Black Men With A Purpose, Inc. seeks to recognizes outstanding educational and community leadership in Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools.  Mr. Robert Albert Montgomery exemplified such dedication, leadership and service for over 30 years as a teacher and coach.  

 

Montgomery was a native of Gaston County NC,  graduating from Highland High School.  While a student at Highland, he excelled in several sports, lettering in baseball, basketball and football. He was awarded a football scholarship to North Carolina College (now North Carolina Central University).  While at NCC, he was an outstanding quarterback, punter and defensive back, excelling at all positions, nicknamed 'The Triple Threat'. Under his helm, he quarterbacked three CIAA Championship Football teams, earning All-CIAA his senior year.  He led the conference in punting in 1954 and 1956.  Montgomery was inducted into the NCCU Athletic Hall of Fame in 1984.

 

After graduating from NCCU in 1957, he spent two years in the United States Army.  In 1960-61, Montgomery served as the Assistant Football Coach at Allen University in Columbia, SC.  He later moved to Charlotte, NC where he served as teacher and the Head Football Coach at Second Ward High School from 1961 until 1969 when the school closed.  His 1964 squad won the North Carolina State Football Championship. In 1965, he coached the victorious West squad in the NC East-West Shrine Game in Durham, NC.  His leadership as a coach during this segregated era inspired a generation of athletes to achieve and soar beyond heights.

Upon the closing of Second Ward, Montgomery taught Driver Education at West Mecklenburg, Garinger, West Charlotte and South Mecklenburg High Schools. In 1975, he received a Master of Science Degree in Safety & Driving Education from North Carolina A&T State University.

Football was always Montgomery's first passion, and through the years he was instrumental in assisting a number of quality athletes to enter various colleges and universities. He retired from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System with 31 years of dedicated service.