College Hall of Fame beckons Grambling resident Douglas Porter
May 7, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
Grambling resident Douglas Porter, who had a five-decade long career in coaching and athletic administration, will be inducted into the College Hall of Fame.
The National Football Foundation is expected to announce the 2008 class today. Porter appeared on the lower-classification ballot.
A former assistant at Grambling State under Eddie Robinson, Porter was a head coach at former Division I-AA programs Mississippi Valley (from 1961-65) and Howard University (from 1974-78) and finally at Division II Fort Valley State (from 1979-94). He was a longtime administrator at Fort Valley, as well.
Porter’s helped establish a Valley program that had not had a winning season in five years before his first in 1963, and has only matched his three in a row (through 1965) two other times — once in the 1950s, and another under Archie Cooley beginning in 1983. His .550 winning percentage has only been bested once among MVSU coaches who stayed five or more years.
He then coached for nine seasons under Robinson, running an offense that featured future Pro Football Hall of Famer Charlie Joiner and quarterbacks James “Shack” Harris and Doug Williams, later a Super Bowl MVP.
Every Grambling senior was drafted by the NFL in 1969. In 1971, 43 GSU players were in pro football camps.
“Even when I got to Fort Valley, the lead story was always that I was formerly an assistant under Coach Eddie Robinson,” Porter said recently. “That’s what they would start with. That gave you credibility, the fact that you had worked with Coach Rob.”
Porter, who won 61 percent of the games he coached, was 30-21-2 in five seasons at Howard — part of a career record of 166 victories.
At Fort Valley, a Division II program in Georgia, Porter won six conference championships and made two NCAA playoff appearances on his way to seven league coach of the year honors.
Porter retired back to Grambling in 1997, where he became a trusted advisor to both former GSU coaches Doug Williams and Melvin Spears and current coach Rod Broadway. He has also been a steady presence in the efforts to establish a museum in Robinson’s honor.
Porter has already been inducted into the Mississippi Valley State Hall of Fame.
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OUT OF THE SHADOWS: Legendary Grambling assistant built Hall of Fame resume as a head coach too
May 12, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Until this week, Douglas Porter was most often referred to as a former assistant under Grambling State’s mythical Eddie Robinson.
Porter stood, without complaint, inside the dark outline of that coaching legend’s shadow — despite having assembled a terrific, if seldom decorated, career of his own.
“That couldn’t have been easy with a person of his skill,” said James “Shack” Harris, Porter’s first quarterbacking protégé at GSU. “He was able to do it without ego, and to do it well.”
Porter, in fact, had been a part of a larger storyline in shaping successful programs, even in the most trying of situations. He had won nearly 170 games during a trio of head coaching stints at Mississippi Valley State, Howard and Fort Valley State — a resume built far from the red clay hills of Grambling.
Recognition for those efforts came on Wednesday when Porter was announced as part of the College Hall of Fame’s 2008 divisional class for lower-classification coaches and players.
“He has never been in the limelight,” said Doug Williams, who later received mentoring from Porter at Grambling as a redshirt freshman passer. “This is one time when he gets his 15 minutes. He deserves it.”
Nothing could stop Porter’s Hall of Fame journey: Not the crushing disparities found at rural black schools like Mississippi Valley State and Grambling, the benign neglect rampant even at metropolitan institutions like Howard, the forgotten backwaters of Division II ball at Fort Valley, or even a shocking moment when his body betrayed him.
BUILDING A FOUNDATION
Porter, so happy to be taking over a program, didn’t ask too many questions upon assuming his first head coaching job at Valley.
Once he got to Itta Bena, though, the gravity of the situation became apparent.
“Hadn’t beaten Jackson, hadn’t beaten Alcorn — in ages,” Porter said, sizing up Mississippi Valley State’s performance against key league foes. “Two years before, Grambling had beaten us 93 to nothing.”
He set about building a foundation of pride. That would require more than scoring 94 points on a Saturday afternoon.
“It took us a couple of years,” Porter said. “We played a lot of freshmen, played a lot of young people. But then, it began to pay off for us.”
Though Valley had not had a winning season in five years before Porter’s first in 1963, he reeled off three in a row through 1965 — something that has only been matched in Itta Bena on two other occasions.
Grambling, it’s no surprise, was a measuring stick. That time when Robinson’s squad had nearly hung a Benjamin on the Delta Devils stuck with Porter.
He finally began to gain on Valley’s cross-conference rivals and, in the process, to earn Eddie Robinson’s respect.
Porter had gotten blown out by Grambling during their first trio of meetings — and by a combined score of 149-12. But Porter was gaining, losing by an average of about two touchdowns over the last three games
“We came down in 1965, we played in Grambling —- and we led at halftime,” Porter said. “We lost 34-20, but we had been ahead 14-7. That was a measure of where we had come. We had gotten to the point where we could play anybody on our schedule. That was what I had hoped to do when I came there.”
A year later, he was running Robinson’s offense.
Porter said the chance to work alongside an American legend at Grambling — and to mentor future Louisiana Sports Hall of Famers like Harris and Frank Lewis — made what amounted to a demotion to offensive coordinator an attractive offer.
“He was very effective in a variety of situations,” Harris said. “He was someone who really knew the game. Coach Porter was a leader in his own right. You respected him.”
Grambling won six SWAC titles in the eight years Porter served under Robinson — three of them with Harris, who compiled a 31-9-1 record at Grambling.
That period of profound success, however, was leavened by the emerging reality that Robinson was becoming professionally and personally entwined in Grambling.
This relationship, already nearly 35 seasons old, was set for life.
Porter would have to move on in order to get an opportunity to run a program. After considering an offer from Florida A&M, he left in 1974 for the Washington, D.C.-based historically black college program Howard.
“I wanted to be a head coach,” he said. “I saw that, after a few years here, there was not going to be a chance for that.
“Change,” Porter added, laughing now, “wasn’t coming.”
Porter and Robinson, in fact, both would work for another 24 seasons, but while Porter moved from Howard to Fort Valley in coaching and administrative positions, his old boss never left the helm at GSU.
UPS AND DOWNS
Porter said he soon learned that the administration at Howard didn’t have the same commitment to athletics that he had become used to at Grambling under Robinson and then-president R.W.E. Jones.
Porter would finish with a winning record, but he’s always been left with the sense that he could have done better than his 30-21-2 mark over five seasons in D.C.
“I thought at that time that the best move for me and my future in football was Howard,” Porter said. “It didn’t turn out to be that way.”
Just over the horizon, however, was Fort Valley, where Porter would coach — save for one year — from 1979-97, and serve as athletics director from 1981-97.
“In all things that I have been involved with — people might think this is a little sanctimonious — I felt that the Lord has a way of directing you to go certain places and do certain things,” Porter said. “I was glad to get out of that situation.”
The then-current athletics director at Fort Valley was one of Porter’s college coaches. The school president had a child who attended Grambling during Porter’s tenure there.
And middle Georgia residents, like those in rural north Louisiana, boast a deep-seated love affair with football.
“There weren’t the same resources they had at Grambling, but the commitment to support the program was just as great,” Porter said.
He’d capture seven Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships between 1980-92, including four in a row from 1982-85.
“It definitely didn’t surprise me that he was able to leave and do well,” said Harris, now a top front-office executive in the NFL. “Some people are destined for success; he was one of those kinds of people.”
Five years after taking over, Fort Valley was winning its league title with both the offensive and defensive players of the year.
But Porter, after so long on the sidelines, was beginning to fray. An in-season heart attack during his seventh campaign at Fort Valley sent him into spiraling introspection.
'A GREAT FOOTBALL MIND'
Fort Valley has begun that impressive string of championships in the 1980s running an offense that bore little resemblance to the attack associated with Robinson’s Grambling teams.
Recruiting into a Division II program had something to do with it.
“I didn’t have the offensive linemen that it would take to run the Wing T,” Porter said. “You need guys who have a lot of athletic ability to be successful. It was easier for us to find kids we could teach to pass block and drive block.”
By ‘85, Fort Valley had developed a powerful defense to match that offensive power, too, leading the lower classification in several categories. Opponents were often held under a touchdown, and to minus-yards rushing.
But these low-scoring matches — coupled with newly founded, Grambling-like expectations of winning — took their toll, creating a pressure-cooker environment.
Fort Valley, ranked No. 2, came into a game against No. 1 Central State and fell 14-7.
A coach known for his easy-going nature — in fact, some at Fort Valley had once criticized him for not being emotional enough — was taking all of this personally.
Too personally.
“It was a hard, hard loss,” Porter said. “We were going into our last two games with just one loss. To maintain that puts you under a tremendous amount of pressure that you don’t really realize.”
He ended up flat on his back in a hospital room, with doctors trying to get his heart fixed.
Porter kept asking about the scores, tried to keep his head in the game.
But the doctors recommended a year off.
The time away refocused Porter on what was important. He still loved football, but in a different way. He learned to let things go.
“At the end of that, I was in the best shape I have been in, other than when I was in the Army,” Porter said. “But I wanted to coach. Coaching is all I have ever really wanted to do.”
He would win more titles at Fort Valley, would serve as chairman of the Division II Football Committee and as president of the National Athletic Steering Committee and, after retiring, would play a key advisory role in smoothing the transition for Robinson successor Doug Williams at Grambling.
“Fort Valley was a good fit for me,” Porter said. “We found that they had a strong group of followers, and they had established a good winning tradition. As with Grambling, I was happy to be a part of that.”
Even if it always seemed to come second on his resume. Until Wednesday, when the College Hall of Fame called.
“It’s one of the greatest honors that can be bestowed,” said Williams, himself a 2001 inductee. “Nobody deserves to be rewarded more than Coach Porter.”
Porter attended the Hall of Fame ceremonies honoring Williams seven years ago, and Williams will join a burgeoning list of former students who will return the favor this summer. Porter said several Fort Valley players are organizing a group trip to South Bend, as well.
“Most people don’t know how special a coach he is,” said Harris, a Monroe native. “He coached at small schools, and that sometime means you get overlooked, but he did an outstanding job with those programs. He’s well deserving. What a great football mind.”
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For Grambling’s Porter, Hall of Fame career was about the kids
July 19, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
For Doug Porter, today will be the capstone on a career spent working with young people.
Of course, the new College Football Hall of Famer won some games along the way, too.
But that was never the point for Porter, a Grambling resident.
"To be able to touch young people," Porter said, "to get them to believe in something, that always meant so much."
The 79-year old earned membership in the College Hall’s 2008 divisional class after a 42-year career, which included 26 seasons as head coach at three small colleges. Porter also served eight seasons as an offensive coach during the legendary tenure of Grambling’s Eddie Robinson, and was athletics director at Fort Valley from 1981-97.
"He was a top football mind, someone who really knew the game," said one of Grambling’s passers at the time, James "Shack" Harris —- now a general manager with the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars. "Coach Porter is a leader in his right."
The National Football Foundation considers players and coaches from the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA), Divisions II, III, and the NAIA National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for induction in the College Hall of Fame’s divisional classes.
Porter is joined in 2008 by W.C. Gorden, who coached at Grambling’s conference foe Jackson State from 1976-91.
Four players are also to be inducted in ceremonies held today at South Bend, Ill.: Quarterback Jim Ballard (Mount Union, 1991-93); linebacker Ronald McKinnon (North Alabama, 1992-95), defensive end John Randle (Texas A&M-Kingsville, 1988-89) and halfback Brad Rowland (McMurry College, 1947-50).
Porter, who won 61 percent of the games he coached, recorded 166 career victories —- the bulk of them at Fort Valley.
There, Porter earned seven Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships between 1980-92, including four consecutive crowns from 1982-85. He advanced to the NCAA Division II semifinals in 1983 — when his team boasted the league’s offensive and defensive players of the year in Kelvin Parker and Taqwan Taylor, respectively — and to the quarterfinals in ‘85.
"I have as much respect for Coach Porter as any one I have been around," said Harris, a Monroe native who later played for the NFL’s Bills, Rams and Chargers. "As good a coach as he was, he always played his role in shadows. That couldn’t have been easy for a person of his skill."
Even working at that tiny Georgia Division II program, Porter coached three future NFL Draft picks, including first-rounder Tyrone Poole and Pro Bowl linebacker Greg Lloyd. (He also mentored some Grambling’s top quarterbacks in Harris, Matthew Reed and then Doug Williams, the future Super Bowl MVP.)
"Coach Porter is a special coach in that he would always tell you the honest truth, about football and about life," Harris said. "It sounds simple, but it’s rare. So often a coach will tell you what you want to hear. When you get a chance to work with people like Coach Porter, you become a better person yourself."
Named SIAC coach of the year seven times, Porter earned a lifetime achievement award from the All-American Football Foundation in 1998 and induction in the Mississippi Valley State Hall of Fame in 2006.
"The recognition is overwhelming," Porter said. "But the most important thing to me was to affect the lives of young people. That was satisfying."
COACH DOUG PORTER
Born: Aug. 15, 1929 in Memphis
Personal: Lives in Grambling, with wife Jean
Head coaching career: Mississippi Valley State (1961-65), Howard (1974-78), Fort Valley State (1979-85, 1987-96); also served as an offensive assistant at Grambling (1966-73) under Eddie Robinson, and has been a key advisor to each of his successors.
Career record: 166-107-5, only five losing seasons out of 26
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A SHARED EXPERIENCE: Grambling's duo of Dougs — Porter and Williams — boasts Hall of Fame friendship
July 20, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
A familiar face could be found among the crowd.
Doug Porter was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame on Saturday, with former player and protégé Doug Williams in attendance.
The roles had been reversed in 2001, when Williams was named to the hall's divisional class as a player. Seven years later, Porter was recognized in South Bend, Ill., for head coaching work at a trio of lower classification programs.
Porter also served from 1966-73 as an offensive assistant during the career of Grambling State's Eddie Robinson.
There, he met Doug Williams, then a young quarterback. Later, after retirement, Porter returned to become a key mentor when Williams succeeded Robinson as head coach at Grambling.
