Remembering: The debut of 'The Rob'

TIGER PAUSE: Grambling's Robinson Stadium opened 25 seasons ago with fanfare, blowout
September 15, 2007

By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
Football had been, more often than not, the last thing on Eddie Robinson's mind.

The longtime former Grambling coach's 1983 opener against Alcorn State, handily won but never forgotten, would be the first game played at a new facility bearing Robinson's name.

Not that Alcorn State hadn't been an entertaining, formidable foe. Still, even while his assistants tried to script a game knotted at 7-0 during halftime, Robinson was elsewhere — fulfilling the obligations of a dignitary more than that of a ball coach.

"It was a struggle for him," said longtime GSU assistant Melvin "Jim" Lee. "He had made so many sacrifices. He knew that the program would profit very much from a new stadium."
So, even while the game teetered in the balance, Robinson could be found speaking before a packed crowd outside the locker room.

"Things are happening today," he said, "that usually never happen while the person is living."

Grambling's suffocating defense, coupled with a canny misdirection on offense, would do the rest. The Tigers scored a trio of late-game touchdowns to secure the dominating 28-0 victory.

“Our team was excited about becoming part of history, the first team to play in the stadium named after the man that was our coach,” said Robert “Big Bird” Smith, then an All-America defender for Robinson.

Alcorn is remembered now as the first opponent to descend into Grambling’s unique, now-legendary sunken structure – but not the first to leave with a loss. Robinson would win a total of 37 games at “The Rob” before retiring 15 seasons later.

“Walking down the hill, it presented quite a challenge for any opposing team,” said Lee, an offensive assistant for 40 seasons at GSU. “One player saw the stadium and said it looked like going down inside Hades.”


A DOMINATING WIN
Grambling’s offensive line had been decimated by graduation, leaving returning senior quarterback Hollis Brent exposed. Calvin Nicholas, a talented safety, was moved to receiver in an effort to replace the departed Rufus Stevens.

Robinson spoke with what appeared to be a shy candor about GSU’s struggles. He said Lee had been forced to tinker with the team’s fabled Wing-T offense – adding some I-formation looks.

Points, Robinson guessed, would have to come from running back James Robinson, the Tigers’ second leading rusher from a season before. He’d be joined in the backfield by Texas A&M transfer Ronny James.

“We’re going to use the ‘I’ as much as we can make it work,” Robinson said, in the days leading up to the game. “It just adds a lot to our attack, if we can open some holes.”

During the transition, Grambling was going to rely on coordinator Fred Collins’ muscular “Trees of Terror” defense, which went on to produce seven of the program’s 12 all-conference players that year – including first-teamers Smith, Reginald Pugh, James Polk and Ed Scott.

Robinson gave a stirring pre-game speech, Smith recalled, and his unit rose to the challenge.

“Coach made the comment that he never made a tackle, he never scored a touchdown, and he never won a game,” Smith said. “He said the wins did not belong to him. They belonged to the players – to (well-known former Grambling standouts) Gary (‘Big Hands’ Johnson), Doug (Williams), Sammy (White) and Trumaine (Johnson).”

GSU would have to take down a resurgent Alcorn State team, led by fellow Southwestern Athletic Conference coaching legend Mario Casem.

Grambling’s battles with Alcorn were already the stuff of lore, with Robinson winning or sharing 13 league titles up to that point, while Casem took six.

ASU, however, had been without a championship since 1979 – and was just 16-14 over the previous three campaigns, falling to Grambling in both 1981-82. Casem was building toward a final championship as a coach in ’85, though, and boasted six returners on offense and eight on defense.

He pushed Grambling to a defensive, scoreless deadlock through the initial quarter.

Alcorn sacked Brent seven times in the first half, totalling more than 40 yards in losses. GSU linebacker Mike Dennis’ interception return for a touchdown had been the lone first-half points.

All that talk of switching to the ‘I,’ though, proved to a clever Robinson ruse. Grambling rarely called the formation – and it was, in fact, the GSU passers who secured this historic first win.

Alcorn was apparently caught off guard.

