BY BRANDON WALKER
The Daily News
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The soft-spoken coach spent nearly 60 years at Grambling State University, where he set a standard for victories with 408 and nearly every season relished seeing his top players drafted by NFL teams.
One of those players, Bogalusa native Robert "Big Bird" Smith, captured the feelings of those who played for Robinson.
"Coach Eddie Robinson was more than a coach to me and the countless players he coached. He was a father figure, mentor, idol, and a hero," Smith remarked in a statement given to the Daily News. "I had the privilege of playing for him when he won his 300th game and coaching with him for his 408th victory.
"He was the most humble man I've ever had the opportunity to meet and work for.
Coach Robinson always said 'These are not my wins; they belong to every player who has ever worn this uniform.' He was never one to gloat or revel in his success, especially when the success he had was so overwhelming. In my mind, there's no question he is the single most influential coach in college football history."
Robinson had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease, which was diagnosed shortly after he was forced to retire following the 1997 season. His health had been declining for years and he had been in and out of a nursing home during the past year.
Robinson said he tried to coach each player as if he wanted him to marry his daughter.
He began coaching at Grambling State in 1941, when it was still the Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute, and single-handedly brought the school from obscurity to international popularity.
"Coach Robinson elevated a small town program to national prominence and tore down barriers to achieve an equal playing field for athletes of all races," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said in a statement. "Generations of Louisianans will forever benefit from coach Robinson's fight for equality."
Grambling first gained national attention in 1949 when running back Paul "Tank" Younger signed with the Los Angeles Rams and became the first player from an all-black college to enter the NFL. Suddenly, pro scouts learned how to find the little school 65 miles east of Shreveport near the Arkansas border.
Robinson sent over 200 players to the NFL, including seven first-round draft choices and Williams, who succeeded Robinson as Grambling's coach in 1998. Others went to the Canadian Football League and the now-defunct USFL.
Robinson's pro stars included Willie Davis, James Harris, Ernie Ladd, Buck Buchanan, Sammy White, Cliff McNeil, Willie Brown, Roosevelt Taylor, Charlie Joiner and Willie Williams.
Another of those players, Bogalusa native Sean Smith, reminisced about his former coach.
"He cared about what happened on the football field, but he was more interested in how you performed in the classroom and what kind of man you became," Smith added. "He was a very special man."
Robinson's teams had only eight losing seasons and won 17 Southwestern Athletic Conference titles and nine national black college championships. He was inducted into every hall of fame for which he was eligible, and received honorary degrees from several universities, including Yale.
In 1968, refusing to be tied to a tiny home stadium on a hard-to-reach campus, Robinson put Grambling's football show on the road, playing at some very famous addresses, including Yankee Stadium.
That same year, Howard Cosell and Izenberg produced the documentary, "Grambling College: 100 Yards to Glory," Robinson became vice president of the NAIA and all three major television networks carried special programming on Grambling football.
A year later, Grambling played before 277,209 paying customers in 11 games, despite the home field that seated just 13,000.
When he began his career, Robinson had no paid assistants, no groundskeepers, no trainers and little in the way of equipment. He had to line the field himself and fix lunchmeat sandwiches for road trips because the players could not eat in the "white only" restaurants of the South.
He was not bitter, however. "The best way to enjoy life in America is to first be an American, and I don't think you have to be white to do so," Robinson said. "Blacks have had a hard time, but not many Americans haven't."
Robinson is survived by his wife, son Eddie Robinson Jr., daughter Lillian Rose Robinson, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Washington Parish to Grambling
The following is a list of players from Washington Parish that played under coach Eddie Robinson at Grambling State University:
Robert Smith BHS
Charles Ball BHS
Eugene Butler BHS (coach)
Mike Harrington BHS
John O'Neil Central
Keithon Magee BHS
Toree Garrett Franklinton
Chris Adams BHS
Ricky Warren BHS
Sean Smith BHS
Albert Oatis BHS
Kevin Jefferson Varnado
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