"It was big for me when Coach Porter showed up for my induction," Williams said. "When I found out that he was going in, I thought that was one of the greatest things. I got a chance to repay Coach by being there for him."
Porter won 61 percent of the games he coached, recording 166 career victories at former Division I-AA programs Mississippi Valley State (1961-65) and Howard (1974-78), then at Division II Fort Valley State (1979-97). He also served as athletics director at Fort Valley from 1981-97.
He might have won more still, had Williams followed Porter to Howard.
Williams certainly wanted to, back then.
"He was frustrated as a red shirt," Porter said. "He was running the scout team, but he felt he was better. He wasn't playing."
Porter, then as now a wise and fair man, knew the steep coaching climb ahead at Howard. But he wasn't willing to pluck Williams out of a more favorable situation.
"It wasn't in Doug's best interest to come," Porter said. "He wouldn't have been surrounded with the kind of people he had with Eddie: He wouldn't have had Dwight Scales; he wouldn't have had Sammy White — and those people were big contributors to his success. Had Williams come to us, he would have been a great quarterback, but throwing it to a group of receivers who made a lot of drops. That wouldn't have helped him."
Williams would win a pair of league championships under Robinson, success that launched him into the race for the Heisman Trophy. Williams then became a first-round NFL draft pick, and eventually earned Super Bowl MVP honors in 1988.
A lasting relationship, built as much on trust as on gridiron concepts, was forged.
Fate brought them back together in 1997, when Porter returned to Grambling upon retirement. Williams was in the midst of launching the difficult post-Robinson era — something nearly unthinkable after his stirring 57-season tenure — and Porter's guiding hand again played a key role Williams' success.
"It was Doug Porter who helped me though the whole transition," Williams said. "He wasn't looking for publicity for what he did. It wasn't hard for me to see that I needed Doug Porter close by me."
Long after retirement, Porter — the son of a coach, Memphis prep legend W.P. Porter — still possessed a keen passion for football.
"We'd sit down every day after practice and I would tell him what I felt," Porter said. "He was very amenable, though sometimes we would disagree. I could accept that, because it was his football team. The only thing I wanted to do was help him be successful."
He was: Williams, with Porter on the sidelines in an advisory role, would win a trio of Southwestern Athletic Conference titles in 2000-02, and was one game away from the championship match in both 1999 and 2003.
They now boast another bond, another shared memory in a lifetime filled with them.
"He had such an impact on my life," Williams said. "He had a lot to do with the success that I had. In my life, Coach Porter has been a Hall of Famer for a long time."
Showing posts with label Frank Lewis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frank Lewis. Show all posts
Monday, July 21, 2008
Thursday, April 12, 2007
LAID TO REST
Robinson's players huddle up for last goodbye
Memories, tears flow throughout emotional reunion for proteges of late coach
April 10, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
BATON ROUGE -- Former players made a gathering to mark Eddie Robinson’s legendary 57-year career at Grambling into a lively reunion that crossed generations.
Members of Robinson teams from 1941-97 met for a private event before the general public was allowed into the state capitol for an all-day memorial, something typically reserved for heads of state.
“I’m so happy this happened for Coach,” said Frank Lewis, a wide receiver and running back at Grambling in the late 1960s. “Coach was so special. He deserves it.”
The day was marked by stark emotional contrasts -- beginning as the players, wearing white gloves and standing in parallel lines, passed Robinson’s cherry-wood casket up the imposing steps of one of Louisiana’s most iconic buildings.
GSU standouts Albert Lewis and Doug Williams, the lead pallbearers, were joined by more than 100 Robinson protégés in that solemn task, which led inside to Memorial Hall, the ornate, two-story space between the state’s Senate and House chambers.
Director Larry Pannell led the Tiger Marching Band through a sad, but swinging rendition of “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” from the top of the steps.
“There’s no topping this legacy,” said Lewis, a Grambling defensive back in the early 1980s. “I consider Coach Robinson one of the greatest individuals -- not coaches, individuals -- in this country’s history.”
The 88-year-old Robinson, who still holds the record for Division I wins, died April 3 from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease. But not before shaping the lives of generations, said Williams, a former GSU quarterback who succeeded Robinson as coach.
“We’re all an extension of Coach Eddie Robinson,” Williams said. “He lives on through each of us. We are part of what Coach Robinson was, and what he will always be.”
Quiet sorrow turned to open grieving as the casket was opened.
A trio of state troopers presented the colors --- the United States, Louisiana and Grambling flags --- and placed them behind Robinson. Wreaths from the university and the state were also placed by former players, including Adolph Byrd, a tackle on Robinson’s first 1940s teams.
Robinson’s family sat at the feet of the former coach, while his ex-players lined up again to pass a football, hand to hand, from the back of the group to the waiting hands of Williams --- who held the ball aloft before handing it to Doris and son Eddie Robinson Jr. They then placed it in the casket with Robinson.
Robinson Jr. stood behind the GSU flag as more tributes followed, including a powerful speech by Williams, famous even now for his 1988 Super Bowl MVP performance.
“This is such a showing of support for what he did,” said Robinson Jr. “Just to know that so many people admired him, it’s an honor for the whole family.”
Personal touches surrounded the casket, including a painting by Ruston artist Reggie McLeroy, previously hanging in the Robinson family living room.
Next to it was a new creation by McLeroy that featured the former coach, wearing his familiar red suspenders and carrying his briefcase, walking across a football field. A shimmering image of Robinson rises in the clouds above.
“It’s a testament to him, when you get this kind of representation,” said Michael Haynes, a late 1970s-era defensive back. “He was charismatic. I will say this, the world lost a great one -- and heaven has truly gotten better.”
The team event’s finale included an emotional singing of the Grambling alma mater, and several players were overcome -- including Williams, who had to briefly leave the hall.
That somber moment turned to celebration with the Tiger Marching Band’s segue into the GSU fight song. Players and family members alike, tears still in their eyes, suddenly filled the Memorial Hall with ringing joy.
“This isn’t just what he taught us about football,” said Darrius Matthews, a defender on Robinson’s final black college national championship team in 1992. “It was about what he taught us about life.”
The players poured out on the capitol steps once more, where team mates from every decade gathered for what quickly became raucous group photos.
More than one player, when there was an unexpected hitch in the proceedings, reused Robinson’s well-worn practice mantra: “Run it again!”
Melvin Lee, a 1950s-era player for Robinson, later coached alongside him for 40 seasons. He ended up in nearly every photo.
“To see people come back and pay tribute to Coach Robinson like this, it’s sad but great at the same time,” said Lee, who still lives in Grambling. “It’s great to share stories and relive the memories.”
Henry Dyer, a running back for Robinson in the early 1960s, stepped out to take his own picture of former teammates.
“It was a great day for a great man,” Dyer said. “It was a celebration of a great life.”
Even as the band filed past the players on the capitol steps, a group of well wishers and fans had begun lining up for the public viewing of Robinson that followed. Back inside, many gathered around an exhibit of memorabilia, including a series of photos taken by James Terry.
Robinson’s casket remained under the towering brass doors that lead to the Senate until 4:30 p.m., when his body was moved into the House chambers for a memorial service. More than 3,000 passed in the first few hours of viewing.
Players lingered for a while, reminiscing about their time with Robinson and sharing tall tales.
“There’s a million words you can say,” said Larry Metevia, a center for Robinson in the early 1960s. “But, mostly, I’d like to say: Thank you.”
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Outpouring overwhelms busy Williams
April 10, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
BATON ROUGE — Former Grambling standout Doug Williams stood in the Louisiana House chamber and took stock of a powerful day.
He had spent the balance of Monday in the towering Memorial Hall that connects this room with the state Senate, overseeing the public memorial to his late college coach, Eddie Robinson.
More than 1,000 people an hour had entered the Capitol for the public viewing of Robinson, who died April 3 at 88 from complications related to Alzheimer's disease.
Williams was overwhelmed.
"I can honestly say that today we've had some heavy hearts, but it was a great day," Williams told the packed House chamber. "So many people passed by, took pictures, shook hands. We saw parents bringing kids — and the only way they are going to know who Eddie Robinson is, what Eddie Robinson was, and what he will always be, is if we tell them."
Williams appeared as part of a Monday night memorial service that featured Gov. Kathleen Blanco as the keynote speaker. State Sen. Bob Kostelka R-Monroe, and state Rep. Rick Gallot, D-Grambling, two area legislators, were also featured — along with state Sen. Charles Jones D-Monroe of the Legislative Black Caucus.
Guests included LSU coach Les Miles, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, former Alcorn State and Southern University administrator Marino Casem, former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer and former GSU coach Melvin Spears, among others.
Blanco presented Doris, Eddie Robinson's wife of more than 65 years, the American flag that had flown over the Capitol building on Monday.
Williams began the day overseeing a private event for players. More than 100 former teammates shared the duty of carrying Robinson up the steps and into the Capitol's Memorial Hall earlier that morning.
"To see so many former players come and pay tribute to Coach Robinson made me feel good," Williams said. "Only Eddie Robinson could have done what happened today."
Williams immediately followed Jones, who had given an animated tribute sprinkled with poetic verse and snippets of Shakespeare.
But Williams, still flush from that morning event, said he remained undaunted — even if he couldn't match the poetry of Jones' speech.
"Ordinarily, I would want to wave the white flag, coming in after Senator Jones," Williams said. "But I was fortunate to be coached by Eddie Robinson, and he said if you are going to lose, lose trying to win."
Williams played quarterback for Robinson from 1974-77 before an NFL career that included Super Bowl MVP honors in 1988. He then succeeded Robinson as coach at Grambling, winning a trio of league championships between 2000-02.
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It's time
April 09, 2007
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
It's been eight years since the Legislature approved the idea of a state-run Eddie Robinson Museum. There's still no museum.
For all that time, the mantra amongst the organizers was getting it done before Robinson passed. That day has come, and gone.
There's still no museum.
But those who believe in the project think the museum could gain new life in the aftermath of Robinson's death, that some glimmer of hope might emerge from the grief over losing an American hero.
Doris Robinson, the late coach's wife of more than 65 years, is one of those people. (She was the one who asked the information on donating to the museum be distributed during today's memorial in Baton Rouge.) So is Doug Williams, Robinson's most visible protege this week.
"It's unfortunate that it took his going home for so many people to know what we already knew about Eddie Robinson," Williams said. "He was more than a football coach. He was more than 408 wins and 200 guys in the NFL. He was a great American."
I don't know why Robinson had to pass for us to get to that place, even though I'm glad that it might be possible.
After all, Robinson didn't send any more players to the NFL this week. He didn't win a 409th time. All that happened long ago.
It's time. Time for the university to sign off on the space. Time for the alumni to gather itself in mighty support. Time for this thing to happen.
There's still no museum. And that's a shocking rebuke to everything that is happening around Robinson right now. All of these tributes mean nothing if there isn't action to back up the sentiment.
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'His spirit will be with us'
Thousands come to Grambling to say goodbye to Eddie Robinson
April 12, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — They talked about the son of a sharecropper who rose to national fame, about a racial pioneer who refused to let the country's inequities dim his passion, about a football coach who cared more about people than games.
Services for Eddie G. Robinson, who had a 57-season tenure at Grambling, were Wednesday. He died April 3 at age 88 from complications related to Alzheimer's.
"Let's grieve and let's celebrate," said Willie Davis, a key member of Grambling State University's undefeated 1955 team before joining the legendary Green Bay Packers teams of the 1960s. "But let's walk away feeling better because he touched our lives."
The crowd, which numbered in the thousands, included scores of former Grambling players like Davis. Several of them spoke during the event, including Pro Football Hall of Famers Willie Brown, Davis and Charlie Joiner; former Super Bowl MVP Doug Williams; and James "Shack" Harris, one of the NFL's highest ranking black executives.
Davis admitted that Robinson's very constancy made his passing seem impossible.
"You can never prepare for an occasion of this type," said Davis, who later became a business leader in California. "We are witnessing a legend passing on, but his spirit will be with us forever."
U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu announced a proclamation recognizing Robinson's accomplishments and presented the former coach's family with a flag that flew over the Senate during the body's deliberations.
Wednesday's event included comments from GSU President Horace Judson; Secretary of State Jay Dardenne; Grambling Mayor Martha Andrus; Robinson biographer Richard Lapchick; civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and former Grambling president Joseph Johnson and Shreveport pastor E.E. Jones, both of whom also played for Robinson.
"As we say goodbye to Coach Robinson, I know God is saying hello," said Joiner, now an assistant coach with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Williams revealed that he and Brown — an assistant with the Oakland Raiders, where he played pro ball — had a side bet on who would cry first. Williams won, but only because he spoke last.
"I loved the man," Brown said, then moved away from the podium to compose himself. He pointed at Williams and nodded, before continuing.
Brown said he had been overcome when his gaze fell on Doris, Eddie Robinson's wife of more than 65 years.
"Thank you for letting Coach Robinson be a part of our lives," Brown told Doris Robinson, finally.
Williams cut his own message short as he again was brought to the verge of tears.
"Coach used to say that the first to cry was a sissy," Williams said. "I've been a sissy all week."
Harris, a Monroe native, brought the crowd out of its solemn mood by remembering some of Robinson's best-known lines, comments that many of the players around him then echoed word for word.
"Coach always said he wanted a piece of us," Harris said. "Today we are all better for having a piece of him."
The Robinson family had asked that donations be made to the long-delayed Eddie Robinson Museum effort in lieu of flowers.
"I stayed with him until the last," said Wilbert Ellis, a close friend and former GSU baseball coach, as he too fought back emotion. "He was a great man, who stood for great things. He loved dear old Grambling."
Robinson's memorial was the first event to be held at Grambling's newly constructed Assembly Center, a project first envisioned when Johnson was president of the school in the late 1970s. Flags in front of the new building flew at half-staff in honor of Robinson.
"This facility will forever be a special place," said Judson, "a consecrated place."