Grambling's Hollis and Anthony Anderson combined for 247 yards in the air against a defense that would go on to lead the SWAC in 1983, while Alcorn’s two passers could manage only 81.

Grambling’s Marvin Thomas, Wayne Hill and Nicholas hauled in those second-half TD catches. Most impressive was the 91-yard streak by the converted defender Nicholas, who hauled in an Anderson pass on a post pattern with 5:21 remaining, and ran through a defender on the way to the final points of the game.

Meanwhile, the Grambling defense never let Alcorn past the Grambling 33.

GSU only allowed 44 yards rushing over the initial two quarters. Glenn Hall also added another pick late, securing the game with 1:47 left.

The flamboyant Casem, during a raucous post-game press conference, took it all in stride: “Playing Grambling is like making love to a gorilla,” he said. “You can not quit until he gets enough.”

Smith chuckles at the memory. “Opening day, we did get enough,” he said.

THEN, A GREAT HONOR
The Robinson Stadium stands already teemed with 10,000 fans as grand-opening ceremonies began an hour and a half before Alcorn took the field.

Then-Louisiana Gov. Dave Treen spoke, as did Robinson – who was supposed to be the guest of honor. An abiding humility, however, wouldn’t allow Robinson to completely inhabit the spotlight.

With him was wife Doris, their children, and his mother. Robinson talked about them, and about his players.

“When you say Robinson Stadium,” he said that day, “it has to mean every person who has played football here. This honor that has been bestowed on us is a great one.”

Built then at a cost of $7.5 million dollars, the facility was said to seat 22,500 fans and includes a unique tiger-inspired design on the chairbacks below the westside pressbox. Striped in the team’s familiar black and gold colors, “GSU” is spelled out in red – a tip of the hat to former Grambling president R.W.E. “Prez” Jones, who favored this accent color.

Smith, who had been a freshman recruit when construction was first begun in 1980, was among those who witnessed this remarkable transformation.

“To have an opportunity to watch that spot turn from a wooded area with a pond into a deep hole on our campus and finally into a football stadium was amazing,” said Smith, later a line coach at Grambling.

The stadium was originally named for the Robinson family, since state law prohibits the honoring of a living person. That is expected to change in the wake of Robinson’s passing in April of this year at age 88, the result of complications related to Alzheimer’s disease.

Treen acknowledged, during the opening event, that Robinson Stadium would always stand as a tribute to Division I’s winningest coach.

“We all know who the distinguished member of that family is,” Treen said. “Sept. 3 will go down as an historic date because we are here today to dedicate this magnificent facility to this institution, and to a person who is an institution – Coach Eddie Robinson.”

Getting there had been a force of will for Robinson, who battled through budget cuts that radically changed design elements – to the very elements themselves. A late-summer rainshower caused one side of the hollowed-out ground to collapse in a mudslide, threatening the opener.

Robinson, involved in every facet of construction, deeply felt each setback. But he never wavered.

“He put a lot being into developing that stadium,” Lee said. “There was pressure to keep it going forward. It wasn’t an easy thing – though it was well deserved.”

A LEGACY REMEMBERED
Grambling played Casem to a virtual draw while he was at Alcorn, though Robinson eventually opened up a 13-8 lead after Casem returned to coaching at Southern.

Robinson would retire in 1997 having amassed 408 wins over a career that spanned six decades to the early 1940s. Through it all, their mutual respect endured – as did Casem’s propensity for the quick, appropriate quip.

Attending Robinson’s funeral earlier this year, Casem attempted to frame Robinson’s towering presence: “He was like Mount Fuji in Japan. He was always there, and he was always majestic.”

Robinson will be remembered again, as Grambling opens the 2007 home slate on Saturday against Alabama A&M. It will be the first game held at Robinson Stadium since its namesake’s passing.

Smith said this place, even as three head coaches have followed at GSU over the last decade, will always echo with cheers for Robinson.

Robinson himself seemed completely aware of that part of his legacy, the one made of concrete and steel, as he left the stadium on opening night more than a quarter century ago.

