 |
|
|
| |
|
 Eddie Robinson: The Mentor
By Leland Stein, III - April 6, 2007
America's sordid history in its dealings with African Americans is flat out despicable.
Grambling State University football coaching legend, Eddie Robinson's recent passing at 88 from Alzheimer's disease, made many across America revisit a time when segregation and racism ruled, because he lived through it and thrived.
When Robinson retired in 1997, he had established the NCAA All-Time record for wins (408). He sent over 200 hundred young men to the NFL and other leagues, but most importantly to Robinson is that he turned boys to men and most left college with degrees in hand.
"He was a tremendous man," said Danton Wilson, who played basketball at Grambling and is a 1981 graduate, "but the thing that stood out about him was he really cared about the athlete."
Wilson, who used to be executive editor of the Chronicle, also noted that Robinson "never gave up" on his young black athletes. "Even if they were not great athletes and had no chance at the pros," Wilson explained, "he would work even harder for them. Even when players had completed their eligibility, he'd get them back in school, pull strings and made sure they graduated. Many beyond the athletic fields have become quality people because of his efforts."
It amazes me how Blacks have endured and overcome the trials and tribulations of an unequal and unfair America in its housing, education, business and even military entities.
Thanks to men and women like W.E.B. DuBois, Frederick Douglas, Mary McLeod Bethune, Ralph J. Bunche, Shirley Chisholm, Thurgood Marshall, A. Philip Randolph, Harriet Ross Tubman, Carter G. Woodson, and Elijah Muhammad, just to name a few, African Americans have come a long way baby.
In the ongoing struggle for liberty and justice, blacks in all fields of human endeavor have broken down rock solid barriers after barriers.
Sports are one area where blacks shined early in the long violent struggle to eradicate segregation and racism.
Jesse Owens, Joe Louis and Jackie Robinson are all known for showing the world that when given an opportunity they could rise above racist perceptions. Robinson belonged in their class as a noteworthy pioneer.
I cannot even fathom the effort it took in 1941 when Robinson accepted the job as football coach at Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute. For goodness sakes, the school sat on scrub flatland in a poor town named Grambling. To make matters even tougher for Robinson the school was a teachers college for girls, with only 70 young men enrolled, while all around him the discrimination, segregation and oppression was so dense in the air one could cut it with a knife.
Robinson began his storied career at Grambling with no paid assistants, no groundskeepers, no trainers and little in the way of equipment. He lined the field himself and fixed lunchmeat sandwiches for road trips because the players could not eat in the "white only" restaurants of the South.
I cannot even wrap my mind around how Robinson took those very humble beginnings and built a football powerhouse with a worldwide reputation.
Robinson did more than get pass his obstacles; his teams won 17 Southwestern Athletic Conference titles and nine national black college championships.
He even sent the first black player from an HBCU to the NFL, Paul "Tank" Younger. Suddenly, pro scouts learned how to find the little school 65 miles east of Shreveport near the Arkansas border.
One of his quarterbacks, Doug Williams, became the first black to lead a team to a Super Bowl victory.
The legacy that pushed Grambling into national consciousness was sports information director Collie J. Nicholson's vision that Grambling could play in stadiums throughout America - including Yankee Stadium.
Nicholson is also credited for the birth of the now-popular State Farm Bayou Classic.
What those national games did was showcase HBCU football and blacks took pride in seeing people that looked like them play the game.
To Robinson's credit, he took full advantage of the exposure and set sail on a coaching journey that will probably never be matched.
The irony of Robinson's legacy is that he showcased and proved to the university good-ol'-boy network that black kids had the necessities to go to school and compete at the college level.
By doing that, just like Negro League Baseball, once the predominately white colleges started raiding Black areas, Robinson and the HBCU's saw their talent pool dwindle.
Doris Robinson knows her husband better than anyone and explaine just what kind on man he was, saying in prepared statement: "Eddie was the consummate husband, father, teacher, leader, role model, and, most of all, the greatest of Americans."
Robinson is in everybody's hall of fame and has receive many awards, but he summed up his life in the simple and humble way he started it, saying that his "greatest record is having one job and one wife."
About The Author - Leland Stein, III All Articles By This Author
©Copyright 2006 - Leland Stein is a nationally syndicated columnist and can be heard on 107.5 every Sunday from 11 p.m. to Midnight in Detroit. He can be reached at lelstein3@aol.com
Articles may not be reproduced, rewritten, or retransmitted without the express written consent of Leland Stein, III.
Other Mybrotha.COM Links:
|
|
Newsletters
Enter your e-mail address to receive the most recent Mybrotha.COM Newsletter
 Write An Article!
Click here to send your article to us. We read all articles and may feature yours on our website!
 Bookmark Us
Stay connected. Add our link to your favorites.
|
|
|
