One of the The Winningest Coaches in Football History: Eddie Robinson
By: Baigen Seawell
In 1997, Grambling State University came to an odds with their beloved coach who tallied up his second 3-8 season, and third losing season after an unparalleled journey for any Black football coach.
This coach, renowned for having one of the greatest records in BCS (now CFP) history, had been head coach for the Tigers for nearly 5 decades, and was praised by the likes of other winningest coaches such as Joe Paterno. The coach in question?
That would be the legendary Eddie Robinson.
But legendary would be an understatement, as Robinson contributed to not only GSU, but Grambling, Louisiana as a whole. He hit the ground running, as he immediately went on to head coach for the Tigers after graduating from Leland at 22 years of age.
After a 1-5-1 season for his debut, the then Louisiana Normal Tigers would go on to have a 9-0 season. After the close of the Second World War, and the turn of the 1960s, GSU would join the South Western Athletic Conference, or the SWAC, and this turned Grambling from a small HBCU in Louisiana into one of the most renowned powerhouses for Black football talent.
Prior to the time of Sports Information Directors and Positions Coaches, Head Coaches were known to do much more than their set duties today. For HBCU coaches in particular, the job was even more extensive. Robinson wore many hats: from Offense, to Defense, to Athletic Trainer and Sports Writer…he held his expectations high for his program, resulting in immediate success on and off of the field.
Outside of the many hats he wore for football, Coach Robinson also taught at Grambling High School, coached girl’s basketball during World War II and directed the band…all with a budget of $46.
And the expectations remained high in every field of human endeavor he chose to grace his presence in, due to the nature of the times that young Black children found themselves in.
Robinson held the standards of his pupils high, ensuring every parent that their son would be coached like his own. In a discussion with The Undefeated, James Harris says Coach Robinson ensured the Monroe, LA native’s mother that: “He will get a college degree. He’ll go to church on Sunday and he’ll make a difference in society.”
Harris went on to be the first starting Black QB for the Buffalo Bills in 1969.
Robinson’s track record for successful athletes was more like a laundry list for GSU Football alumni. He had the pleasure of catapulting over 200 young men to fulfill their dreams of going professional, and harnessing success well after retirement from the game. For Robinson himself, he simply wanted to show that the American Dream is attainable regardless of who sought out to obtain it.
By the 70s and 80s, Robinson and the Tigers were gaining steam, and this would arguably be some of his best seasons of his career. He would go on to win 4 Bowl games and surpass Paul “Bear” Bryant for 324 wins with their win over Prairie View A&M.
10 Years Later, he became the first coach to reach 400 wins with a 42-6 win over Mississippi Valley State. This garnered congratulations from President Bill Clinton.
But this same season, Coach Robinson was 78 years of age and thought to be on the decline after tallying a 5-6 season, followed by consecutive 3-8 seasons from 1995 to 1997. Talks were brewing that GSU Athletics would relieve Robinson of his duties midseason. But this became such a public outcry that Louisiana Governor, Mike Foster, condemned the act.
Coach Robinson held his title of Head Coach until the end of 1997. His three losing seasons were overshadowed with the extensive legacy he left with the Tigers for nearly five decades finishing with a record of 408-165-15, winning five Black College National Championships and 17 SWAC Championships.
And what did coach Paterno, another one of the winningest coaches, have to say about the success that Eddie Robinson left on the game of College football?
“Nobody has ever done or ever will do what Eddie Robinson has done for the game... Our profession will never, ever be able to repay Eddie Robinson for what he has done for the country and the profession of football.”
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