Robinson family friend George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees, couldn't attend, but sent a representative in his place. Singer Mary Griffin, a Grambling product, performed, as did the GSU choir and its Tiger Marching Band.
The services ended with Eddie Robinson IV, the former coach's great-grandchild, re-enacting one of Robinson's signature morning rituals — ringing the bell to wake his players for school.
Jackson's thoughts
Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson called the late Grambling coach Eddie Robinson a national treasure, saying his legacy of commitment would remain an important lesson to every American.
"I say to (former Grambling players) James (Harris) and Doug (Williams), you don't have a monopoly on Coach," Jackson said. "He was everybody's coach."
Jackson was added to the list of speakers when he made a surprise appearance Wednesday to honor Robinson, who established a Division I college football record for wins in a career that spanned 11 presidents and several wars between 1941-1997.
Jackson went on to connect Robinson's accomplishments in breaking through racial barriers with heroes from biblical times as well as the decade of the 1960s that produced Jackson's mentor, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
In closing crescendo, he led the crowd in a rousing cheer for Robinson: "Put your hands together like Grambling is playing Southern!" Jackson exhorted.
He then knelt before Doris, Eddie Robinson's wife of 65 years, and son Eddie Jr. and spoke privately with the family.
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A break in the clouds
April 12, 2007
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
As somber and quietly sorrowful as the Monday memorial for Coach Robinson had been in the state capitol, his final services back in Grambling were a consistent celebration.
Maybe it was an air of reunion that surrounding the school's new assembly hall, as generations -- literally -- of former Robinson players gathered, many for the first time since graduating.
Maybe it was because that earlier day in Baton Rouge had been so reverential.
The campus gathering was typified by comments like those of longtime Grambling trainer Eugene "Doc" Harvey, who had worked with Robinson for 32 years. He certainly mourned the passing of this giant, but there was a good bit more joy in the remembering.
"When we awoke today, it was clouded up," Harvey said on Wednesday, "and on days like that (when Eugene and Robinson worked together with the team), sometimes we would be slow going to the stadium to dress. Coach Robinson never understood that. He'd say: 'Why are you guys not dressed? It's not going to rain in Grambling!'"
Robinson, the enternal optimist, had given his old friend one last boost.
"I thought about that today, when the sun came out just before the service," Harvey said, moments before Robinson's casket was closed for a final time and the memorial began.
"He was a great, great man," Harvey added, then paused. "A great man."
Memories, tears flow throughout emotional reunion for proteges of late coach
April 10, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
BATON ROUGE -- Former players made a gathering to mark Eddie Robinson’s legendary 57-year career at Grambling into a lively reunion that crossed generations.
Members of Robinson teams from 1941-97 met for a private event before the general public was allowed into the state capitol for an all-day memorial, something typically reserved for heads of state.
“I’m so happy this happened for Coach,” said Frank Lewis, a wide receiver and running back at Grambling in the late 1960s. “Coach was so special. He deserves it.”
The day was marked by stark emotional contrasts -- beginning as the players, wearing white gloves and standing in parallel lines, passed Robinson’s cherry-wood casket up the imposing steps of one of Louisiana’s most iconic buildings.
GSU standouts Albert Lewis and Doug Williams, the lead pallbearers, were joined by more than 100 Robinson protégés in that solemn task, which led inside to Memorial Hall, the ornate, two-story space between the state’s Senate and House chambers.
Director Larry Pannell led the Tiger Marching Band through a sad, but swinging rendition of “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” from the top of the steps.
“There’s no topping this legacy,” said Lewis, a Grambling defensive back in the early 1980s. “I consider Coach Robinson one of the greatest individuals -- not coaches, individuals -- in this country’s history.”
The 88-year-old Robinson, who still holds the record for Division I wins, died April 3 from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease. But not before shaping the lives of generations, said Williams, a former GSU quarterback who succeeded Robinson as coach.
“We’re all an extension of Coach Eddie Robinson,” Williams said. “He lives on through each of us. We are part of what Coach Robinson was, and what he will always be.”
Quiet sorrow turned to open grieving as the casket was opened.
A trio of state troopers presented the colors --- the United States, Louisiana and Grambling flags --- and placed them behind Robinson. Wreaths from the university and the state were also placed by former players, including Adolph Byrd, a tackle on Robinson’s first 1940s teams.
Robinson’s family sat at the feet of the former coach, while his ex-players lined up again to pass a football, hand to hand, from the back of the group to the waiting hands of Williams --- who held the ball aloft before handing it to Doris and son Eddie Robinson Jr. They then placed it in the casket with Robinson.
Robinson Jr. stood behind the GSU flag as more tributes followed, including a powerful speech by Williams, famous even now for his 1988 Super Bowl MVP performance.
“This is such a showing of support for what he did,” said Robinson Jr. “Just to know that so many people admired him, it’s an honor for the whole family.”
Personal touches surrounded the casket, including a painting by Ruston artist Reggie McLeroy, previously hanging in the Robinson family living room.
Next to it was a new creation by McLeroy that featured the former coach, wearing his familiar red suspenders and carrying his briefcase, walking across a football field. A shimmering image of Robinson rises in the clouds above.
“It’s a testament to him, when you get this kind of representation,” said Michael Haynes, a late 1970s-era defensive back. “He was charismatic. I will say this, the world lost a great one -- and heaven has truly gotten better.”
The team event’s finale included an emotional singing of the Grambling alma mater, and several players were overcome -- including Williams, who had to briefly leave the hall.
That somber moment turned to celebration with the Tiger Marching Band’s segue into the GSU fight song. Players and family members alike, tears still in their eyes, suddenly filled the Memorial Hall with ringing joy.
“This isn’t just what he taught us about football,” said Darrius Matthews, a defender on Robinson’s final black college national championship team in 1992. “It was about what he taught us about life.”
The players poured out on the capitol steps once more, where team mates from every decade gathered for what quickly became raucous group photos.
More than one player, when there was an unexpected hitch in the proceedings, reused Robinson’s well-worn practice mantra: “Run it again!”
Melvin Lee, a 1950s-era player for Robinson, later coached alongside him for 40 seasons. He ended up in nearly every photo.
“To see people come back and pay tribute to Coach Robinson like this, it’s sad but great at the same time,” said Lee, who still lives in Grambling. “It’s great to share stories and relive the memories.”
Henry Dyer, a running back for Robinson in the early 1960s, stepped out to take his own picture of former teammates.
“It was a great day for a great man,” Dyer said. “It was a celebration of a great life.”
Even as the band filed past the players on the capitol steps, a group of well wishers and fans had begun lining up for the public viewing of Robinson that followed. Back inside, many gathered around an exhibit of memorabilia, including a series of photos taken by James Terry.
Robinson’s casket remained under the towering brass doors that lead to the Senate until 4:30 p.m., when his body was moved into the House chambers for a memorial service. More than 3,000 passed in the first few hours of viewing.
Players lingered for a while, reminiscing about their time with Robinson and sharing tall tales.
“There’s a million words you can say,” said Larry Metevia, a center for Robinson in the early 1960s. “But, mostly, I’d like to say: Thank you.”
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Outpouring overwhelms busy Williams
April 10, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
BATON ROUGE — Former Grambling standout Doug Williams stood in the Louisiana House chamber and took stock of a powerful day.
He had spent the balance of Monday in the towering Memorial Hall that connects this room with the state Senate, overseeing the public memorial to his late college coach, Eddie Robinson.
More than 1,000 people an hour had entered the Capitol for the public viewing of Robinson, who died April 3 at 88 from complications related to Alzheimer's disease.
Williams was overwhelmed.
"I can honestly say that today we've had some heavy hearts, but it was a great day," Williams told the packed House chamber. "So many people passed by, took pictures, shook hands. We saw parents bringing kids — and the only way they are going to know who Eddie Robinson is, what Eddie Robinson was, and what he will always be, is if we tell them."
Williams appeared as part of a Monday night memorial service that featured Gov. Kathleen Blanco as the keynote speaker. State Sen. Bob Kostelka R-Monroe, and state Rep. Rick Gallot, D-Grambling, two area legislators, were also featured — along with state Sen. Charles Jones D-Monroe of the Legislative Black Caucus.
Guests included LSU coach Les Miles, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, former Alcorn State and Southern University administrator Marino Casem, former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer and former GSU coach Melvin Spears, among others.
Blanco presented Doris, Eddie Robinson's wife of more than 65 years, the American flag that had flown over the Capitol building on Monday.
Williams began the day overseeing a private event for players. More than 100 former teammates shared the duty of carrying Robinson up the steps and into the Capitol's Memorial Hall earlier that morning.
"To see so many former players come and pay tribute to Coach Robinson made me feel good," Williams said. "Only Eddie Robinson could have done what happened today."
Williams immediately followed Jones, who had given an animated tribute sprinkled with poetic verse and snippets of Shakespeare.
But Williams, still flush from that morning event, said he remained undaunted — even if he couldn't match the poetry of Jones' speech.
"Ordinarily, I would want to wave the white flag, coming in after Senator Jones," Williams said. "But I was fortunate to be coached by Eddie Robinson, and he said if you are going to lose, lose trying to win."
Williams played quarterback for Robinson from 1974-77 before an NFL career that included Super Bowl MVP honors in 1988. He then succeeded Robinson as coach at Grambling, winning a trio of league championships between 2000-02.
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It's time
April 09, 2007
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
It's been eight years since the Legislature approved the idea of a state-run Eddie Robinson Museum. There's still no museum.
For all that time, the mantra amongst the organizers was getting it done before Robinson passed. That day has come, and gone.
There's still no museum.
But those who believe in the project think the museum could gain new life in the aftermath of Robinson's death, that some glimmer of hope might emerge from the grief over losing an American hero.
Doris Robinson, the late coach's wife of more than 65 years, is one of those people. (She was the one who asked the information on donating to the museum be distributed during today's memorial in Baton Rouge.) So is Doug Williams, Robinson's most visible protege this week.
"It's unfortunate that it took his going home for so many people to know what we already knew about Eddie Robinson," Williams said. "He was more than a football coach. He was more than 408 wins and 200 guys in the NFL. He was a great American."
I don't know why Robinson had to pass for us to get to that place, even though I'm glad that it might be possible.
After all, Robinson didn't send any more players to the NFL this week. He didn't win a 409th time. All that happened long ago.
It's time. Time for the university to sign off on the space. Time for the alumni to gather itself in mighty support. Time for this thing to happen.
There's still no museum. And that's a shocking rebuke to everything that is happening around Robinson right now. All of these tributes mean nothing if there isn't action to back up the sentiment.
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'His spirit will be with us'
Thousands come to Grambling to say goodbye to Eddie Robinson
April 12, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — They talked about the son of a sharecropper who rose to national fame, about a racial pioneer who refused to let the country's inequities dim his passion, about a football coach who cared more about people than games.
Services for Eddie G. Robinson, who had a 57-season tenure at Grambling, were Wednesday. He died April 3 at age 88 from complications related to Alzheimer's.
"Let's grieve and let's celebrate," said Willie Davis, a key member of Grambling State University's undefeated 1955 team before joining the legendary Green Bay Packers teams of the 1960s. "But let's walk away feeling better because he touched our lives."
The crowd, which numbered in the thousands, included scores of former Grambling players like Davis. Several of them spoke during the event, including Pro Football Hall of Famers Willie Brown, Davis and Charlie Joiner; former Super Bowl MVP Doug Williams; and James "Shack" Harris, one of the NFL's highest ranking black executives.
Davis admitted that Robinson's very constancy made his passing seem impossible.
"You can never prepare for an occasion of this type," said Davis, who later became a business leader in California. "We are witnessing a legend passing on, but his spirit will be with us forever."
U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu announced a proclamation recognizing Robinson's accomplishments and presented the former coach's family with a flag that flew over the Senate during the body's deliberations.
Wednesday's event included comments from GSU President Horace Judson; Secretary of State Jay Dardenne; Grambling Mayor Martha Andrus; Robinson biographer Richard Lapchick; civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and former Grambling president Joseph Johnson and Shreveport pastor E.E. Jones, both of whom also played for Robinson.
"As we say goodbye to Coach Robinson, I know God is saying hello," said Joiner, now an assistant coach with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Williams revealed that he and Brown — an assistant with the Oakland Raiders, where he played pro ball — had a side bet on who would cry first. Williams won, but only because he spoke last.
"I loved the man," Brown said, then moved away from the podium to compose himself. He pointed at Williams and nodded, before continuing.
Brown said he had been overcome when his gaze fell on Doris, Eddie Robinson's wife of more than 65 years.
"Thank you for letting Coach Robinson be a part of our lives," Brown told Doris Robinson, finally.
Williams cut his own message short as he again was brought to the verge of tears.
"Coach used to say that the first to cry was a sissy," Williams said. "I've been a sissy all week."
Harris, a Monroe native, brought the crowd out of its solemn mood by remembering some of Robinson's best-known lines, comments that many of the players around him then echoed word for word.
"Coach always said he wanted a piece of us," Harris said. "Today we are all better for having a piece of him."
The Robinson family had asked that donations be made to the long-delayed Eddie Robinson Museum effort in lieu of flowers.
"I stayed with him until the last," said Wilbert Ellis, a close friend and former GSU baseball coach, as he too fought back emotion. "He was a great man, who stood for great things. He loved dear old Grambling."
Robinson's memorial was the first event to be held at Grambling's newly constructed Assembly Center, a project first envisioned when Johnson was president of the school in the late 1970s. Flags in front of the new building flew at half-staff in honor of Robinson.
"This facility will forever be a special place," said Judson, "a consecrated place."
Robinson family friend George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees, couldn't attend, but sent a representative in his place. Singer Mary Griffin, a Grambling product, performed, as did the GSU choir and its Tiger Marching Band.
The services ended with Eddie Robinson IV, the former coach's great-grandchild, re-enacting one of Robinson's signature morning rituals — ringing the bell to wake his players for school.
Jackson's thoughts
Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson called the late Grambling coach Eddie Robinson a national treasure, saying his legacy of commitment would remain an important lesson to every American.
