Coach Rob gets encore season at Grambling - Grambling University football coach Eddie Robinson gets extension

Black Issues in Higher Education, Dec 26, 1996 by Craig T. Greenlee

The curtain finally closed on a

week-long controversy surrounding

Eddie Robinson, Grambling

University's legendary football coach.

Now that the seventy-seven-year old

Robinson has been granted his wish to

coach one more season, the new

questions become: "What will

Grambling do to make the most of

Robinson's last hurrah?"; and "Who

will succeed him?"

Coach Rob, as he is often called,

has roamed the sidelines for the

G-Men for fifty-five seasons. In the

process, he became the winningest

coach in the history of college football

with 405 career victories.

Although no announcement has

been made regarding specific plans

about a tour, there are three

possibilities that may be considered

for approval by the school in the

coming weeks:

* Look for a Robinson media blitz

in late July when the Southwestern

Athletic Conference (SWAC), the

league in which Grambling plays,

stages its annual preseason media tour.

* During the season, Grambling

will play several road games in

locations where the school has an

alumni chapter. It is possible that the

alumni chapters could devise their

own programs to honor Robinson and

help generate funds for the school's

athletic department.

* Under Robinson, more than 200

grambling players have gone on to

professional careers. With so many

professional alumni, there should be

ample opportunity for the school to

secure corporate sponsorships for any

event associated with Robinson's

farewell.

As to Robinson's successor,

former Washington Redskins Super

Bowl MVP Doug Williams is the

name most frequently mentioned.

Earlier this month, Grambling's

president, Dr. Raymond A. Hicks,

met with Robinson and suggested that

the coach step down and take a vice

president's position. Robinson

wasn't interested and asked that he be

allowed to coach one final season.

But not everyone wanted

Robinson to stick around for the

additional year. Critics pointed to his

recent losing record. The program,

which is coming off back-to-back

losing seasons for the first time in

school history, has also been

scrutinized by the National Collegiate

Athletics Association (NCAA) for

alleged rules violations. Plus, there

was an incident where four Grambling

players were charged with raping a

fifteen-year old girl.

It took almost a week before

Hicks announced at a news conference

that Robinson will end his coaching

career at the end of next season.

During that time, Grambling took a big

public relations hit for its treatment of

the legendary coach, according to

James Bradford, Grambling's director

of its national alumni association.

"With all the media attention,

things were blown out of context,"

says Bradford. "The way things came

out made it look like we were trying to

run him out. That's not so. Nobody

dislikes him. He's done a grand job.

But there comes a time when it's time

to move ion]. We don't want to see

him destroy what he has built up."

Fourteen months ago, Robinson

was the toast of college football,

bagging his 400th career win against

Mississippi Valley State. Over the

last three seasons, however,

Robinson's record is 8-17, including

four straight to arch-rival Southern

University in the Bayou Classic.

"Grambling started losing more

than it ever had and people got

concerned when [Robinson] never said

anything about retiring," Bradford

explains. "They felt he just might try

to go on and on."

The unexpected decline in

Grambling football coupled with

Robinson's reluctance to talk

specifically about his retirement plans,

created a sharp division among

Grambling alumni, according to Collie

Nicholson, a Grambling alumnus, who

served as the school's sport publicist

for thirty-one years.

"After a while, it became a sore

point," Nicholson says of Robinson's

silence on his retirement plans. "It didn't

help that he was losing more than he ever

had. As a result, he didn't have the level

of alumni support that he usually has.

And that created a lot of division [among

alumni]."

With Robinson getting one final

shot to go out a winner, the

assumption is that he has a decent

chance to pull it off. Nicholson says

such notions build false hopes.

"The blue-chippers have already

made their commitments, so coach

Robinson won't sign any of those

guys," Nicholson says. "We don't want

anyone, including Eddie Robinson, to

think that somehow, someone is going to

wave a magic wand and he'll

automatically have a winning season."

Even with Robinson back for one

more year, recruiting still figures to be

hampered.

In Nicholson's mind, that's where

ex-NFL quarterback Doug Williams, a

Super Bowl MVP and former

Grambling star, enters the picture.

Williams is currently a scout with the

NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars but was

recently interviewed by Morehouse

for a coaching job.

"It would be a good move to bring

Doug in now, but put him in a

position other than football coach

during Eddie's let year," Nicholson

says. "I can still get a start on

recruiting and have a solid chance of

getting some of the top athletes

because of his high visibility and

because the recruits will know that

he's going to be the coach. That puts

Grambling in position to get the

quality of athletes it has in the past,

and the school won't lose an additional