{{Short description|American football player and coach}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}} {{Infobox college coach | name = Royal Alston | image = Royal Alston.jpg | alt = | caption = Alston at George Washington in 1908 | birth_date = {{Circa|1888}} | birth_place = Lake Charles, Louisiana, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | player_years1 = 1908–1909 | player_team1 = George Washington | player_positions = Tackle | coach_years1 = 1910 | coach_team1 = Maryland | overall_record = 4–3–1 | bowl_record = | tournament_record = | championships = | awards = | coaching_records = }} '''Larkin Royal Alston''' ({{Circa|1888}} – date of death unknown) was an American college football coach. He served as the head football coach Maryland Agricultural College—now known as the University of Maryland, College Park—in 1910.
A native of Louisiana,<ref name=tree/> he was born to Lafayette Volney and Mary (née Cotton) Alston.<ref>[http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=chesnut&id=I21645 Lafayette Volney Alston], RootsWeb, retrieved October 10, 2011.</ref> He attended Lake Charles High School, where he played on the football team for three years. He attended college at the George Washington University where he studied mechanical engineering.<ref name=tree>[https://books.google.com/books?id=4XLOAAAAMAAJ ''The Cherry Tree''], p. 332, Published by the Students at George Washington University, 1908.</ref><ref>''The Cherry Tree'', p. 75.</ref> He played as a tackle on the football team and served as team captain in 1909.<ref name=bealle/>
In 1910, the Maryland Agricultural College hired Alston as its head coach. After a 4–0–1 start to the season, Alston held half of the Aggies' starting backs out of the game against the Virginia Military Institute, with the intention of resting them for the following week's game against St. John's. The plan backfired, however, and Maryland lost both games, 8–0 and 6–0, respectively. The Aggies finished the season with a loss to Western Maryland and a 4–3–1 record. Alston did not return to Maryland for a second season as head coach.<ref name=bealle>Morris Allison Bealle, ''King of American Football: The Story of Football at Maryland Agricultural College, Maryland State College and the University of Maryland: 1890–1952'', pp. 64–66, Columbia Publishing Co., Washington, D.C., 1952.</ref>
==Head coaching record== {{CFB Yearly Record Start | type = coach | team = | conf = | bowl = | poll = no }} {{CFB Yearly Record Subhead | name = Maryland Aggies | conf = Independent | startyear = 1910 | endyear = single }} {{CFB Yearly Record Entry | championship = | year = 1910 | name = Maryland | overall = 4–3–1 | conference = | confstanding = | bowlname = | bowloutcome = | bcsbowl = | ranking = no | ranking2 = no }} {{CFB Yearly Record Subtotal | name = Maryland | overall = 4–3–1 | confrecord = }} {{CFB Yearly Record End | overall = 4–3–1 | bowls = no | poll = no | polltype = | legend = no }}
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Alston, Royal}} Category:1880s births Category:Year of death unknown Category:American football tackles Category:George Washington Colonials football players Category:Maryland Terrapins football coaches Category:Players of American football from Lake Charles, Louisiana