"I say to (former Grambling players) James (Harris) and Doug (Williams), you don't have a monopoly on Coach," Jackson said. "He was everybody's coach."
Jackson was added to the list of speakers when he made a surprise appearance Wednesday to honor Robinson, who established a Division I college football record for wins in a career that spanned 11 presidents and several wars between 1941-1997.
Jackson went on to connect Robinson's accomplishments in breaking through racial barriers with heroes from biblical times as well as the decade of the 1960s that produced Jackson's mentor, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
In closing crescendo, he led the crowd in a rousing cheer for Robinson: "Put your hands together like Grambling is playing Southern!" Jackson exhorted.
He then knelt before Doris, Eddie Robinson's wife of 65 years, and son Eddie Jr. and spoke privately with the family.
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A break in the clouds
April 12, 2007
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
As somber and quietly sorrowful as the Monday memorial for Coach Robinson had been in the state capitol, his final services back in Grambling were a consistent celebration.
Maybe it was an air of reunion that surrounding the school's new assembly hall, as generations -- literally -- of former Robinson players gathered, many for the first time since graduating.
Maybe it was because that earlier day in Baton Rouge had been so reverential.
The campus gathering was typified by comments like those of longtime Grambling trainer Eugene "Doc" Harvey, who had worked with Robinson for 32 years. He certainly mourned the passing of this giant, but there was a good bit more joy in the remembering.
"When we awoke today, it was clouded up," Harvey said on Wednesday, "and on days like that (when Eugene and Robinson worked together with the team), sometimes we would be slow going to the stadium to dress. Coach Robinson never understood that. He'd say: 'Why are you guys not dressed? It's not going to rain in Grambling!'"
Robinson, the enternal optimist, had given his old friend one last boost.
"I thought about that today, when the sun came out just before the service," Harvey said, moments before Robinson's casket was closed for a final time and the memorial began.
"He was a great, great man," Harvey added, then paused. "A great man."
Remembering: Coach Rob's best
EDDIE ROB: Coach’s best
Six decades of Grambling talent are hard to narrow down
April 9, 2007
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
BATON ROUGE — They’ll gather, some of Eddie Robinson’s most noted pupils, to say goodbye today.
Former Grambling State players have been invited to a private ceremony, to be held at 9:30 a.m. in the State Capitol Memorial Hall, before Robinson’s public viewing.
“This is an opportunity for us to show our appreciation, a last hurrah for Coach,” said ex-GSU player and coach Doug Williams, who helped organize the event. “A viewing at the capitol is major credence to everything Coach accomplished. He deserves it.”
The bells of St. Joseph Cathedral will toll as the fallen coach’s body is carried up the capitol steps this morning at 9. Public viewing will then follow from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and then from 6-7 p.m., after a memorial ceremony in the House Chamber.
Still, most of today’s attention will fall on the athletes who come to pay their respects.
That got us to thinking about the best of the best. So, we compiled our own top five players from each of the six decades of Grambling football under Robinson.
Here are our suggestions, listed by decade and alphabetically:
1940s
1. Fred Hobdy: A guard on Grambling’s renowned “un” team in 1942 — which went unbeaten, untied and unscored upon — Hobdy returned from the war and coached young men for most of the next five decades. He worked first as an ends coach on the football team (he was an assistant on 1955’s undefeated squad), and then as Louisiana’s most successful college hoops coach ever. He was a member of the GSU Hall of Fame’s second class, along with Robinson, in 1981.
2. Willie “Automatic” Joseph: His name says it all: Joseph, over the 1947-49 seasons, established a 48-point school record for career points by a kicker that still stands. Grambling wouldn’t lose more than three games in a season over that span.
3. Legolian “Boots” Moore: Helped Grambling to its seminal 21-6 win over Southern University in 1947, a first-time-ever moment that Robinson always said put the program on the map. Later toured with the Harlem Globetrotters.
4. Dan H. Washington: A member of Robinson’s first squad, as well as its subsequent “un” team in 1942, Washington then touched thousands of lives as team trainer for 45 years before his death in 1996 at age 74.
5. Paul “Tank” Younger: Despite playing from 1945-48, still holds GSU record for career points with 369. His 86-yard blast against Morgan State in 1946 also remains the school’s longest non-scoring run.
In all, Younger scored 60 touchdowns — at the time a collegiate record, and still tops at Grambling — during his storied career under Robinson. Named black college player of the year in 1949, he was the first Grambling player inducted into the SWAC Hall of Fame, in 1973. Induction into the GSU hall followed in 1982.
Significantly, Younger went on to become one of the highest-ranking early black pro executives ever. He entered the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000, but died just days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
1950s
1. Willie Davis: A two-time black college All-America defensive tackle in 1954-55, Davis anchored Grambling’s first national black college championship team — the 10-0 squad from 1955.
“Willie had hitting power,” Robinson once recalled. “He was our captain, an outstanding leader.”
Davis, after a Hall of Fame pro career, became one of black America’s most important business leaders. He was GSU’s second SWAC Hall of Famer in 1977, and was inducted into GSU hall in ’82.
2. Willie Brown: So deep was Grambling’s roster in the late 1950s, the only NFL player to intercept a least one pass in 16 consecutive seasons never played cornerback. Still he lettered all four years at split end and outside linebacker, and GSU won a title in 1960. A 1983 GSU Hall of Fame inductee, Brown has shepherded countless NFL careers as an assistant with the Oakland Raiders.
3. Ernie “Big Cat” Ladd: At 6-9 and 315 pounds, Ladd arrived in the late 1950s as arguably the biggest GSU star ever. A first-team all-league defensive lineman in his final season at Grambling in 1960, he helped Grambling to its first-ever SWAC championship. Inducted into the GSU hall in 1989, Ladd was an activist for players’ rights as a pro player and, later, an prison evangelist before passing last month after a long bout with cancer.
4. Melvin Lee: As quarterback of the offensive line at center on Grambling’s undefeated 1955 championship squad, Lee had an astonishing impact on generations of men at his alma mater. He would work for the next 40 seasons as a Robinson assistant, tinkering and perfecting Robinson’s fabled Wing-T offense.
5. Edward “Bo” Murray: A critical piece of Grambling’s 1955 undefeated team, the then-redshirt sophomore won the Orange Blossom Classic on scoring runs of 75 and 8 yards. He also kicked the extra point on his winning TD, beating Florida A&M 28-21. A 1995 GSU Hall of Fame inductee.
1960s
1. Junious “Buck” Buchanan: From his sophomore season onward, this tackle earned a trio of All-America and all-conference honors while helping Grambling to a 23-5-2 record.
Robinson would often gush about Buchanan’s dominance, even in practice: “If we went to the right, he would tackle us. If we went to the left, he would tackle us. If we went right at him, he would tackle us. Boy, he was really tough.”
Buchanan, a 1987 GSU Hall of Fame inductee, passed away in 1992 after a long bout with lung cancer. He was posthumously inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1996.
2. James “Shack” Harris: Harris passed for 4,128 yards and 43 touchdowns as Grambling went 24-5-1 between 1965-68, winning three straight SWAC titles.
“Coach Robinson had the utmost confidence in me that I could play, and that meant a lot, knowing how he felt,” Harris said. “Eddie Robinson is perhaps the greatest person that I’ve ever been around.”
In his senior season alone, Harris passed for 1,972 yards and 21 touchdowns on only 225 attempts. He was first-team All-SWAC in 1967-68, and also earned SWAC and GSU hall of fame honors.
Just as importantly, he broke barriers as an early starting NFL quarterback, and now serves as one of the league’s top-ranking pro personnel executives.
3. Charlie Joiner: Led all Grambling receivers from 1966-68, gaining 2,066 yards, on the way to a trio of conference titles. An amazing 78 of quarterback Harris’ 289 career completions at Grambling were hauled in by the steady Joiner, who led the team in touchdowns in 1966-67.
“Charlie goes all out,” Robinson once noted. “Beating the man, that’s where he excelled.”
He was named first-team All-SWAC three times, then joined the GSU Hall of Fame in 1986 and the SWAC hall in 1996. He has worked for years as a pro football assistant coach.
4. Frank Lewis: A do-it-all player who led Grambling in receiving in 1969-70 and in rushing in 1969, as well. He scored 28 touchdowns in his junior and senior seasons, averaging 18.65 yards per catch.
“I played with Frank and I don’t know if I have ever seen a better athlete than Frank,” Harris said. “I don’t know of anything that Frank couldn’t do.”
Lewis was named first-team all-conference as a junior and senior, and was second team as a sophomore when Grambling won the SWAC in 1968. He is a community leader in his hometown of Houma, working with the disadvantaged.
5. Jerry “Ghost” Robinson: A two-time first-team All-SWAC halfback from 1960-61, a stint that included Grambling’s first-ever league title in 1960. Led all Grambling rushers over those two seasons, running for 1,300 yards.
1970s
1. James “Hound” Hunter: A first-team All-SWAC honoree in 1974-75, he helped Grambling to the ’74 SWAC title. Hunter was the team leader in picks for two years, pulling down 16 passes in 1973-74. His eight in 1974 ranks fourth all-time at GSU; still shares school mark for most career returns for a touchdown.
2. Gary “Big Hands” Johnson: Holds the school record for most tackles in a career, with 367 between 1971-74 as GSU won four straight SWAC titles.
In his senior season of 1974 alone, Johnson had 134 tackles, 89 unassisted, and was named the team’s Most Valuable Player. That led to coveted invites to both the East-West Shrine Game and the Senior Bowl — and Johnson was named Most Valuable Player in both.
Johnson earned first-team All-SWAC in 1972-74, followed by 1996 induction into the GSU Hall of Fame, and then 1997 honors in both the College Football and SWAC halls of fame.
3. Robert Parham: Grambling’s leading rusher from 1978-80, he amassed 2,700 yards over that span as GSU won three consecutive SWAC titles. He was a first-team all-conference running back in each of those seasons.
4. Sammy White: Inducted into the SWAC Hall of Fame in 2005 in recognition of a collegiate career that included two school-leading years for receptions in 1973 and 1975 — and a co-offensive player of the year award as a senior. White was also first-team All-SWAC in ’73. He has shaped youngsters as an assistant football coach at his alma mater now for nine seasons.
5. Doug Williams: Williams, who established school passing marks that stood for nearly 25 years, started quickly — winning a SWAC title as a redshirt freshman in 1974.
“I was blessed to have some veterans around me and Coach Robinson ran a conservative offense that didn’t put too much pressure on me,” Williams said.
He would win another SWAC championship as a senior in 1977, earning second-team All-SWAC honors in 1975 and then offensive player of the year honors in his final collegiate campaign. He was inducted into the GSU hall in 1985 and the SWAC and College halls in 2001.
A groundbreaker as a Heisman Trophy finalist and a Super Bowl MVP, Williams is now a part of a second revolution as an NFL executive.
1980s
1. Trumaine Johnson: The 1980 and ’82 SWAC offensive player of the year (when he had 1,000 yards and averaged 14 yards a catch), Johnson was also first-team All-SWAC in 1981. Grambling won the conference championship in ’80. His 16 scores that season is still tied for fifth best in school history.
2. Fred Jones: GSU’s best receiver during the 1987-89 seasons, collecting a total of 2,000 yards as well as a SWAC title in his senior campaign. He also led Grambling in scoring in ’88 with 10 touchdowns, and earned first-team All-SWAC honors in ’88-89.
3. Albert “Snow” Lewis: Was first-team All-SWAC at cornerback in 1981-82, after leading the team in interceptions in 1981 with seven. A stellar performance earned him a starting position by popular vote in 2002 on the 50th anniversary all-time Senior Bowl team. Has worked as an assistant coach with the San Diego Chargers, in NFL Europe and at his alma mater.
4. Everson “Cubby” Walls: Still holds the school record for most interceptions in a season, 11 set in 1980. Was All-SWAC that season. Made national headlines recently for an act that said much about his character, donating a kidney to a former NFL teammate.
5. Mike Williams: Williams, brother and successor at quarterback to Doug, won SWAC titles in 1978-80 and was named first-team all-conference as both a junior and senior. He threw for 3,700 yards and 46 touchdowns at Grambling, and remains active in support of Grambling.
1990s
1. Curtis Caesar: Led all Grambling receivers in 1993-94, averaging 868 yards per season. A second-team 1994 All-SWAC honoree, his numbers for his final two years are still in Grambling’s all-time Top 20. Grambling shared its last co-championship in the SWAC under Robinson in 1994.
2. Walter Dean: The first SWAC player to win the Walter Payton Award, Dean was also the conference’s offensive player of the year in 1990. No senior has ever run for more than his 1,401 yards. Dean was also first-team all-conference in 1989, when GSU won the SWAC.
3. Eric Gant: A two-time All-SWAC first-teamer beginning in 1991, Gant is one of only 17 Grambling players ever invited to the Senior Bowl. Still holds school records for yards in season (1,417 in 1992) and yards in a career (3,795), as well those for rushing yards by sophomore and junior.
4. Gilad Landau: His 188 career total in PATs was a state record. An All-SWAC first-team kicker in 1992-93, Landau earned All-America honors in 1993 from The Sports Network — becoming a significant figure in the history of Jewish sports in America.
5. Kendrick Nord: Passed for 6,600 yards in 1993-95, beating Alcorn in an epic Robinson Stadium battle and also winning a SWAC title as a senior. Those career yards, not to mention his marks for completions and touchdowns, have only been bested twice ever at Grambling.
Six decades of Grambling talent are hard to narrow down
April 9, 2007
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
BATON ROUGE — They’ll gather, some of Eddie Robinson’s most noted pupils, to say goodbye today.
Former Grambling State players have been invited to a private ceremony, to be held at 9:30 a.m. in the State Capitol Memorial Hall, before Robinson’s public viewing.
“This is an opportunity for us to show our appreciation, a last hurrah for Coach,” said ex-GSU player and coach Doug Williams, who helped organize the event. “A viewing at the capitol is major credence to everything Coach accomplished. He deserves it.”
