Published: October 13, 2009 12:09 am      

Run pays tribute to Royse City athlete

Royse City will again remember one of its most courageous athletes with the running of the Stick Robinson Memorial 5K and Fun Run on Saturday.

The eighth annual event, which is part of Funfest, starts at 8 a.m. at the Royse City Methodist Church at Church and Josephine Streets. The entry fee is $20, including a race T-shirt. Registration and T-shirt pickup start at 7:15 a.m.

Desmond “Stick” Robinson, who stood only 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 165 pounds in high school, inspired many around him with his courage on the football field and in his long battle with leukemia that finally claimed him before he could realize a lifelong dream of playing professional football.

Robinson was a 1,000-yard rusher both in high school with the Royse City Bulldogs and at Ottawa University in Kansas, where he earned all-conference honors in 1993 and 1994 and was an NAIA all-America player in 1993.

Two former Royse City High School speedsters led the way in last year’s 5K race.

John Layden, a former standout 800-meter runner for the Bulldogs, was the overall champion for the third time with his clocking of 20 minutes, 11 seconds.

Megan Frausto, who was the Class 3A state 400-meter champion in 2007 for the Royse City Lady Bulldogs, captured the women’s title last year by only a second over her Royse City teammate Lacy Haren. Frausto, who is now at the University of Houston on a track and field scholarship, clocked a time of 22:58.

The family of Royse City police chief Tom Shelton won three titles in last year’s race. Tom claimed the men’s 51-60 age division with a 23:48 though slowed by an injured Achilles tendon.

His son Tommy Shelton, a former Austin College and Bulldog football player, won the men’s 21-30 division at 21:01.

Daughter Rachael Shelton, who is a setter on the Texas A&M University-Commerce volleyball team, claimed the women’s 21-30 title in 27:04.

Another daughter, Sarah Shelton, was third in the women’s 13-20 division with a 24:08 time.

Current Royse City Herald-Banner reporter Jim Hardin, who was second behind Tom Shelton in the men’s 51-60 division last year, said he plans to run again in this year’s race.

Melvin Joslin, another veteran newspaper reporter/photographer, won the men’s 71-and-above division last year.

Proceeds from the event go toward a scholarship awarded in Robinson’s name to a graduating senior of Royse City High School.