Eddie Robinson: Remembering More Than Just a Coach

On Tuesday April 4th the world of sports lost one of the greatest coaches of all-time. Eddie Robinson the former head coach at Grambling State University, who died from a long battle with Alzheimer's disease at the age of 88, will be remembered as one of the most transcendent figures in the world of sports.

Robinson won nine black college national championships and 408 games during his 57-year tenure at the program. He sent over 200 players to the NFL, including seven first-round draft choices. We also have to consider that only 11 schools (all major college powers) have produced more Pro Football Hall of Famers.

He began his coaching career in 1941 at the Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute. The name itself tells you all you need to know about the country's racial divide. Fifty-seven years and a university name change later, Robinson left Grambling as a hero.

Robinson helped build Grambling from a tiny all-black school to an important predominantly black university with about 5,000 students. He helped represent Grambling and make it famous while coaching teams to a record of 408-165-15. (In 2003, Robinson's record of 408 victories was broken by John Gagliardi, head football coach of the Division III school St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota).

But Robinson's impact could also be felt on a societal level. As the numbers of victories increased, so did the attention to a predominantly black college in Louisiana, and to a black coach who eventually would pass the legendary and very white Bear Bryant in neighboring Alabama. And when it happened, when Robinson became college football's winningest coach, America discovered a man whose record-setting numbers were achieved with dignity, integrity and respect.

This is a black-white issue only because we are still a black-white country. The divide was more pronounced when Robinson was coaching, but it still remains. His death came the day before the 39-year anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death. In their own ways, the two men shared a common goal: a world where men would be judged by there character not the color of there skin.

Robinson was forced to retire after the 1997 season, after the once perennial powerhouse fell on tough times. His final three years on the sideline brought consecutive losing seasons for the first time, an NCAA investigation of recruiting violations and four players charged with rape.

As pressure mounted for him to step aside, even the governor campaigned to give him on last season so he could try to go out a winner. But 1997 produced only three wins for the second straight year.

He was inducted into every hall of fame for which he was eligible, and he received honorary degrees from such prestigious universities as Yale.

Some say that Robinson's victories meant less than Bryant's because Grambling played a lower grade of competition. But I say they meant more because Robinson had to work harder and under more difficult conditions.

I think Paul Finebaum, a sports columnist and radio talk show host in Alabama, says it best: "I think he is arguably the most important singular figure in the history of college football. He opened the door for thousands of black players and inspired many black coaches who had no other role model. He was to college, from this perspective, what Dr. Martin Luther King was to civil rights."

To show the kind of man Robinson was after his 324th victory, which gave him the most any college football coach had ever achieved, he apologized to his players for his frequent absences in the weeks leading up to the event.

Robinson gave something back. He never quit giving. That's why we can't afford to forget him. We can't celebrate his legacy for the next couple of weeks or months or years, coach Robinson's legacy goes far beyond that, one that needs to be remembered for a lifetime.