The suddenly quiet coach, awash in emotion, reached down and grabbed a single blade of grass from the Robinson Stadium turf.

“That we should have been thought worthy of this distinction gives us mixed emotions,” Robinson said, “of humility and profound gratitude.”
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Lee's list: Best ever at 'The Rob'
http://www.thenewsstar.com/news/blogs/blog3/2007/09/lees-list-best-ever-at-rob.html

As Robinson Stadium enters its 25th season, I asked longtime Grambling assistant Melvin "Jim" Lee -- who coached at his alma mater for 40 seasons after helping the Tigers to a 1955 national championship as a player under Eddie Robinson -- to name his Top 5 most memorable games at the facility.

First, there was a good bit of reminescing: "We gained so much from our time with Coach," Lee said. "We got a chance to see the country and a portion of the world. It was something that being in a smaller school, you never thought would happen."

Then, we got down to Lee's list:

5. NORTH CAROLINA A&T, 1997
Grambling gamely battled, but ultimately fell to A&T by two, 37-35, in the legendary coach's final home contest.

After 57 seasons, and a still-standing Divison I record of 408 wins, Robinson's remarkable career was through. Lee had played for him, then coached with him, for nearly 50 of those years.

"It was memorable because it was the last game, and what it meant to Coach," Lee said, "not because of way we played. The kids tried their very best, but we just didn't have the talent."

4. JACKSON STATE, 1992
Grambling's march to a final national black college championship for Robinson included an emotional win over Jackson State, who had bested GSU in each of the previous two seasons.

Grambling won 34-31.

"We were able to have a really good game from Stevie Anderson out of Jonesboro," Lee said. "We beat them, after they'd had our number for years. That was a good team and a great game."

3. TEXAS SOUTHERN, 1991
Lee remembers well TSU's "really big hitters," including future New York Giants standout Michael Strahan, then a junior.

The game, as was often the case back in the day with Texas Southern, was very tight. A homecoming crowd at "The Rob" brought additional intensity to the proceedings.

"We got down to the very last, and Gilad Landau came in," Lee said. "Two seconds on the clock, and he kicked it right down the middle for the win."

Final score, Grambling 30-27.

2. SOUTH CAROLINA STATE, 1987.
Freshman kicker Willian Wrighten, on his fourth attempt, kicked a 21-yard field goal with no time remaining to give South Carolina State a two-point win during a nationally broadcast Thursday night ESPN game from Robinson Stadium.

The first kick was nearly from midfield, a desperation move. But a series of penalties on Grambling, including roughing the kicker and offsides, eventually made this nearly a chip shot.

Grambling fell 15-13.

"We weren't satisfied with the outcome, of course, but it's certainly one I remember," Lee said. "What a game."

1. ALCORN STATE, 1994
There has never, and may well never be, a more famous game at "The Rob" than this titanic struggle against future NFL MVP and Super Bowl quarterback Steve McNair.

Grambling scored and scored and scored, only to be matched stride for stride by McNair -- a senior who had never lost to Robinson and Lee. GSU won in the final tally, but barely: 62-56. And even then, the Tigers had to fight off a late ASU drive.

"It came down, again, to a last play with just seconds on the clock," Lee said. "Thank goodness we were leading by a few. That was a very satisfying."

Remembering: Eddie Rob's right-hand men

Robinson's former Grambling assistants reminisce
April 18, 2005

Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING - Those who worked with Eddie Robinson are in an exclusive fraternity. Robinson retired in 1997 after nearly 60 seasons as head coach at Grambling State, yet throughout that time his staffs had remarkable stability.

"We enjoyed a great opportunity, to get to know and get to work with one of the game's great minds," said Doug Porter, whose 42 coaching seasons included eight with Robinson beginning in the late 1960s. "I realize now how lucky I was."

These coaches, friends and co-workers, will be honored on Friday night during a banquet at 6 p.m. at the Washington-Johnson Complex. For details, call the Grambling State football office at 274-6539 or the athletics department at 274-2374.

