Opal "Shagg" Courtney was a most talented athlete at Gary Roosevelt, starring in track and field, football, basketball and baseball. Many say that he was the greatest athlete to have played in Gary, ignored by the Indiana High School Athletic Association and state sport groups because he attended an all-black school during a time when black schools could not participate in the IHSAA state championships. Therefore, Gary Froebel High School, a non-segregated school, tried to persuade him to attend but he was very true to his high school and remained there.

Courtney and Roosevelt High School made the most of those years just after the great depression, traveling any where they could find competition. He nearly alone won the United States All Negro Championships in track in 1931 at Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, and runners-up in 1932. In 1930 they were Midwestern Track Champions at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, and runner-up in 1931.

The 1982 4x100 Gary Roosevelt relay team still holds the IHSAA state finals record some 38 years later in 41.02. It was a historical group that made up this relay: Don Young who at this writing holds the number #2 spot on the 100-meter all-time list at 10.19, Glenn Moore third in 10.22, Jeffrey Patrick fifth in 10.25 and Alan Price, who might have been among the list of great sprinters had he not been running with such great dashmen. Three of the relay members would become the only athletes from a school to place first (Jeffery Patrick), second (Don Young) and third (Glen Moore) in an IHSAA state championship. They all had to meet the qualifying standard in the IHSAA regional meet to qualify to the state meet (only two automatically qualify in each event).