Southeastern Oklahoma State University Athletics

Tennis (1962-66)

Steve Roemer was one of the great players who was a part of the tennis dynasty developed by legendary Southeastern coach Clarence Dyer, whose Savages won nineteen OCC Championships and played in thirteen NAIA National Tournaments in the period between 1946 and 1973.

Born on January 19, 1944 in Ardmore, Oklahoma, Roemer attended high school in Shawnee where he played on three state championship tennis teams. One of his Shawnee teammates was Curtis Richmond, who later became a Southeastern tennis Hall of Famer.

Roemer was recruited to Southeastern by Coach Dyer in 1962 and played on the Savage teams that won four Oklahoma Collegiate Conference championships and earned four trips to the NAIA National Tournament. He had an outstanding collegiate career, winning conference championships in both singles and doubles. He won the conference singles championship in 1966. He won three conference doubles championships with three different playing partners- in 1964 with Ike Groce, in 1965 with Billy Shields, and in 1966 with Curtis Richmond.

Southeastern tennis teams were so dominant in conference play during Roemer’s college years that the singles quarterfinals and doubles finals were always composed entirely of Savages. The toughest opponents the Savages played were their teammates.

Roemer reached the quarterfinals in singles in the NAIA national tournament in 1965 and was one of the top sixteen seeds in 1966. He also reached the quarterfinals in doubles in 1965 with Billy Shields and the semi-finals in doubles in 1966 with Curtis Richmond. The NAIA began naming All-Americans the year after Steve graduated. He would have been a certain two year All-American under NAIA qualifications.

Steve Roemer’s collegiate win—lose record was a sparkling 80-20 in singles play and 88-13 in doubles. His great career brought honor to Southeastern Oklahoma State University. The University honored Roemer with membership in the Athletic Hall of Fame on January 15, 2000.