Transitions: Eddie Robinson
 

Eddie Robinson,died Tuesday night, shortly before midnight, from complications from Alzheimer's disease. Robinson had been in and out of a nursing home over the past year as he battled the disease.

Robinson, who brought the Grambling State University football program from an unknown, small-time, black college football program into a small school football power, and is the 2nd winningest football coach in NCAA football history. He sent numerous players from Grambling to the NFL over his 60 year stint as head coach of the football program.

Robinson started coaching at Grambling in 1941 and lasted until 1997. Robinson sent over 200 players to the NFL, including seven first-round draft choices and Doug Williams, who succeeded Robinson as Grambling's coach in 1998. Williams, is the most widely known of Robinson's former players, was the first black to play Quarterback in the Super Bowl. Other of Robinson's players went to the Canadian Football League, various arena leagues 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.

A character. We seem to have traded characters for celebrities.

Well put, as usual, OF. Give me character any day!

I didn't say it earlier, Mr. Robinson, thanks for all you have done, RIP.

Sir, you WILL be missed.

RIP Mr. Robinson...

You did good and you will not be forgotten!

One heck of a coach and a damn fine teacher.

R.I.P. - Coach Robinson

You startled me ,for a minute.I follow Bodybuilding somewhat.One Bodybuilder,
that I have followed,for yrs,is named Eddie Robinson.The last that I knew,
his health was fairly good.I thought,when I saw your post,that he must have
had unexpected health problems!I always admired him because he put his
family before anything else. Irish

I feel sort of bad saying this but when I first heard this news yesterday I was sort of surprised because for some reason I was thinking that he had already passed away a few years ago.

One thing I that sticks out about Eddie Robinson to me is that my dad (who was an absolute jackass, abusive bastard, and racist prick) told me about him when I was a little kid. I remember him telling me that there were two football coaches that he really admired; Ara Parseghian and Eddie Robinson. It didn't really hit me until mom & dad had divorced and I was in Jr. High and actually found out who Robinson was that my dad had actually given someone of a different race a compliment. Not sure why that popped into my mind but ............ it did.

Sorry Irish. Didn't mean to cause you alarm.

I'm quite sure that there are MANY Eddie Robinson's out there, hell there are at least 6 people with MY name within 50 miles of my location, and I don't have THAT common of a name, so I hate to imagine how many "me's" there are running the face of the earth.

I might be waaayy off base here, but to hear that your "racist prick" (excuse the language) of a father referred to Mr. Robinson in such a way, that might be one of the BETTER compliments that he could recive, as twisted and disturbing as it might be.

Obviously I don't know the man, but if he is anything like the man I imagine him to be, he would be pleased to know that he left that kind of impression on your father.

Well, sort of. I don't want to really get into it too much but my dad was the kind of person who had a pretty skewed view of things. For instance, the Harlem Globetrotters were great because they were funny and famous. Never a bad word about them, and he actually took us to see them once when I was a kid. But he could be watching a Celtics game and if JoJo White turned the ball over, he was ........... well, let's just say the really bad words would come out. My dad was a real piece of work.

1nutworld,

I didn't appreciate what a mark he had made on the game until just now. What I remember of him is that Grambling would always wup Morgan State. I think the Bears won one of the 15 or so games they played against Grambling.

Not that I am the wisest fellow walking around but;thru the years I have found these 2 things absolutly true.
1.that you never hurt anyone more than the ones that you love
and
2. that you also never truly appreciate someone till they are gone.