"We're sending out an open invitation to all of the former coaches that worked with Coach Robinson," said Melvin Spears, GSU's eighth head coach. "We hope to see the Melvin Lees, the Doug Porters, the Billy Mannings, the Ed Stevenses - all the guys. We want to say how much we appreciate them laying this foundation for us."

Rare was the Robinson staff turnover, long were the tenures. There was an old-school mix of ex-players and family.

For instance, Lee, the former center on Grambling's undefeated 1955 team, then spent 40 years under Robinson as an offensive coach. He put his own indelible stamp on the Wing-T scheme that would contribute to a record-breaking 408 wins at Grambling.

"He was the offensive coordinator after Coach Porter left. He was dedicated," said former receiver and current assistant Sammy White, who played for both Porter and Lee. "Before I left here, we were throwing the ball probably 60 percent of the time out of the Wing T. That was all because of Coach Lee."

Manning played for Robinson, then had a long tenure coaching the offensive line for him. The late defensive coordinator Fred Collins was alongside Robinson for more than 20 seasons.

Eddie Robinson Jr., now the coach at Grambling Lab, grew up around GSU football - and eventually worked as an assistant with his father.

"You can probably talk about it more in retrospect," said Robinson Jr., who worked with Grambling's offensive backfield and receivers for 15 seasons. "At the time, there wasn't much time to think about that. When it all boils down, it was like any other situation when you work for a guy. He could be very demanding, and that caused you to be that way too."

A cyclic, almost seasonal rhythm is found in the history of this group. Connections are made, and never broken. In the 1960s, Robinson was invited to speak at the awards banquet for Cocoran High in California by assistant coach "Convincer" Calloway, who had played at Grambling. Robinson met Ed Stevens, the head coach, and Jim Gregory, a talented quarterback.

Gregory - later famously dubbed "Grambling's White Tiger" - eventually played for Robinson and Stevens would work on his staff for years.

In fact, Robinson's first assistant, Jessie Applewhite, was a former football player then working as the school's night watchman.

Ernest Sterling, another ex-GSU gridiron great, later became known for his "Trees of Terror" as defensive line coach. He put in more than two decades as an assistant - then became one of just two coaches who stayed on when Doug Williams succeeded Robinson.

Even Porter, who had a relatively short term, has remained associated with the program. When he retired after 42 seasons in coaching, Porter returned to Grambling to work as an adviser to Williams and now Spears.

He's also remained friends with the coach who took over offensive duties when Porter left GSU.

"Melvin Lee lives three doors down from me, so our families are very close," said Porter, who was on the legendary Tigers' staff that had every senior drafted by the NFL in 1969. "We like to tell stories about the great games, and those ties we always wore, and the players. We'll try to tell the best tale, or the tallest tale."

By Robinson's own estimation in his 1999 autobiography "Never Before, Never Again," nine of the coaches in 1997 had fathers who had played for Grambling.

"Most of the guys on the staff had played for him," said Robinson Jr., "so they knew him as well as I did. They were guys who were there when I was playing, and they were still there when I got on the staff in 1984. Coach Lee had coached me. There was a tradition to uphold."

That tradition was one of endurance, of loyalty. Robinson once said that his six early-1990s assistants had been coaching with him for an amazing 102 seasons combined.

They each contributed something to Robinson's storied stay.

"I think we need to make certain that we recognize that legacy," said Spears. "What we want to do is continue to expose the young guys to the things that have gone on here before, to the great history we have."

What they say ...
Two of Eddie Robinson's assistants reminisce about working for him:

Favorite win
--Eddie Robinson Jr. (1984-97): We had a lot of them. (Laughs.) I always remember the games where we were behind, especially against Alcorn, and then came back and won. Anytime you get a victory like that, you remember it. The Bayou Classic in 1992, for instance, we were behind for most of the game. Then we came back and won it at the end.
--Doug Porter (1966-74): I don't think I have a favorite. I remember fondly our first trip to Hawaii, and our first trip to New York. It seems like most of my best memories, ironically, were away from Grambling.