The bells of St. Joseph Cathedral will toll as the fallen coach’s body is carried up the capitol steps this morning at 9. Public viewing will then follow from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and then from 6-7 p.m., after a memorial ceremony in the House Chamber.
Still, most of today’s attention will fall on the athletes who come to pay their respects.
That got us to thinking about the best of the best. So, we compiled our own top five players from each of the six decades of Grambling football under Robinson.
Here are our suggestions, listed by decade and alphabetically:
1940s
1. Fred Hobdy: A guard on Grambling’s renowned “un” team in 1942 — which went unbeaten, untied and unscored upon — Hobdy returned from the war and coached young men for most of the next five decades. He worked first as an ends coach on the football team (he was an assistant on 1955’s undefeated squad), and then as Louisiana’s most successful college hoops coach ever. He was a member of the GSU Hall of Fame’s second class, along with Robinson, in 1981.
2. Willie “Automatic” Joseph: His name says it all: Joseph, over the 1947-49 seasons, established a 48-point school record for career points by a kicker that still stands. Grambling wouldn’t lose more than three games in a season over that span.
3. Legolian “Boots” Moore: Helped Grambling to its seminal 21-6 win over Southern University in 1947, a first-time-ever moment that Robinson always said put the program on the map. Later toured with the Harlem Globetrotters.
4. Dan H. Washington: A member of Robinson’s first squad, as well as its subsequent “un” team in 1942, Washington then touched thousands of lives as team trainer for 45 years before his death in 1996 at age 74.
5. Paul “Tank” Younger: Despite playing from 1945-48, still holds GSU record for career points with 369. His 86-yard blast against Morgan State in 1946 also remains the school’s longest non-scoring run.
In all, Younger scored 60 touchdowns — at the time a collegiate record, and still tops at Grambling — during his storied career under Robinson. Named black college player of the year in 1949, he was the first Grambling player inducted into the SWAC Hall of Fame, in 1973. Induction into the GSU hall followed in 1982.
Significantly, Younger went on to become one of the highest-ranking early black pro executives ever. He entered the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000, but died just days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
1950s
1. Willie Davis: A two-time black college All-America defensive tackle in 1954-55, Davis anchored Grambling’s first national black college championship team — the 10-0 squad from 1955.
“Willie had hitting power,” Robinson once recalled. “He was our captain, an outstanding leader.”
Davis, after a Hall of Fame pro career, became one of black America’s most important business leaders. He was GSU’s second SWAC Hall of Famer in 1977, and was inducted into GSU hall in ’82.
2. Willie Brown: So deep was Grambling’s roster in the late 1950s, the only NFL player to intercept a least one pass in 16 consecutive seasons never played cornerback. Still he lettered all four years at split end and outside linebacker, and GSU won a title in 1960. A 1983 GSU Hall of Fame inductee, Brown has shepherded countless NFL careers as an assistant with the Oakland Raiders.
3. Ernie “Big Cat” Ladd: At 6-9 and 315 pounds, Ladd arrived in the late 1950s as arguably the biggest GSU star ever. A first-team all-league defensive lineman in his final season at Grambling in 1960, he helped Grambling to its first-ever SWAC championship. Inducted into the GSU hall in 1989, Ladd was an activist for players’ rights as a pro player and, later, an prison evangelist before passing last month after a long bout with cancer.
4. Melvin Lee: As quarterback of the offensive line at center on Grambling’s undefeated 1955 championship squad, Lee had an astonishing impact on generations of men at his alma mater. He would work for the next 40 seasons as a Robinson assistant, tinkering and perfecting Robinson’s fabled Wing-T offense.
5. Edward “Bo” Murray: A critical piece of Grambling’s 1955 undefeated team, the then-redshirt sophomore won the Orange Blossom Classic on scoring runs of 75 and 8 yards. He also kicked the extra point on his winning TD, beating Florida A&M 28-21. A 1995 GSU Hall of Fame inductee.
1960s
1. Junious “Buck” Buchanan: From his sophomore season onward, this tackle earned a trio of All-America and all-conference honors while helping Grambling to a 23-5-2 record.
Robinson would often gush about Buchanan’s dominance, even in practice: “If we went to the right, he would tackle us. If we went to the left, he would tackle us. If we went right at him, he would tackle us. Boy, he was really tough.”
Buchanan, a 1987 GSU Hall of Fame inductee, passed away in 1992 after a long bout with lung cancer. He was posthumously inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1996.
2. James “Shack” Harris: Harris passed for 4,128 yards and 43 touchdowns as Grambling went 24-5-1 between 1965-68, winning three straight SWAC titles.
“Coach Robinson had the utmost confidence in me that I could play, and that meant a lot, knowing how he felt,” Harris said. “Eddie Robinson is perhaps the greatest person that I’ve ever been around.”
In his senior season alone, Harris passed for 1,972 yards and 21 touchdowns on only 225 attempts. He was first-team All-SWAC in 1967-68, and also earned SWAC and GSU hall of fame honors.
Just as importantly, he broke barriers as an early starting NFL quarterback, and now serves as one of the league’s top-ranking pro personnel executives.
3. Charlie Joiner: Led all Grambling receivers from 1966-68, gaining 2,066 yards, on the way to a trio of conference titles. An amazing 78 of quarterback Harris’ 289 career completions at Grambling were hauled in by the steady Joiner, who led the team in touchdowns in 1966-67.
“Charlie goes all out,” Robinson once noted. “Beating the man, that’s where he excelled.”
He was named first-team All-SWAC three times, then joined the GSU Hall of Fame in 1986 and the SWAC hall in 1996. He has worked for years as a pro football assistant coach.
4. Frank Lewis: A do-it-all player who led Grambling in receiving in 1969-70 and in rushing in 1969, as well. He scored 28 touchdowns in his junior and senior seasons, averaging 18.65 yards per catch.
“I played with Frank and I don’t know if I have ever seen a better athlete than Frank,” Harris said. “I don’t know of anything that Frank couldn’t do.”
Lewis was named first-team all-conference as a junior and senior, and was second team as a sophomore when Grambling won the SWAC in 1968. He is a community leader in his hometown of Houma, working with the disadvantaged.
5. Jerry “Ghost” Robinson: A two-time first-team All-SWAC halfback from 1960-61, a stint that included Grambling’s first-ever league title in 1960. Led all Grambling rushers over those two seasons, running for 1,300 yards.
1970s
1. James “Hound” Hunter: A first-team All-SWAC honoree in 1974-75, he helped Grambling to the ’74 SWAC title. Hunter was the team leader in picks for two years, pulling down 16 passes in 1973-74. His eight in 1974 ranks fourth all-time at GSU; still shares school mark for most career returns for a touchdown.
2. Gary “Big Hands” Johnson: Holds the school record for most tackles in a career, with 367 between 1971-74 as GSU won four straight SWAC titles.
In his senior season of 1974 alone, Johnson had 134 tackles, 89 unassisted, and was named the team’s Most Valuable Player. That led to coveted invites to both the East-West Shrine Game and the Senior Bowl — and Johnson was named Most Valuable Player in both.
Johnson earned first-team All-SWAC in 1972-74, followed by 1996 induction into the GSU Hall of Fame, and then 1997 honors in both the College Football and SWAC halls of fame.
3. Robert Parham: Grambling’s leading rusher from 1978-80, he amassed 2,700 yards over that span as GSU won three consecutive SWAC titles. He was a first-team all-conference running back in each of those seasons.
4. Sammy White: Inducted into the SWAC Hall of Fame in 2005 in recognition of a collegiate career that included two school-leading years for receptions in 1973 and 1975 — and a co-offensive player of the year award as a senior. White was also first-team All-SWAC in ’73. He has shaped youngsters as an assistant football coach at his alma mater now for nine seasons.
5. Doug Williams: Williams, who established school passing marks that stood for nearly 25 years, started quickly — winning a SWAC title as a redshirt freshman in 1974.
“I was blessed to have some veterans around me and Coach Robinson ran a conservative offense that didn’t put too much pressure on me,” Williams said.
He would win another SWAC championship as a senior in 1977, earning second-team All-SWAC honors in 1975 and then offensive player of the year honors in his final collegiate campaign. He was inducted into the GSU hall in 1985 and the SWAC and College halls in 2001.
A groundbreaker as a Heisman Trophy finalist and a Super Bowl MVP, Williams is now a part of a second revolution as an NFL executive.
1980s
1. Trumaine Johnson: The 1980 and ’82 SWAC offensive player of the year (when he had 1,000 yards and averaged 14 yards a catch), Johnson was also first-team All-SWAC in 1981. Grambling won the conference championship in ’80. His 16 scores that season is still tied for fifth best in school history.
2. Fred Jones: GSU’s best receiver during the 1987-89 seasons, collecting a total of 2,000 yards as well as a SWAC title in his senior campaign. He also led Grambling in scoring in ’88 with 10 touchdowns, and earned first-team All-SWAC honors in ’88-89.
3. Albert “Snow” Lewis: Was first-team All-SWAC at cornerback in 1981-82, after leading the team in interceptions in 1981 with seven. A stellar performance earned him a starting position by popular vote in 2002 on the 50th anniversary all-time Senior Bowl team. Has worked as an assistant coach with the San Diego Chargers, in NFL Europe and at his alma mater.
4. Everson “Cubby” Walls: Still holds the school record for most interceptions in a season, 11 set in 1980. Was All-SWAC that season. Made national headlines recently for an act that said much about his character, donating a kidney to a former NFL teammate.
5. Mike Williams: Williams, brother and successor at quarterback to Doug, won SWAC titles in 1978-80 and was named first-team all-conference as both a junior and senior. He threw for 3,700 yards and 46 touchdowns at Grambling, and remains active in support of Grambling.
1990s
1. Curtis Caesar: Led all Grambling receivers in 1993-94, averaging 868 yards per season. A second-team 1994 All-SWAC honoree, his numbers for his final two years are still in Grambling’s all-time Top 20. Grambling shared its last co-championship in the SWAC under Robinson in 1994.
2. Walter Dean: The first SWAC player to win the Walter Payton Award, Dean was also the conference’s offensive player of the year in 1990. No senior has ever run for more than his 1,401 yards. Dean was also first-team all-conference in 1989, when GSU won the SWAC.
3. Eric Gant: A two-time All-SWAC first-teamer beginning in 1991, Gant is one of only 17 Grambling players ever invited to the Senior Bowl. Still holds school records for yards in season (1,417 in 1992) and yards in a career (3,795), as well those for rushing yards by sophomore and junior.
4. Gilad Landau: His 188 career total in PATs was a state record. An All-SWAC first-team kicker in 1992-93, Landau earned All-America honors in 1993 from The Sports Network — becoming a significant figure in the history of Jewish sports in America.
5. Kendrick Nord: Passed for 6,600 yards in 1993-95, beating Alcorn in an epic Robinson Stadium battle and also winning a SWAC title as a senior. Those career yards, not to mention his marks for completions and touchdowns, have only been bested twice ever at Grambling.
Monday, September 04, 2006
Grambling greats: James Harris
A promiseGrambling's James Harris made good on a personal vow
July 20, 2003
By NICK DERISO
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
This was a homecoming in the best sense of the word - by turns sentimental and inspirational.
But in the end, James "Shack" Harris - one of the highest-ranking black executives in the NFL - had twin messages for local young people: Get an education and allow yourself to imagine a brighter future.
"There's not many things you can do in this world for free," said Harris, the Monroe native who serves as vice president of player personnel with the Jacksonville Jaguars. "But dreaming is free: So I decided to dream big."
Harris - a former Carroll High and Grambling State standout who went on to a 12-year NFL career - spoke at a fund-raiser for the Northeast Louisiana Delta African American Heritage Museum, held Saturday night at the West Monroe Convention Center.
The non-profit museum, established on Monroe's Plum Street in 1993, showcases cultural classes and events - as well as a permanent collection detailing important historical moments in local African-American history. Of special note is the presentation "Troubling the Water," which recounts the Civil Rights movement in northeastern Louisiana.
Harris said a key moment in that struggle also changed his life.
He was watching the Martin Luther King Jr. speech in August 1963 on television, looking for two local friends who had gone to Washington, D.C., to participate in the march, when he heard these immortal words: "I have a dream, that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
He decided to do what was then unthinkable for a black athlete: "I decided that day that I would play quarterback," Harris said. "I realized what I was risking. But I decided that day."
Most African-Americans were converted to defensive back or receiver. None had ever been drafted or started at quarterback in the NFL.
But with encouragement from family, Carroll coach Dorth Blade and Grambling coach Eddie Robinson, he realized his own dreams: Harris did both.
He fell to the eighth round in the draft for not agreeing to switch positions, but was finally picked up by the Buffalo Bills in the 1969 NFL draft. Harris would go on to play for Los Angeles and San Diego, earning MVP honors at the Pro Bowl in 1975.
Harris then left the playing field for a second career in scouting, one that led eventually to the Baltimore Ravens - where, as director of pro personnel, he helped construct the 2001 Super Bowl champions.
Last January, he broke more ground: Harris was named vice president of player personnel for the Jaguars - where he is in charge of all personnel decisions.
Doug Williams, a fellow Grambling and NFL alum, says it's impossible to overestimate how important that position is.
"Whatever Jacksonville does," he says, "is going to hinge on James Harris."
Not that Harris - ranked as the 36th most influential African-American in sports last spring by The Sporting News - isn't up to the task. He said he began preparing here in northeastern Louisiana.
Harris led Carroll to 39 consecutive wins in high school.
"That was the greatest team I ever played on," Harris said Saturday. "If we were still playing, we'd still be undefeated."
Carroll teammate Delles Howell, later a member of the New Orleans Saints, gave the benediction - part of a large contingency of friends, family, classmates and fellow players.
Blade introduced Harris, and received warm thanks from his former signal-caller.
