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COACH
EDDIE ROBINSON GAVE YOUNG BLACKS THE WILL & MEANS TO SUCCEED by MARC MORIAL (MaximsNews.com,
U.N.)
UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com@U.N./
- 17 May 2007 –
To
some extent, Eddie Robinson, the former
Grambling
University
football coach who died last month, had his own Urban League operating out of
the small majority black college.
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In
addition to teaching his students how to excel in athletics, he taught them
how to succeed in life – how to break down institutional barriers to
realize their potential.
Through
several presidential administrations and wars as well as the civil rights
movement, he had given young African Americans with limited prospects the
chance for a better life while making college football history at the same
time.
“Eddie
Robinson, the son of a cotton sharecropper, had more impact on football than
any man in the game's history since Knute Rockne—more than George Halas,
Bear Bryant, or anyone,” wrote veteran sports writer Allen Barra recently
in the Village Voice.
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At
age 22, Robinson joined Grambling in 1941 as a coach for the football program as
well as men’s and women’s basketball.
He
also taught physical education and served as the football team’s bus driver,
uniform launderer, field keeper and publicist.
In
his 57-year career, the beloved coach put the tiny college in northern
Louisiana
on the map by sending 220 of his football players to the National Football
League, including Doug Williams, the first and only black quarterback to win the
Super Bowl.
Indianapolis
Colts’ Tony Dungy and the Chicago Bears’ Lovie Smith, the first black
coaches to reach the big game, cite Robinson as an inspiration and trailblazer.
When
he retired from coaching in 1997, Robinson left college football as its most
successful coach, a record that stood until four years ago. But what is even
more impressive is that he helped over 80 percent of his players obtain college
degrees and raised scholarship money for thousands more.
NFL
commissioner Roger Goodell observed to the Associated
Press in April that the Robinson “always focused on coaching his players
to be better men as well as better football players."
Robinson
was blessed with the talent to produce greatness on a shoestring budget, giving
hope to all Americans that anything is possible with hard work and a belief in
oneself.
Some
of Robinson’s ability to leverage money for Grambling’s program stemmed from
his friendship with former
Purdue
University
assistant football coach and now-New York Yankees owner George
Steinbrenner.
As
Barra points out, Robinson actually played a role in getting the Yankee owner to
underwrite the Whitney M. Young Jr. Urban League Classic game that has raised
more than $21 million in scholarships for more than 4,000 students after tight
finances prevented the New York Urban League from doing so.
The
Yankees’ owner continued his support even after the game moved to Giants
Stadium in 1987, according to Barra.
To
put his football powerhouse on the national radar screen, Robinson took his team
on the road in 1968.
The
tour, which coincided with the release of a documentary entitled “Grambling
College: 100 Yards to Glory” produced by the late Howard Cosell, helped
catapult the college’s football program into the spotlight on all three major
television networks. The team’s growing fame prompted countless young black
football players to follow in their steps and be coached by Robinson.
Last
month, in honor of Robinson’s life, the National Consortium for Academics and
Sports (NCAS) last month created a new award to be presented to players, coaches
and others in the world of sport who exemplify the courage to stand up for
justice.
How
fitting that the first Eddie Robinson Leadership Award last month went to
Rutgers women’s basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer and her group of
outstanding female scholar-athletes who made it all the way to the NCAA
women’s basketball finals and exhibited great courage and class in the wake of
ridicule by radio shock jock Don Imus.
Faced
with battles all his life – whether against the institutional racism or
dealing with a meager football budget at Grambling State,
Robinson eventually came up against the one battle he couldn’t win –
against Alzheimer’s Disease, which claimed his life early last month at age
88.
Louisiana
Gov. Kathleen Blanco called him a “great Louisianan and true American hero”
as well as “one of the greatest civil rights pioneers in our history” to the
AP.
“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,” she
said.
Robinson
was a warrior, pioneer, a mentor and most of all – a great man.
MarcMorial@MaximsNews.com
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