Compare and contrast
--Porter: It's more of a business today among the coaches. There's not as much camaraderie. I was blessed to meet and get to know some of the giants - John Merritt (who coached at Jackson State and Tennessee State), Jake Gaither (of Florida A&M) and, of course, Eddie Robinson. I don't compare the players, either. With the way Division I programs are recruiting, there aren't the sleeper players you used to find.

Final thoughts
--Robinson Jr.: It was quite an experience for me because I had grown up around Grambling football. We got to go to a lot of places that I never dreamed I would go. And I got to go there with him.

What he said ...
The now-ailing Eddie Robinson mentioned several assistants in his 1999 autobiography, called "Never Before, Never Again":

· On Melvin Lee: It would be impossible to describe how much Melvin Lee meant to me over all these years. It was his genius that helped make out Wing-T offense so effective for so long.

· On Eddie Jr.: We never pushed Eddie Jr. to be involved in athletics. We hoped he would be a doctor or a lawyer. We wanted him to do whatever he wanted to do and be the best at it. But all he ever wanted to do was play and then coach. ... I loved coaching with him, each and every day.
· On Ernest Sterling: Ernest coached with me for 24 years. He had played for me and then in the NFL. He was like a rock and my foundation guy.

· On Doug Porter: I told Doug Porter, who was then (in the early 1970s) my 42-year-old chief assistant, that he should stay at Grambling because he would probably succeed me in a few years. Decades later, he joked with me - because he was smart enough to take the head coaching job at Howard.

The legacy continues ...
Former Grambling State assistant Doug Porter is just one of several coaches to find success after working with Eddie Robinson.

Porter - who had previously served as head coach at Mississippi Valley from 1961-65, a tenure that included a conference title in 1963 - left GSU for a stint at Howard University from 1974-78. He finished his coaching career in 1997, but not before leading Division II's Fort Valley State to a 106-61-3 record over 16 seasons.

Several former assistants continue to coach, ensuring the Robinson legacy will continue. For instance, SMU's current defensive tackle coach Joe Sawyer oversaw GSU's D-line from 1991-93. Dennis Winston, an assistant in 1992-94 then again in 1995-97, coached at Toledo for four seasons before accepting a position with the CFL's Edmonton franchise this offseason.

Lee Fobbs, a former player and graduate assistant, has had a long career in coaching - most recently as a fifth-year assistant to Dennis Franchione, first at Alabama and now at Texas A&M. He was a finalist to follow Robinson as head coach at Grambling, and then in the search for a replacement for Doug Williams.

Tennessee Tech's linebackers coach Marty Steward was on Robinson's staff during his final season. Williams Jones III, a defensive assistant in 1994-95, has been at Kentucky State and now Pearl River (Miss.) Community College.

Remembering: 'Grambling's White Tiger'

TV spotlight was on change
Issue of integration in college football hit the small screen 25 years ago with 'Grambling's White Tiger'

September 24, 2006

By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
Twenty-five years ago, a film crew descended on the town of Grambling to retell a turning-point moment in the history of its football team.

Coach Eddie Robinson's decision to integrate his then-all black college football team — and a book detailing the transition — had come in the turbulence of the late 1960s.

But the story had always struck former Olympian Bruce Jenner as one that would connect with a mainstream audience — and, more than a decade later, Jenner turned it into his first movie project.

"This was a true story of integration," Jenner said, "but it was going in the opposite direction."

Standing at the center of the book — "My Little Brother is Coming Tomorrow" by Bruce Behrenberg — and subsequent film was Jim Gregory. He became known forever by the 1981 TV movie's title: "Grambling's White Tiger."

"The experience itself was something that I would never want to do away with," said Gregory, who has since worked for 30 years as a teacher and coach at California's Reedley High. "It was a great experience. I would do it again in a heartbeat."

Parts of it, anyway.

Gregory's memories of his time at Grambling — he warmly describes the towering leadership of Robinson, and an enduring friendship with teammates like Monroe's Charles "Tank" Smith — have been forever changed by the media maelstrom that surrounded his presence.

He unwittingly contributed to that whirlwind when, as youngster, he signed the deal that led to Behrenberg's book.