"When I left Carroll High School, I left with a blueprint for life, one that gave me an opportunity to succeed," Harris said. "I just didn't realize how good of a coach he was - and what he meant to me. He made me a man."
Harris then called the decision to play for the legendary Eddie Robinson in college "probably the greatest decision I ever made. Coach Robinson told me, in four years I would play quarterback in the NFL - and I believed him. And I believed in Martin Luther King's words."
In the meantime, Harris and the Tigers won or shared the SWAC title in each of his four years in school. He set what was then a state collegiate record with 4,705 career passing yards at Grambling.
That earned him induction into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 1999, as well as the SWAC and the Grambling Athletic halls.
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'First Shack' remembers hard road he traveled
July 21, 2003
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar
There were, to be sure, some serious moments.
Former NFL quarterback James Harris - in town at a fund-raiser for the Northeast Louisiana Delta African American Heritage Museum - talked about the dark and lonely times when he questioned his own refusal to switch positions back in the 1960s.
A stellar career in high school and college at quarterback was no guarantee of success at the next level. Not then. It was widely believed that blacks didn't have the "intangibles" (code for brains) to play under center.
But the former Carroll High standout had signed with Eddie Robinson at Grambling State, then a virtual factory for black NFL talent.
"I told coach it didn't make any sense to go to the NFL and not play," Harris remembered Saturday. "He told me something - and I think about it often, when I face troubled times," Harris said. "He said if I didn't go to the NFL, it would be a long time before someone else could get there again."
The Monroe native accepted that challenge, learned to thrive on the expectations.
"Never," he said Coach Rob told him, "blame your failures on being black. We've got to face those challenges and prepare to be better."
But the evening's hilarious peaks came more often, the way they will in the reverie of reunion. The fund-raiser, far from focusing on his professional football career, ended up being a happy walk down the dusty back alleys of his time growing up in Monroe and Grambling.
Before the histories could be rewritten in the outside world - first black quarterback drafted, also the first to start, then one of the most influential African-Americans in the NFL power structure - Harris would have to face down adolescence. Folks who'd been there, and folks who admired him as he succeeded, were with Harris again this week - giving the proceedings a kitchen-table casualness.
Every person who got up to the podium cracked wise.
For instance, Richwood Mayor Ed Harris - one of several state and municipal officials on hand - took special care to remind the youngsters listening to Harris' advice on staying in school: "This is the first Shack. The real Shack!"
More laughter.
Several current NFL players attended - including lineman Terrance Sykes, who's been on the rosters of Cleveland and Indianapolis; wide receiver Scott Cloman of Washington; and linebacker Quincy Stewart, a former member of the San Francisco squad who will play for Denver next year.
Stewart presented the African American Heritage Museum's executive director with a football signed by all of his former Niners teammates - prompting Lorraine Slacks to jokingly ask for extra security to escort her out of the building.
Even more laughter.
Shack was disarmingly personal throughout, offering shimmering glimpses into the building blocks of an impressive American success story.
He didn't come from money. "Growing up," Harris reminisced, "all I knew was hard-working parents in a hard-working city. We never traveled, never had a vacation. But I never thought I was poor. We had just enough."
It wasn't laughter then, so much as nods of melancholy remembrance. Shack said his excursions into the harsh realities of work for blacks in the 1960s strengthened his resolve. And how.
Harris had taken on temporary work in a nearby cottonfield, looking to earn some extra money. On the way out, he overheard his mother say: "I sure hope James can go to college." Harris says, back then, "I didn't know what college meant." But when he got to the fields, and took to working the cotton - "in rows," he said Saturday, "that were from now on" - "something hit me: You could be doing this for the next 30 years.
"I went home and asked my mom to tell about this word `college' again."
Laughter, again.
The sweet laughter of friends and family.
"I know my life has been touched by so many of you tonight," Harris said, at one point. It was clear the feeling was mutual.
Nick Deriso is sports editor at The News-Star, 411 N. Fourth St., Monroe, La., 71201. You can contact him at (318) 362-0234 or at nderiso@the newsstar.com.
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Respect lives on for 'Shack'
Prep football award renamed for Carroll, Grambling standout
June 18, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
James "Shack" Harris quarterbacked five championship teams in northeastern Louisiana, two at Carroll High and three at Grambling State.
Then he blazed a trail for blacks at the quarterback position in the pros and, later, in NFL front offices. Our readers recognized those staggering accomplishments by voting to name The News-Star/Glenwood SportsCare's high school offensive player of the year award in his honor.
"I think naming it for him is exceptional," said Dorth Blade, head coach at Carroll throughout the 1960s. "We've had many outstanding individuals, but I don't know of anybody else in this vicinity who has had quite the influence that James Harris has had. He would be good representative."
Harris topped a poll stuffed with local legends, including West Monroe natives Billy Joe Dupree and Jerry Stovall, Ruston products W.A. "Dub" and Bert Jones, and Monroe's Sammy White, among others.
"I chose 'Shack' because he epitomizes the spirit of someone who is a leader, a winner, a productive player - and one who has earned the respect of all of his peers," said Monroe's Rod Washington, sentiments shared by voters like Sunny Journey and Tammy Ledet.
" 'Shack' did that on the high school, college and pro levels," Washington said. "I think he is a great role model for the top high school football players in our area."
Born July 20, 1947 in Monroe, Harris would lead Carroll to the 1961 and '62 Class 3A state titles before falling in the 1963 semifinals. That loss to St. Augustine was one of only two in Harris' three campaigns as a starter at Carroll, Blade said.
In all, he won 39 consecutive prep games in Monroe.
"That was the best team I've ever been on," Harris said. "There were people who didn't cross the 50 (yard line) on us. I wore white pants, and they didn't get washed all year. I never was touched."
Harris then compiled a 31-9-1 record under former coach Eddie Robinson at Grambling, capturing the 1966-68 Southwestern Athletic Conference titles, before becoming the first black player ever drafted as a quarterback.
"Coach Robinson is the greatest influence in sports that I had in terms of preparing you for sports, and preparing you for life - for the competitiveness that would follow," Harris said. "The biggest thing that Coach taught us was to be prepared, and then good things would happen."
They did. An eighth-round selection for Buffalo, Harris had his greatest success later with Los Angeles - where he led the Rams to divisional titles and the NFC championship game in 1974 and '75.
He was named the Pro Bowl's most valuable player in 1975, then led the NFC with an 89.8 passer rating a season later before finishing his career with San Diego.
Harris has since spent nearly two decades as a pioneer in pro personnel. After a stint in scouting and four years as assistant general manager of the New York Jets, Harris was named director of pro personnel for the Baltimore Ravens in 1997 - where he helped build the 2000 Super Bowl championship squad. Harris has been vice president of player personnel for the Jacksonville Jaguars since January 2003.
" 'Shack' was born to be what he is, a leader at every level," said former college teammate Henry Dyer, who twice led all GSU rushers in the 1960s. "All of us have been pulling for him from the beginning, because he's been a groundbreaker through the years."
Harris has consistently given area players a shot in the pros, signing receivers Randy Hymes and Troy Edwards, kicker Josh Scobee and cornerback Kenny Wright, among others.
"You'll never find someone who is more proud to be from somewhere than James Harris is," said well-known college sports broadcaster Tim Brando, who as a youngster did play-by-play for Neville games. "Everywhere 'Shack' goes, all he talks about is the talent from this area."
Sports Illustrated named Harris one of sports' Top 50 most influential minorities in both 2003 and '04. He is also a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference and Louisiana Sports halls of fame.
"James was a well-raised guy," said former Carroll assistant coach Curtis Armand, who lived right across the street when Harris was a kid. "A good, good fellow. No attitude, and smart. He deserves this honor."
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Harris was overwhelming choice
Former Carroll High and Grambling standout James Harris finished atop a weeklong poll to name The News-Star/Glenwood SportsCare offensive player of the year award, with 56 percent of the votes.
Several other local products received widespread support. Former Dallas Cowboys standout Billy Joe Dupree, who graduated from the now-closed Richardson High in West Monroe, finished second with 19 percent.
"Billy Joe Dupree was a great inspiration to me when I was growing up," said voter James Caldwell. "He encouraged me to stay in school, saw that I had athletic ability and helped me get involved in sports."
The third-place finisher was Ruston High product Bert Jones, who later starred at LSU and with the Baltimore Colts, with 9 percent.
Write-ins for former Louisiana Tech athletics director Jerry Stovall, a West Monroe graduate who later was an All-America player and then coach at LSU, pushed him to fourth place with 5 percent of the vote.
"Every place he has been, he has been known for his strong Christian beliefs, high morals and ethics," said Barry White, president of the West Monroe High School alumni association.
All other candidates - including Walter "Bubby" Brister, W.A. "Dub" Jones, Sammy White and Paul "Tank" Younger - represented the final 11 percent of the polling.
"Mr. W.A. Jones and his son Bert have continued to exhibit the leadership qualities that made them great on the field in their post football days," said voter Brandon Ewing.
The first James Harris offensive player of the year award will be presented in a postseason banquet sponsored annually by Glenwood SportsCare.
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Our lasting legend
Monroe's James Harris has been a groundbreaker all along
June 26, 2006
His college and high school coaches always believed James "Shack" Harris could play.
His folks, well, that was another matter.
Harris, a future standout at both Carroll High and Grambling, had a brother who'd been injured on the gridiron. It took a long talk from former Carroll assistant Curtis Armand, himself a former Grambling player under Eddie Robinson, to convince Harris' parents.
"He said I could get a scholarship," remembered Harris, now vice president of player personnel for the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars. "They understood what a free education meant."
What came next was a magical career around football. James Larnell Harris, born in Monroe on July 20, 1947, would win five championships playing football in Louisiana, then crash through the NFL's color barrier as a black quarterback and front-office executive.
Those achievements sparked widespread support in a recent poll, as readers voted to name The News-Star/Glenwood SportsCare high school offensive player of the year award in Harris' honor.
Call it fitting tribute to Harris, who played during a period of 1960s dominance at Carroll High - winning a jaw-dropping 39 consecutive regular-season games.
"The greatest high school teams ever assembled," Harris said, simply. Harris led Carroll to consecutive undefeated marks in 1963-64, winning the Class 3A title as a junior before falling in the semifinals to St. Augustine a year later.
"We put a value on losing," Harris said. "Losing was not a choice." In a way, Harris had been around the Eddie Robinson aesthetic since he was a teenager. Both Armand and head coach Dorth Blade had played at Grambling. Blade, in fact, was a member of the legendary undefeated 1955 team, Robinson's first black national championship squad.
So, the transition was seamless.
LASTING LOCAL LEGACY
Harris immediately saw playing time in spot duty behind Eddie Robinson Jr. in 1965, helping Grambling to a league title. He then started for the next trio of years - winning three more championships.
Easy to know, but exacting and driven, Harris connected in a visceral way with other players.
"'Shack' has always been a remarkable guy, a motivator and leader," said former teammate Frank Lewis, a wingback on that 1968 Southwestern Athletic Conference champion. "Usually on a team, there are groups of friends. But he's the type of guy who was close with everybody. He could talk to anybody."
GSU lost just five games with Harris as the No. 1 quarterback. In fact, over the four seasons Harris was on the team, Grambling went 31-9-1 - including a 9-1 campaign in 1967 that earned Harris a black college national championship.
"We did a lot of damage," Harris said. "We had the best players in the state of Louisiana. We were so deep and so talented. There were guys that would leave Grambling because they couldn't get a chance to play - then go other places and start."
Twice voted the team's MVP (after the 1967-68 seasons), Harris finished with 4,705 yards and 53 touchdowns - school records that stood until the Doug Williams era nearly a decade later.
All along, Robinson told him he could become the first black player drafted as a quarterback. Harris remained skeptical.
"I was a guy who worked. I spent a lot of time preparing for it," he said. "I thought I was capable, but I didn't think the opportunity would ever be there. Nobody was playing then. It was unrealistic to think about it."
BREAKING NEW GROUND
Several teams tried to convince Harris to switch positions, something that had already happened to black quarterback Marlin Briscoe, but Harris held firm.
Undeniable collegiate numbers eventually convinced the Buffalo Bills to take that chance. Harris, then on a Bills roster that included Jack Kemp and Tom Flores, would also became the first black quarterback to start a pro football season.
But the eighth rounder would only play in four games that first campaign, enduring both unfortunate injuries and scarring racially motivated criticism.
"I've got so much respect for 'Shack' as a person, because I know what he had to go through," said Williams, who followed Harris into an NFL starting job and eventually won Super Bowl MVP honors.
"'Shack' never talked about those things, though," Williams added. "The only thing he ever did with me was say: 'If you can throw at Grambling, you can throw in the league.'"
Harris' stoicism about the crushing adversity that lay ahead was born from long talks with his college coach.
"The biggest thing that Coach Robinson taught us," Harris said, "was not to make excuses."
Robinson, in fact, had stayed in constant contact, even years after Harris had left Grambling.
"I had handpicked and prayed for James Harris to hurdle the color barrier as an NFL quarterback," Robinson once said. "I wouldn't let James ever give up the idea."
He would eventually be waived by Buffalo in 1972, and spent a year out of football working for the U.S. Commerce Department's Office of Minority Business Enterprise.
"Sometimes it's where you go that dictates the circumstances," Harris said. "Sometimes it's the breaks you get that determine your career."
A break for Harris came in the form of the Los Angeles Rams, who signed Harris the following year. Harris remained a back up, however. John Hadl, Ron Jaworski and Pat Haden were also in Coach Chuck Knox's quarterback platoon.
"I wrote (Harris) a letter telling him what he needed to do," Robinson said. "He needed to be the first one at practice and the last one to leave. ... I told James to be careful with what he said, and he always should say good things about the team. I impressed on him he should not make his not playing into a racial issue, even if he thought it was."
As Harris continued to split playing time, Robinson even made a call to Carrol Rosenbloom, the owner of the Rams, on Harris' behalf. He didn't ask for special consideration, only that Rosenbloom take notice of how well prepared Harris had become.
