. At Copperas Cove High School, Griffin played three sports — basketball, football and track. Griffin said that growing up he looked up to Copperas Cove alum Charles Tillman, who was in the early part of his NFL career with the Chicago Bears.
“I was in junior high school and he was fresh into the league, doing a good job,” said Griffin about Tillman. “A lot of kids like myself looked up to him back in Copperas Cove. He came back and we were playing basketball. I was real shy and I didn’t want to ask him for his autograph. He doesn’t remember this, but I walked up to him asking for his autograph and he told me, ‘Keep at it young buck, my friend is telling me that you’ve got a lot of success ahead.’”
Griffin, who is nine years younger than Tillman, added, “He kind of showed a lot of the young kids in Copperas Cove — the military brats — that you can make it, no matter what’s going on, how many times you move, no matter what happens with your family in the military. And he also showed that you gotta give back.”
Long before he was RGIII, his high school coach Jack Welch said there was no doubt that Griffin was going to be special. He said, he knew as far back as the third grade.
“Oh, we knew who Robert was right from the start. I remember his younger sister was my office aide and she’d always say ‘hey coach, you need to look at my little brother’ and I’d say we know about your little brother,” laughed Welch.
Welch added, “What was really neat was Robert used to always send notes to my brother Tracy, our offensive coordinator and quarterback coach, when he was in the seventh and eighth grade. Robert would always sign those notes ‘your future Bulldawg quarterback.’”
Welch said that even in the third grade, Griffin was going to AAU track meets and setting national records.
Welch said, “I would always get asked if what he (Griffin) was doing on the football field surprised him? My answer was no…he’s been under the gun since the third and fourth grades.”
Griffin finished his high school career with 3,357 yards passing with 41 touchdowns and only nine interceptions. He ran for 2,161 yards and 32 touchdowns in his two years as the school’s starting quarterback.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Griffin’s track exploits. He broke the state records in the 110-meter (13.55 seconds) and 300-meter hurdles (35.33), just missing the national high school record in the 300 hurdles by 1/100th of a second. As a junior, Griffin was named the Gatorade Texas Track and Field Athlete of the Year. He was named the 2007 USA TODAY All-USA Track and field team.
Below you can watch some of RG3’s high school football highlights.
