Robert Tata was a two-sport star athlete at the University of Virginia and a successful high school football coach who won more than 100 games in stops at Norview and Granby in Norfolk.
As it turned out, Tata was just warming up.
He retired as a coach in 1980 and embarked on a political career during which he again drew the limelight. The quick-witted Tata became a popular and outspoken Republican legislator, representing Virginia Beach’s 85th district in the House of Delegates for 30 years until 2014.
Tata died late Friday. He was 91.
His son, Anthony J. Tata, wrote Saturday on Facebook that Tata died surrounded by family in Stanardsville near the family’s farm. Tata was preceded in death by his wife, Jeraldine — he died on the couple’s 66th wedding anniversary, their son wrote.
Tata carved out two distinct careers, first as a coach after he starred in football and baseball at U.Va. and was drafted by the Detroit Lions of the National Football League. He was cut by the Lions, but moved back to Virginia to become a teacher and guidance counselor and coach baseball and football.
As a legislator, Tata championed education funding and looked out for “Joe Lunch Pail” — the little guy.
“I always thought I was the little man, you know what I mean? Joe Lunch Pail. And Joe Lunch Pail always seems to get the shaft,” Tata told The Pilot in in 2018.
Anthony Tata’s Facebook post drew hundreds of comments within a few hours, and politicians from both sides of the aisle took to social media to express condolences for a delegate his colleagues called “Coach.”
“Delegate Tata served our community with fortitude and loyalty — and he will be remembered for putting his constituents above politics,” Del. Alex Askew, D-Virginia Beach, wrote on Twitter. “My condolences and prayers are with his family.”
“He spent decades serving this country, commonwealth, and his beloved Kempsville community,” Scott Taylor, a former delegate and U.S. Representative, wrote on Twitter. “When I was elected as Delegate of the 85th district, after he retired, I knew I had enormous shoes to fill. Rest easy, Coach.”
Tata was born in Detroit and overcame a hardscrabble upbringing in a tenement where, along with English, residents spoke Italian, German and Polish. His father was a bricklayer.
“I was like a street rat,” Bob Tata once said in an interview. “My parents didn’t know where I was. I would be running up and down the street raising hell.
“My dad was a block layer. … He was good at it and worked like an animal, so we weren’t starving. We had something to eat every day. We had clothes. But it was tough.”
Tata’s ticket out of the inner city was sports. He starred at University of Detroit Jesuit High School, and headed to Charlottesville on a scholarship. He played running back and defensive back in football and was a first baseman on the baseball team.
The Lions picked Tata in the 21st round of the 1953 NFL draft, but an injury derailed his chance at a pro career.
After a two-year stint in the Army, Tata wound up back in Charlottesville as a teacher at Albemarle High. There, a fellow teacher — Jeraldine Morris — caught his eye, and they were married a few years later.
Tata’s teaching and coaching career led him to Hampton Roads. He compiled a 112-32-2 record over 13 football seasons at Norview and one at Granby — where he guided the Comets to the state championship game in 1965.
Tata, who was a guidance counselor, also coached at Norfolk Catholic, the Apprentice School in Newport News, at the Norfolk Naval Station and for a year at U.Va.
After Tata retired from coaching, former Congressman G. William Whitehurst encouraged him to run for a seat in the House of Delegates. Tata won that first race in 1983, and the ensuing 14, serving from 1984 until he retired in 2014.
In politics, Tata was never shy about giving his opinion. He balked when in 2012, Virginia Beach asked for $150 million in state funding for an arena in a failed attempt to lure the NBA’s Kings from Sacramento.
“This is a beer-and-pretzel town,” Tata said. “Pro sports, it’s a tough racket. It’s here today, gone tomorrow.”
In 1991, Tata was one of two Republicans from Virginia Beach in the General Assembly, but helped Bob McDonnell, Ken Stolle, Leo Wardrup and Frank Wagner get elected that year. McDonnell, who later became attorney general and governor, said Tata and Purkey helped plan their successful campaigns.
“I’m not sure any of us would have won without their help,” McDonnell remembered in 2018. “We called Bob Tata ‘Coach’ from the start. We were kind of in awe of Bob. He was easygoing, smart, comfortable in his own skin. He didn’t get rattled and we figured that was from his time in coaching.”
Tata’s daughter-in-law, Anne Ferrell Tata, recently won the Republican nomination for Virginia’s 82nd district by a 20-point margin.
Jeraldine taught for 40 years in Norfolk and Virginia Beach and served on the Virginia Beach School Board.
The couple had three children: Robert Jr. was a record-setting kicker at Navy before becoming a Norfolk attorney and member of Old Dominion University’s Board of Visitors; Anthony is a retired Army Brigadier General, best-selling novelist and former Secretary of Transportation of North Carolina and top Pentagon official under President Trump; Kendall was a state cross country and track champion at Kempsville High in Virginia Beach and was part of a national championship track team at Virginia.
“Enjoy life while you can,” Tata told The Pilot. “And make sure you take care of your children and your wife. Take good care of them. That’s all that really matters.”
Jami Frankenberry, 757-446-2376, jami.frankenberry@pilotonline.com