"What Coach gave me was more than just knowing what it took to become an NFL quarterback," Harris said. "He touched our lives in such a way that I was better prepared for life. There has probably never been a better man than Eddie Robinson."
Finally given the opportunity to start again in 1974, Harris quickly found his footing.
Harris led the Rams to 20 wins in 24 games, becoming the first black quarterback to start a playoff game. He would complete 483 passes for 3,692 yards and 25 scores over that period - an astonishing burst of productivity that earned Harris an invite to the Pro Bowl, where he was named Most Valuable Player.
In one 1975 game against Baltimore, Harris threw for 294 yards. A season later, he had a 436-yard explosion against Miami on the way to becoming the NFC's leading passer - even though Harris had only played in seven games.
He held the highest career completion average of any quarterback in Rams history, and had played on teams that won four straight divisional titles while advancing to three consecutive NFC Championship Games in the mid-1970s.
Despite that, Harris was traded to San Diego to make room for the aging Joe Namath. There, Harris reunited with a former Grambling teammate, receiver Charlie Joiner, for a final five-year stint.
Harris, while acknowledging his special place in history, laments that he didn't do more as an NFL player.
"I never really got a chance to play up to my capabilities," he said. "I was always trying to play perfectly, because if you made a mistake - you were out."
Perfection took too long, often leaving him with no open options. The highlight reels from back then, it seems, always show Harris running for his life.
"I would hold that ball a little longer trying to make sure I didn't get it picked off," Harris said. "In college and high school, I had played loose. You knew if you made a mistake, the coach would just call it again - not send you home."
EVEN TODAY, A PIONEER
Perhaps Harris' most important achievement is an on-going position of influence within the traditionally lily-white power structure of the NFL.
Robinson often made special note of the fact that Harris "broke restraints on the field as a player, and then in proving blacks could be leaders in the team's front office."
Harris began working up the ladder as an NFL scout, including a six-year stay with Tampa Bay. Next he was promoted to assistant general manager of the New York Jets, a position he held from 1993-96.
Harris would then help build the 2000 Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens as director of pro personnel. "We came up with a core group of defensive guys who were outstanding," said Harris, in Baltimore from 1997 until taking over with the Jaguars in 2003.
As vice president of player personnel for Jacksonville, Harris works as one of the highest ranking blacks in NFL management - making decisions on player acquisitions, including the annual college draft, free agency, trades, undrafted prospects and those from other leagues.
Those who came later still find inspiration by following in his footsteps. Williams, who succeeded Robinson as coach at Grambling, is now working in an NFL front office, as well. Two years ago, he took a job as a personnel executive with Tampa Bay, the club that drafted him out of Grambling in 1978.
"To see 'Shack' doing what he's doing now, it's an inspiration," said Williams, whose elder sibling Robert played baseball at Grambling. "He always has been. I think of 'Shack' as another older brother. He's somebody I want to be like. Guys like him made it possible for all of us. There's no amount of recognition he doesn't deserve."
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Black quarterbacks turn the page
New ESPN book chronicles struggles that led to future success
February 5, 2007
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
The timing couldn't have been better.
ESPN Books issues “Third and a Mile,” focusing on black NFL quarterbacks like Grambling products James “Shack” Harris and Doug Williams. And it happens just as two African-Americans advance to the Super Bowl as head coaches for the first time ever.
That’s given these two local heroes a chance to reflect, even as they continue to marvel at how far they’ve come.Williams and Harris shared storylines (from Grambling to pro starter to NFL front office) and a college mentor in Eddie Robinson. It’s kindled a shared admiration.
“I’ve got so much respect for ‘Shack’ as a person, because I know what he had to go through,” Williams said. “‘Shack’ never talked about those things, though. The only thing he ever did with me was say: ‘If you can throw at Grambling, you can throw in the league.’”
“Third and a Mile,” an oral history collected by New York Times writer William C. Rhoden, has Harris and Williams — the first black passer to start an NFL game and the first to win a Super Bowl — as an understandable focus.
They form the center of book that expands to feature fellow pioneers like Marlin Briscoe (first to throw a pass in the modern era) and Warren Moon (first to earn induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame) as well as current players like Steve McNair, Donovan McNabb and Daunte Culpepper.
Before those later successes, however, there were mighty struggles.
At first, Harris, a Monroe native, didn’t even let himself dream about starting.
“I thought I was capable, but I didn’t think the opportunity would ever be there,” he said. “Nobody was playing then. It was unrealistic to think about it.”
The world was turning, but slowly.
Harris, fresh off his selection in the 1968 NFL Draft, arrived to find this headline in The Buffalo Evening News: “A 6-4 Negro QB, Harris, Drafted 8th by the Bills.”
Black quarterbacks were still a novelty for a league that had seen just two attempt a pass between 1953 and 1968. Even then, Briscoe did so only because of injuries to the two quarterbacks ahead of him.
He set several rookie records as a passer in Denver — then found himself released at season’s end, anyway. Briscoe would play nine NFL seasons and eventually win two Super Bowls with Miami, but as a receiver.
That didn’t exactly bode well for Harris, despite the fact that he had led five championship teams in northeastern Louisiana — one at Carroll High and four at Grambling.
“The interviews that he had, they didn’t want him as a quarterback,” said former Carroll coach Dorth Blade. “He had the kind of talent that he could have played defensive back; he had the skills to play any position. (In fact, in the closing moments of Carroll’s 1962 state championship, Harris was actually spelling at safety.) But he wanted to play quarterback.”
Harris was never given a fair shake. He bounced from Buffalo to Los Angeles — where, during a rare period where he saw consistent starting time, the Rams won divisional titles and advanced to the NFC championship game in 1974 and ’75.
Despite becoming the first black passer to lead a team into the playoffs, Harris was shipped off to San Diego.“I never really got a chance to play up to my capabilities,” said Harris. “I was always trying to play perfectly, because if you made a mistake — you were out.”
Still, the yeoman’s work done by Briscoe and Harris opened the passway for Williams, who would become the most valuable player of the 1988 Super Bowl for the Washington Redskins.
The now ailing Robinson would often recall telling Williams that the significance of that moment would only deepen with time.
“Coach was right, as usual,” Williams told reporters this week. “In a way, seeing (Chicago Bears coach) Lovie Smith and (Indianapolis Colts coach) Tony Dungy coach in this Super Bowl will have more impact on me than my playing in the game did. I’ve lived a little history now, and I know exactly where we started with black coaches.”
Harris looks back with more than a little regret on his pro playing days. Still, his steady resilience made it easier for those who came later.
Moon was so determined to follow Harris into quarterbacking that he decided not to run at full speed when he was clocked in the 40-yard dash as a college athlete at Washington — all to avoid being moved to wideout or cornerback.
He and Randall Cunningham would bridge the gap between the widely accepted black superstar passers of today and Grambling’s groundbreakers of the ’70s.
“The only thing I knew,” Harris said, “is I wasn’t switching positions. I was going home before I was going to do that.”
Harris’ more remarkable contribution was to follow that 12-year career on the field with nearly two decades as a pioneer in pro personnel. He’s helped build rosters for the Jets, the Ravens (including the 2000 Super Bowl champions) and the Jaguars, where he was worked since 2003.
Robinson often made special note of the fact that Harris “broke restraints on the field as a player, and then in proving blacks could be leaders in the team’s front office.”
Williams, who later succeeded Robinson as Grambling’s coach, is also a personnel executive — working for Tampa Bay, the NFL club that selected him 17th overall in the 1978 draft.
Though they once endured a withering spotlight focused on their skin color, Harris and Williams have been witness to an amazing transformation: In some ways, the game itself has become bigger than race.
McNair and McNabb have led teams into the Super Bowl over the last decade — and with far less scrutiny.
“The thing about a Super Bowl is, they may call you a black quarterback,” Williams said, “but the truth is that they can’t color that experience.”
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A separate history: Harris, Williams return with new book on black QBs
Grambling products featured in 'Third and a Mile,' a stirring new oral history
March 10, 2007
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
William C. Rhoden wanted you to walk a while in their shoes.
So the New York Times writer took a gutsy approach in the new book “Third and a Mile,” which explores what he calls “the trials and triumphs” of the black pro quarterback.
He presents an oral history, rather than weaving in the expected prose. These raw and riveting accounts give the book its power, and its poignancy.
About 80 different voices are heard, loud and clear -- including two Grambling products, James “Shack” Harris and Doug Williams. Their words become an ever-more resounding rebuke, even if the book’s stark style means Rhoden disappears a bit in the telling.
“We left it up to him,” Harris said, “and that was the way he thought it was best to present it -- since there were so many different angles and personalities to the story. We like it because it’s easy to read.”
Harris, a Monroe native, and Williams will sign copies of “Third and a Mile” today at Windows, a Bookshop, on Park Avenue across from Forsythe Park in Monroe. The free event lasts from noon to 2 p.m. Call 361-9004.
“Third and a Mile” also includes accounts from Warren Moon, Vince Evans and Marlin Briscoe, among others. Each played his own role in the struggle of black passers to earn equal opportunity in the National Football League.
Their thoughts are laid bare, without interruption or tacked-on transitions. Eventually, the quarterbacks are joined by others, black and white, to provide insight and context.
“The writer did a good job, because he didn’t deviate from what we said,” Williams said. “It’s not just told from the individual quarterback’s point of view, but also from other people’s. You get it from a different view, and see what everybody else thought about what was going on.”
For Harris and Williams, these were not new thoughts. It was new, though, to voice a few of them.
“Some of the things you go through, you have not shared with anybody else or hadn’t wanted to talk about,” Harris said. “Some of those things were said for the first time, once we sat down and started thinking about it. But those are things you never forget.”
Harris -- who once won 39 consecutive games as a prep quarterback at Monroe’s Carroll High -- would become the first black in league history to open a regular season as a starting quarterback, and the first to lead an NFL team to the playoffs.
Williams was the first to be selected in the first round of the draft, the first to lead a team to the Super Bowl, the first to win it, and the first to be named most valuable player.
Leading the way meant absorbing withering criticism -- in print and in person -- from those who questioned whether a black quarterback could lead a football team.
“There are things that have been on your mind for a long time, and maybe you only shared them with a few people,” Williams said. “Now, you can share it with whoever wants to read it -- and they are things that people probably didn’t even think about. All you know was what you saw on TV on Sundays. You may not know the roads that were traveled to get there.”
Rhoden’s intriguing examination is an important reminder for those who once thought too little of the struggle to even football’s playing field for blacks. But as players like Steve McNair and Donovan McNabb have helped us move beyond the question, it’s no less meaningful for a new generation who might not be as mindful of what came before.
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Happy homecoming
March 09, 2007
In the new book "Third and a Miles," James "Shack" Harris talks about the effects of blistering racism while growing up in Monroe during the 1950s and '60s.
But this Carroll High and Grambling product never wavered in his passion for the area.
"So many people from Monroe have supported me and are a big part of where I am today," said Harris, who attended practice at GSU tonight along with fellow Grambling product Doug Williams. "I always enjoy coming home, and seeing the way things have changed."
There was much to talk about: The book, the charity golf tournament he and Williams are sponsoring later this summer, the Jaguars - where he makes all the personnel decisions.
Then Harris got down to business: Just how good is Bastrop? Who's the best player coming out of the area right now? Ahmad Paige?
Harris left northeastern Louisiana, but it never left him.That's a tribute to his former Grambling coach, the beloved Eddie Robinson, who always challenged Harris to work hard, no matter the hardships, and to never rely on excuses.
Harris' love for Monroe would withstand whatever wrongheaded prejudice it once threw at him.
And now, finally, the town has learned to return his embrace -- and with a northside booksigning in Harris' honor, no less.
As Rob would say: I love this country.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Grambling greats: Frank Lewis
Humble Frank Lewis called one of GSU's greatest
June 19, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Former Grambling State and NFL standout Frank Lewis was always one to quietly succeed. That's his nature.
Yet, it's no surprise that the Houma native will be inducted this week into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame. He was, even if he'd never say it, one of the best.
Lewis' teammates will tell you.
"No question, this honor is overdue," said former GSU quarterback James "Shack" Harris, a teammate who shared a 1968 league title with Lewis. "He was great high school player, a great college athlete — not good but great — and established himself as a solid NFL player. With those kind of credentials, he played his way into the Hall."
Lewis' coaches — including former Grambling coach Eddie Robinson — will tell you, too.
"When Frank was right, Grambling was right," Robinson has said. "He was one of the most gifted and versatile athletes I've ever seen. He's definitely in the running as one of our best athletes."
Douglas Porter, offensive coordinator during Lewis' 1968-70 tenure at Grambling, echoes that.
"He was one of the most modest and quiet individuals that you will ever be around," said Porter, "but as a competitor, he had a heart as big of a lion. He made it look easy. Frank was probably one of the smoothest and most fluid runners you will ever see."
But Lewis tends to sidle up to that legacy. It's his way.
"Everybody had talent and everybody was capable of playing on our Grambling teams, whether you started or not," Lewis said. "Some of us were fortunate enough to start, but the others were capable too."
Lewis' Hall of Fame induction, along with a 2006 class that includes Louisiana-Monroe product Chuck Finley and former New Orleans Saints standout Eric Martin, is Saturday in Natchitoches. He becomes the 19th Grambling product to be so honored, and 15th from the football program.
Lewis, though used exclusively as a wideout in the pros, was also a prolific rusher in Grambling's fabled Wing-T attack of the 1960s.
As a junior, the brilliantly versatile Lewis was GSU's leading receiver (with 31 catches for 607 yards) and rusher (145 attempts for 786 yards). He then led all receivers with 25 catches for 411 yards as a senior.
A three-time All-Southwestern Athletic Conference wingback, Lewis finished with 42 touchdowns at Grambling. Over his final two seasons alone, he scored 28 times.
That convinced Pittsburgh to select him in the first round of the 1971 NFL Draft, No. 8 overall. He arrived as the Steelers were coming off a dismal 5-9 season, but the young team had talent and ambition.
