An All-Star basketball player, a decorated sprinter and jumper on the Shoremen track team, the right end on Avon Lake's 1953 championship six-man football team and a heck of a right-handed pitcher, Robert Healey was a natural athlete.

Healey owned seven varsity letters in all by the time of his graduation from Avon Lake High School in 1954, one in football, two in basketball and two more in baseball and track. He was Avon Lake's go-to man on the basketball court his senior season, leading the team with 267 points and earning a berth in the Lorain County All-Star game. Later on in the spring, he led the Shoremen track team points scored competing in the l00-yard dash, the high jump, long jump and pole vault.

Healey's life journey after Avon Lake High School would eventually lead him to a career in professional baseball.

Healey enlisted in the Marines after high school and found a place as a pitcher on the Second 155mm Howitzer Battalion baseball team at Camp LeJeunne in North Carolina. He rose to the rank of corporal by the end of his tour of duty. After coming home, he attended a Baltimore Orioles tryout in Lorain where he impressed the scouts and was signed immediately to a professional baseball contract in 1957.

Healey spent the next four years in the minors pitching at the D, C and B levels for the Orioles, Cleveland Indians and Milwaukee Braves. Though his path never led to the majors, his career as a professional pitcher included stints in three different minor leagues, the California State League, the Northern League and the 3-1 League. He played alongside Major Leaguers Cal Ripken Sr., Joe Torre, Max Alvis, Bo Belinski, Steve Barber, Wait Hriniak and Sandy Alomar Sr. Some of the batters he pitched against included Willie Stargel, Lou Brock, Carl Yastrimski, Gates Brown and Bill Freehan.

Healey pitched a one-hitter for the Minot Mallards, the Cleveland Indians' Class C club located in North Dakota, against Eau Claire club affiliated with the Milwaukee Braves.