Eddie Robinson dead at 88. Godspeed Coach .... "a well lived life."

[Botany]

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tpupdates/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tpupdates/archives/2007_04_04.html


Coaching icon Eddie Robinson dies at 88

Wednesday, 9:30 a.m.

By Marty Mulè
Staff writer

Coaching icon Eddie Robinson, the architect of a black college football empire at Grambling State University, and the
first man credited with 400 victories in the sport, died shortly before midnight Tuesday. He was 88.

Robinson coached at Grambling, a small, rural, predominantly African-American north Louisiana school, for six decades,
a span in which the Tigers recorded 408 victories, most amassed by any coach at the time of his retirement in 1997. His
record has since been surpassed by John Gagliadi of St. John’s of Minnesota, though Robinson’s 408-165-15 (a .707
victory percentage) remains second in the history of the sport.

snip

When he arrived, Grambling had no such luxuries as a locker room or weight room, and Robinson had to mow and line
the field himself before games. He filled coffee cans with cement so his athletes could lift weights, sewed torn uniforms,
taped ankles, drilled the cheer leading squad, and wrote up game accounts for the papers that didn’t cover Grambling’s
games. He also coached the men and women’s basketball teams, and ran Grambling’s physical education department.

“Heck, ‘’Robinson said, “Dr. Jones directed the band and was coach of the school’s baseball team. That’s what life was like
at our small black colleges. I wouldn’t trade a moment of it.”

[goclark]

1. Rest in peace Coach Robinson ~ you were a real hero! nt

[Captain Hilts]

2. Man, Buck Buchanan, etc. Rest easy, Coach! nt

[Leopolds Ghost]

3. I hope Frank Robinson isn't next!