Seventy-four years after he let it go, one javelin throw still stands as the longest in Seton Hall University history: 210 feet, 9 and a half inches, recorded by Roy Belliveau in 1952. Belliveau, who was also a starting forward for the Pirates and a New York Knicks draft pick that same year, died peacefully in his sleep on September 24, 2026, at Spring Oak Assisted Living in Lanoka Harbor, New Jersey. He was 96.

He was born on June 8, 1930, in Irvington, New Jersey, a son of William and Mabel Belliveau and one of six brothers. Sport claimed him early. He played football, basketball and track at the varsity level, was voted New Jersey's Amateur Athlete of the Year in 1948, and arrived at Seton Hall on a track scholarship, according to his citation in the Seton Hall Athletics Hall of Fame.

On the court he stood 6 feet 5 and made his name at the less glamorous end of the floor. The university remembers him as a standout defender and rebounder, a regular in the starting lineup who finished his college career with 652 points.

The Knicks took him in the fourth round of the 1952 NBA Draft, and in August 1953 his rights were sent to the Baltimore Bullets in a trade that also moved Max Zaslofsky and Jim Luisi, records at Basketball Reference show. He never appeared in an NBA game. He did keep playing for a while in the Eastern Professional Basketball League, suiting up for the Williamsport Billies in the 1953-54 season that ended with the Pennsylvania club winning the league championship.

The longer career was in schools. His family's account says he chose teaching over the Knicks' contract offer. He taught special education and eventually served as a school principal.

At home, the center of his life was Carol, his wife of 57 years until her death in 2013. The couple settled in Green Brook, New Jersey, and raised three daughters, Elaine Falcon, Susan Schirmer and Laurie Brunot. Laurie died before him. In his last six years he lived with Susan and her husband, Joseph Schirmer, before a short final stay at Spring Oak, and he was always surrounded by family, including four great-grandchildren.

His family's notice dwells on two things beyond athletics. One was his recall: in the obituary published through Layton's Home For Funerals, relatives wrote that he could summon the names of teachers, trips taken decades earlier, and long stretches of Scripture with striking precision. The other was his faith in Jesus Christ, which he spoke about readily and shared with the Spring Oak staff, many of whom became his friends in the brief time he lived there. A memorial gathering and service were set for October 2, 2026, at Layton's in Forked River, New Jersey.

What remains is unusually concrete. There is a line in the Seton Hall record book that no Pirate has bettered since 1952, a place in the university's Athletics Hall of Fame, where he was inducted in 1986, and a name on the 1952 NBA draft list. There are the special education classrooms he taught in and the school he went on to lead. And there are three generations of his family who carry his stories, told by a man who seemed to forget almost nothing.