But in the end, Gregory says that publication and the subsequent, more widely seen film stand as testament to the times more so than to his own story.

"It's not my life," Gregory likes to say. "It was only a semester."

A BRAND-NEW ERA

Robinson had met Gregory when he spoke at the high schooler's football banquet.

Two of Cocoran High's coaches had Grambling connections: Its head coach played for Robinson and an assistant, Ed Stevens (pictured above), later joined his staff.

Robinson, who is in failing health today, once said the times dictated his decision to integrate the team. He insisted that Grambling's players would have to live their lives around white people, and that segregation in school only prolonged that acclimation process.

In the end, he felt that no other player could have handled the adversity as well as Gregory did.

"I knew that I had learned something from 'Greg,' and he from us," Robinson said. "We all taught others some things in the process."

Gregory didn't see much playing time, beginning his career as a freshman on a team led by James "Shack" Harris and ending it behind Matt Reed, another Monroe native. But Robinson always stressed that football was just one small part of the journey.

"Eddie was looking for someone who would make it through and graduate; that was one of Eddie's goals all along — whether you became a star player or not," Gregory said. "He wanted us to go out into society and contribute."

Though he says he endured his share of curious looks as the only white person on the team, Gregory said he was greeted on campus with open arms.

"That was one thing about Eddie Robinson, he was going to make sure that anybody who came here was going to be treated equally," said Douglas Porter, then the offensive coordinator. "That was almost like a religion. It was going to be the same for everybody."

Players like Harris, then fighting to become the first black quarterback to be drafted at his true position, saw in Gregory a kindred spirit.

"It took a unique guy to go through that," said Harris, now an NFL personnel executive. "He had to accept some critical circumstances. But I think during that time, it may have been easier for Jim than it was to do it in the reverse."

Gregory, for his part, was introduced to a whole new world of Southern hospitality, soul food surprises and funky good times.

"I was put into the dorm with guys like James Harris and Charlie Joiner, and they had a lot of questions," Gregory said. "I can remember guys who didn't like me, because they had never been around a white guy before. Those people became some of my better friends as time went on."

BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS

The novelty of the situation soon drew nationwide attention. Grambling, becoming known as the cradle of the pros, suddenly had a sideshow.

"There was too much hype surrounding it," Gregory said. "It (the color barrier) was being broken, whether I did it or not. I just wanted to play football."

Still, Gregory signed the book deal that eventually became the basis for Jenner's movie while he was still enrolled at Grambling.

"I was a young kid and we jumped into it," Gregory said. "There were times I wished it had never come about. I was having trouble with the fact that I was stabbing my buddies in the back, as the white kid getting all the notoriety. It was really a tough time."

Grambling, through the brilliance of Robinson and sports information director Collie J. Nicholson, was coming into its own as a national presence.

The founding of the Urban League Classic, played at a sold-out Yankee Stadium in 1968, coincided with Gregory's arrival. Hundreds of Grambling products were flooding into the NFL.

Yet a cluster of reporters greeted the white quarterback at every GSU stop — cruelly ironic to the others in that he wasn't a starter.

"They were always trying to pull things from you that didn't have anything to do with what was going on, or put me at a higher standing than I was," Gregory said. "I was a freshman, after all. I was only traveling with the team because I could kick."

Through it all, Porter said Gregory deftly avoided becoming a disruptive force.

"We used to go a lot of places and reporters would try to draw him into making a remark about not getting a chance to play," Porter said. "He wouldn't do it. He never let them make that an issue."

Gregory earned his teammates' respect with that fair-minded attitude — not to mention gutty practice-yard play, even if that never transferred to all-conference stats.

"Jim Gregory was a real tough competitor," Harris said. "He just didn't have the ability that (former Grambling passers) Frank Holmes and Matthew Reed had. He won over some guys because when he practiced on the freshman team, he competed and took his hits."

He also learned a lot in those times of dramatic change in America.

Gregory said a scene from "Grambling's White Tiger" where a black co-ed is reluctant to go on a shopping trip with him accurately depicts the struggles between races at the time.

