Investor's Business Daily, April 4th, 2007
Eddie Robinson had big dreams. Too big, it seemed to many, for a poor black youth in the segregated South of the early 20th century.
But Robinson wasn't going to let his disadvantages stop him.
"I was determined that I would do my very best to get what I wanted out of life," Robinson said. "(Society) said I would never be able to reach my third-grade dream of coaching football."
Robinson proved "society" wrong. After hard study, he worked his way through Leland College in Louisiana. He played football and studied piles of plays until he knew them backward and forward. He volunteered his time for the team.
Finally he landed a job coaching with then all-black Grambling State in 1941, when he was only 22.
Fifty-seven years later, he had 408 career victories, the most in college football history by a wide margin.
(Robinson, who had Alzheimer's, died Tuesday. He was 88.)
More important to him, he was able to pass on his dream to his players. Robinson refused to let them fall into the trap of stereotypes.
"I always preached hard that they had to be a part of America and not use racism and hard times for blacks as a reason for them not to excel," wrote Robinson in "Never Before, Never Again," with Richard Lapchick.
To bring his teams together, he stressed to players and assistant coaches that they were a small part of a greater whole.
After he became in 1995 the only football coach in college history to post 400 wins, he said: "I wish I could cut up all of these victories into 400 pieces and give them to all the players and assistant coaches I have had. They are the ones who truly deserve the credit."
His modesty was legendary. His perspective was such that there was a number he was more proud of than those 408 wins: an 80% graduation rate of his athletes. During his career at Grambling (1941-98), the national average graduation rate among athletes was 45%.
"I began every team meeting with a talk about the importance of education," Robinson said.
And he began every morning with a cowbell. To get his players revved, he'd get up at 5:30 a.m. and go into their dormitory at 6:30 a.m., ringing loudly to get them up for class.
Robinson reminded himself daily that he had a big responsibility to set an example on and off the field for his players.
When he looked at them, he visualized the faces of parents who'd put their trust in him.
"I cannot imagine any bigger responsibility. ... I knew the parents expected me to act in their place," Robinson said.
"What Robinson taught is that winning does not have to be at any cost, that football games can be won honestly, that boys can be shaped into men," Louisiana Sen. Russell Long said in 1986 at a dinner honoring Robinson. "We're not here to pay honor to a record number of victories; what we're here to honor is Robinson's integrity."
Robinson stood up for his beliefs, especially when it came to civil rights. But he wasn't confrontational. He waged his fight through his coaching and teaching. "In 1956, there were no black head coaches at the big white colleges or in the NFL and no black quarterbacks at either level," he said. "If we could make a big enough impact with football at Grambling, if our plans worked and our goals were met, then the national stage would provide us the opportunity to smash the stereotypes that blacks couldn't be leaders, be they athletes, civil rights activists, corporate leaders or politicians.
"That was something that I wanted to accomplish very badly."
"Thirty years later," wrote Lapchick, "many of today's civil rights leaders hail Eddie Robinson's life in the same breath as that of Jackie Robinson (no relation)."
Eddie Robinson demanded everyone's best effort. Once on the practice field, players couldn't leave until they executed plays perfectly. He wanted the taste of success to linger with them.
"Coach Robinson would work you hard and never let a practice end up on poor execution. You would just practice until the (offense or defense) got it right," former player Willie Davis told IBD.
Davis is one of more than 200 players Robinson sent to the National Football League.
"He quickly helped you grow into a young man, and in the process he also developed your football talents and all the things that tend to go with it: the discipline, the motivation and just the overall willingness to work hard," Davis said.
During off-seasons, Robinson continued to learn more by attending coaches' conferences and clinics. There he'd ask questions to glean tips from other coaches.
"If you don't have success, don't look for an excuse. Look for a way to get the success," Robinson said.
"Eddie's one of those people who had enormous success and never thought that the learning curve had ended. He believes that there's always other ways to grow, and that he could find things in other people that could benefit him in that growth," Lapchick told IBD.
Robinson said: "People have called me a great coach. Some have called me a great black coach. All my life, I have simply wanted to be a great American. If football helped me achieve that, then I am once again grateful for this wonderful game."
Copyright 2007 Investor's Business Daily, Inc.