"Just my walking downtown in Ruston or Monroe with 'Tank,' we'd get dirty looks," Gregory said. "There were some tough times, but we hung through it. Over the five years I was there, I saw great change. There were still people who didn't like each other, but the overall relationship had become a lot better."

THE SPOTLIGHT RETURNS

While Gregory was toiling away in graduate school when work on Jenner's film began, his teammates and coach had become national figures.

Robinson was within sight of Paul "Bear" Bryant's once-thought unassailable all-time record for wins. Harris and Joiner were playing for the San Diego Chargers, while Smith was a member of the Philadelphia Eagles' roster.

So, the project — boosted, too, perhaps Jenner's involvement — drew some notable talents.

Harry Belafonte made his television acting debut as a tribute to his regard for Robinson. Harris would be played by Dennis Haysbert, who has since starred as President David Palmer in TV's "24" and in a series of Allstate commercials.

Smith was portrayed by LeVar Burton, best known for the ground-breaking miniseries "Roots" and later for his work on "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

The film was directed by Georg Stanford Brown, who worked on TV's "Hill Street Blues" and won an Emmy for an episode of "Cagney and Lacey."

Yet, despite getting largely good notices for "Grambling's White Tiger" — the only quibble was, in fact, with the star's sometimes-wooden delivery as Gregory — Jenner's fledgling production company didn't take off.

He has worked on various television and movie projects since, but devotes most of his time now to a corporate coaching company that works on staff development, leadership programs and crafting sales programs.

"It was certainly the high point of my acting career," Jenner said. "It was very well received and it was an important movie, I thought."

As time passed, Gregory's perspective on the book and the movie subtly changed.

He eventually integrated them into his classroom curriculum. Both are on file in his school library.

"It's a great history lesson on segregation and desegregation," he said. "I eventually had a better feeling about the movie, because I'd come to think of it as a learning tool."

Seeing his life story through the eyes of successive generations of young people continues to teach Gregory new things about those times.

"Whether I like it or not, my coming to Grambling had an effect on society," Gregory said. "As I finished up, other schools were just starting to beginning to integrate. We were part of something."

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Lights, camera, Grambling!
September 24, 2006

By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
Bruce Jenner's 1981 film stands as historical artifact not just because of its dramatic portrayal of the integration of Eddie Robinson's football team but also because it was shot on location in Grambling.

Jenner and his crew spent a month on campus that summer shooting "Grambling's White Tiger," using members of the current GSU football team as extras to portray events from 12 years before.

"We had to do it at Grambling, just because it was such a unique place and had such a rich history," said Jenner. "To give the storyline any credibility, it had to be done there."

Of course, that meant the whole town got to share in the experience.

Jenner, a former Olympic decathlon champion, shot a football game actually held in Marshall, Texas, against Wiley College at GSU's old Memorial Stadium.

As always, locals filled the background for crowd shots.

"They painted the press box on the visitors side purple and white," said Grambling alum Kenn Rashad, then a 13-year-old. "At the top of that press box was a sign that read 'Wylie College.' The movie producers misspelled the name of the school."

Pretty soon, everyone was angling for their big Hollywood moment.

"I begged the crew a number of times to get me into the movie," said John Barabin, who grew up in Baton Rouge but used to spend summers in Grambling with relatives. "They finally obliged by having me run down Grambling's Main Street sidewalk and do a double take at Bruce Jenner. I hung out with stars, ate from their catering truck — and, best of all, I received a paycheck for it!"

The television film originally aired Oct. 4, 1981, and has been rerun countless times since. Highlights include now-poignant glimpses into former coach Eddie Robinson's office and inside the Memorial Stadium locker rooms — neither of which are still used by the GSU football team.

There was at least one interruption of filming, after a student government representative objected to something in the script. But Jenner said even that turned into a moment of discovery.

"They thought it put the school in a bad light," Jenner said. "Coach Robinson said: 'Let's meet with the students and hear what they have to say, but let the process play out. Let them learn from the experience.' We made some minor changes, and kept going."