Over the next seven seasons, Lewis would play — quietly, of course — an integral early role that jumpstarted an NFL powerhouse in the 1970s.
Lewis was the Steelers' leading receiver by 1974, playing on two AFC championship clubs over the next three seasons — and winning two Super Bowls.
"I feel good about being part of turning something like that around," said Lewis. "We started a dynasty, and improved the franchise from something that for 40 years hadn't won a championship."
But the best, at least statistically, was yet to come. After a 1978 trade to Buffalo, Lewis made 28 or more catches in every one of his five seasons with the Bills — and twice had more than 1,000 yards.
His Pro Bowl season in 1981 included 70 catches for 1,244 yards. Lewis would be named All-AFC, breaking Buffalo's single-season record for receptions and receiving yards.
"Most people relate my career to Pittsburgh, because of the Super Bowls, but with Buffalo the memories are still very fond," said Lewis, who helped lead the 1980 Bills to the playoffs for the first time in six years.
"When I got there, I saw a team at the bottom again, and we turned it around, too," Lewis said. "We were 5-11 that first year, then two years later? Division champs. To see a turnaround like that, it's one of the most rewarding things a player can go through."
Lewis' career NFL totals were 397 receptions for 6,724 yards and 40 touchdowns. He would become the first player in league history to gain 100 yards receiving in postseason games for two different clubs.
And this from a guy who played just a single season of high school football at Houma — and not as a wideout, but at fullback, defensive back and punter — before being signed by Robinson to play at GSU.
Funny thing is, Lewis thought of himself as a basketball player in high school. Some say he could have made it in the major leagues, too.
"Grambling had a lot of great athletes, so it's hard to say who would be the best athlete we've ever had," Harris said. "Whoever that may be, he would have to be compared to Frank Lewis. There has never been one any better."
Lewis, born July 7, 1947, averaged 30 points playing hoops as a prep senior. Several programs, including Nicholls State, actually recruited him as a basketball prospect.
But Robinson saw something else, taking careful note of Lewis' team-leading mark in Houma for interceptions — something he did even while averaging more than six yards an attempt as a fullback.
"He gave us the dimension of the big play," Robinson would say. "The BIG play."
Lewis averaged nearly 20 yards every time he caught the ball at Grambling, and a first down (10.8 yards) every time he ran the ball — primarily as part of either a signature sweep or the timeless "26 Counter."
"He made that sweep look like it was designed just for him," Porter said. "Then he would get open (on a passing play) and those defensive backs were left scratching their heads. They're probably still trying to figure out how he did it."
Football took Lewis to Pennsylvania, and to upstate New York. But he never really left the piney hills and red-clay valleys of Lincoln Parish. Not in his heart.
"There's something about Grambling," he said. "It's a small school in a secluded area. But if I had to choose again — even as big as things are in today's world of college football — I'd still go to Grambling. I'd want that same experience. It's unforgettable. I don't think you could trade that for anything."
Like most of Robinson's players, Lewis still listens intently to the echoes of long-ago lessons taught by his now ailing former coach. The words still ring true.
"I always relate back to Coach or the Grambling experience in my life," Lewis said. "Coach had a big influence on a lot of players that have come through there. It's only right because of type of person he was."
Lewis became the same kind of community leader, and he's done it back home. He has worked for the past two years as a Houma board director with the Workforce Investment Act — which benefits laid-off workers, youth, veterans and people with disabilities, among others.
"He's continued to represent Louisiana well, and never been anything but a class guy," Harris said. "He still works with kids. You don't have a Hall of Fame without guys like Frank."
Through it all, Lewis has remained true to himself. He's just as unassuming today, Super Bowl and SWAC championships aside, as he ever was. Induction in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, as thrilling as it may be, won't change him.
"It's been 22 years that I've been out of football," Lewis said, still awed a bit by his own achievement. "The Hall of Fame is not something that I walked around thinking about. You know now that what you did was enough. I am just happy to be chosen to be in that group."
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Frankly speaking
June 05, 2006
Grambling great Frank Lewis has decided who will introduce him during Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremonies, slated for June 22-24 in Natchitoches.
Lewis, a participant today in the Shack Harris-Doug Williams celebrity benefit golf tournament at Bossier, said he's selected Solomon Cannon of Lake Charles.
"He was a teammate of mine at Grambling, and then a roommate for a while as well," said Lewis, a member of our GRAMBLING80. "We also played high school ball together."
Lewis, a Houma product and All-America receiver at GSU, was an All-Pro for the Buffalo Bills after winning two Super Bowl rings with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Cannon, a respected educator, is now a Class 3A representative on the Louisiana High School Athletics Association executive committee as principal at Lake Charles-Boston.
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Connecting again
June 19, 2006
Want to get former Grambling quarterback James Harris going?
Talk about his old teammate Frank Lewis.
"I don't know of anything that Frank couldn't do," enthused Harris. "I'm not sure that Frank couldn't have played in the NBA."
And to think, Harris' other receiver at GSU that season was one Charlie Joiner, a future Pro Football Hall of Famer.
"With those weapons, you wanted to get to third down," Harris said, laughing uproariously.
A favorite story happened in Week 3 of the '68 season, as Grambling faced Tennessee State. The Tigers, then three-time Southwestern Athletic Conference champs, had unexpectedly stumbled out of the gate, falling to Alcorn and then Morgan State.
Zippy Tennessee State cornerback James Marsalis thought he saw an opening, and said so to a hometown reporter.
"He said that he had never been beat," Harris said. "We didn't allow that at Grambling. We're sitting there with Frank Lewis and Charlie Joiner. The nerve!"
Harris cut the article out of the newspaper, and brought it to the lockerroom.
"I told Frank: 'Here's what we're going to do: In the second quarter, you're going deep,'" Harris said "I wanted to wait until the second quarter for the fans who are late. I didn't want them to miss it."
Kansas City fans will recall that Marsalis would become the Chiefs' No. 1 pick in the following year's NFL Draft. GSU fans, however, have their own special memory.
"I told Frank: 'Run, and don't look back,'" Harris said, laughing again. "'Look in your right shirt pocket, and you will find the ball.'"
Harris connected on that pass and Grambling won 30-21 - and, in fact, never lost again over the next eight games in 1968 on the way to another league title.
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Catching on
June 24, 2006
Grambling great Frank Lewis recognized how the game of football has changed even while he was being honored as one of Louisiana's best.
"It's kind of hard to compare it to my time," said Lewis, inducted tonight in Natchitoches as GSU's 19th inductee into the state Sports Hall of Fame. "You are going to catch 60 or 100 passes these days. The game has opened up so much."
Lewis signed out of Grambling with the Pittsburgh Steelers - a run-oriented team in the early part of its four-time Super Bowl championship run.
In 1974, he led all Pittsburgh receivers with just 30 catches as the Steelers won the first of two titles with Lewis at wideout. (By 1978, the year that Lewis signed with Buffalo, the Steelers had begun to evolve - even as Pittsburgh won a third championship. Receiver Lynn Swann had 61 catches for 880 yards that season.)
Lewis had similar numbers in college, leading all Grambling players in receptions for both 1969 and '70 while averaging 28 catches and 360 yards per season.
"The running back catches that many today," Lewis said, chuckling. "It's a whole different ball game."
By contrast, GSU's leading receiver in 2005, Henry Tolbert, had 74 catches for 1,391 yards.
Still, for all those fireworks, Tolbert averaged 18.8 per catch. Lewis' old-school output? A comparable 18.65 per.
Clearly, Lewis could have held his own.
June 19, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Former Grambling State and NFL standout Frank Lewis was always one to quietly succeed. That's his nature.
Yet, it's no surprise that the Houma native will be inducted this week into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame. He was, even if he'd never say it, one of the best.
Lewis' teammates will tell you.
"No question, this honor is overdue," said former GSU quarterback James "Shack" Harris, a teammate who shared a 1968 league title with Lewis. "He was great high school player, a great college athlete — not good but great — and established himself as a solid NFL player. With those kind of credentials, he played his way into the Hall."
Lewis' coaches — including former Grambling coach Eddie Robinson — will tell you, too.
"When Frank was right, Grambling was right," Robinson has said. "He was one of the most gifted and versatile athletes I've ever seen. He's definitely in the running as one of our best athletes."
Douglas Porter, offensive coordinator during Lewis' 1968-70 tenure at Grambling, echoes that.
"He was one of the most modest and quiet individuals that you will ever be around," said Porter, "but as a competitor, he had a heart as big of a lion. He made it look easy. Frank was probably one of the smoothest and most fluid runners you will ever see."
But Lewis tends to sidle up to that legacy. It's his way.
"Everybody had talent and everybody was capable of playing on our Grambling teams, whether you started or not," Lewis said. "Some of us were fortunate enough to start, but the others were capable too."
Lewis' Hall of Fame induction, along with a 2006 class that includes Louisiana-Monroe product Chuck Finley and former New Orleans Saints standout Eric Martin, is Saturday in Natchitoches. He becomes the 19th Grambling product to be so honored, and 15th from the football program.
Lewis, though used exclusively as a wideout in the pros, was also a prolific rusher in Grambling's fabled Wing-T attack of the 1960s.
As a junior, the brilliantly versatile Lewis was GSU's leading receiver (with 31 catches for 607 yards) and rusher (145 attempts for 786 yards). He then led all receivers with 25 catches for 411 yards as a senior.
A three-time All-Southwestern Athletic Conference wingback, Lewis finished with 42 touchdowns at Grambling. Over his final two seasons alone, he scored 28 times.
That convinced Pittsburgh to select him in the first round of the 1971 NFL Draft, No. 8 overall. He arrived as the Steelers were coming off a dismal 5-9 season, but the young team had talent and ambition.
Over the next seven seasons, Lewis would play — quietly, of course — an integral early role that jumpstarted an NFL powerhouse in the 1970s.
Lewis was the Steelers' leading receiver by 1974, playing on two AFC championship clubs over the next three seasons — and winning two Super Bowls.
"I feel good about being part of turning something like that around," said Lewis. "We started a dynasty, and improved the franchise from something that for 40 years hadn't won a championship."
But the best, at least statistically, was yet to come. After a 1978 trade to Buffalo, Lewis made 28 or more catches in every one of his five seasons with the Bills — and twice had more than 1,000 yards.
His Pro Bowl season in 1981 included 70 catches for 1,244 yards. Lewis would be named All-AFC, breaking Buffalo's single-season record for receptions and receiving yards.
"Most people relate my career to Pittsburgh, because of the Super Bowls, but with Buffalo the memories are still very fond," said Lewis, who helped lead the 1980 Bills to the playoffs for the first time in six years.
"When I got there, I saw a team at the bottom again, and we turned it around, too," Lewis said. "We were 5-11 that first year, then two years later? Division champs. To see a turnaround like that, it's one of the most rewarding things a player can go through."
Lewis' career NFL totals were 397 receptions for 6,724 yards and 40 touchdowns. He would become the first player in league history to gain 100 yards receiving in postseason games for two different clubs.
And this from a guy who played just a single season of high school football at Houma — and not as a wideout, but at fullback, defensive back and punter — before being signed by Robinson to play at GSU.
Funny thing is, Lewis thought of himself as a basketball player in high school. Some say he could have made it in the major leagues, too.
"Grambling had a lot of great athletes, so it's hard to say who would be the best athlete we've ever had," Harris said. "Whoever that may be, he would have to be compared to Frank Lewis. There has never been one any better."
Lewis, born July 7, 1947, averaged 30 points playing hoops as a prep senior. Several programs, including Nicholls State, actually recruited him as a basketball prospect.
But Robinson saw something else, taking careful note of Lewis' team-leading mark in Houma for interceptions — something he did even while averaging more than six yards an attempt as a fullback.
"He gave us the dimension of the big play," Robinson would say. "The BIG play."
Lewis averaged nearly 20 yards every time he caught the ball at Grambling, and a first down (10.8 yards) every time he ran the ball — primarily as part of either a signature sweep or the timeless "26 Counter."
"He made that sweep look like it was designed just for him," Porter said. "Then he would get open (on a passing play) and those defensive backs were left scratching their heads. They're probably still trying to figure out how he did it."
Football took Lewis to Pennsylvania, and to upstate New York. But he never really left the piney hills and red-clay valleys of Lincoln Parish. Not in his heart.
"There's something about Grambling," he said. "It's a small school in a secluded area. But if I had to choose again — even as big as things are in today's world of college football — I'd still go to Grambling. I'd want that same experience. It's unforgettable. I don't think you could trade that for anything."
Like most of Robinson's players, Lewis still listens intently to the echoes of long-ago lessons taught by his now ailing former coach. The words still ring true.
"I always relate back to Coach or the Grambling experience in my life," Lewis said. "Coach had a big influence on a lot of players that have come through there. It's only right because of type of person he was."
Lewis became the same kind of community leader, and he's done it back home. He has worked for the past two years as a Houma board director with the Workforce Investment Act — which benefits laid-off workers, youth, veterans and people with disabilities, among others.
"He's continued to represent Louisiana well, and never been anything but a class guy," Harris said. "He still works with kids. You don't have a Hall of Fame without guys like Frank."
Through it all, Lewis has remained true to himself. He's just as unassuming today, Super Bowl and SWAC championships aside, as he ever was. Induction in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, as thrilling as it may be, won't change him.
"It's been 22 years that I've been out of football," Lewis said, still awed a bit by his own achievement. "The Hall of Fame is not something that I walked around thinking about. You know now that what you did was enough. I am just happy to be chosen to be in that group."
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Frankly speaking
June 05, 2006
Grambling great Frank Lewis has decided who will introduce him during Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremonies, slated for June 22-24 in Natchitoches.
Lewis, a participant today in the Shack Harris-Doug Williams celebrity benefit golf tournament at Bossier, said he's selected Solomon Cannon of Lake Charles.
"He was a teammate of mine at Grambling, and then a roommate for a while as well," said Lewis, a member of our GRAMBLING80. "We also played high school ball together."
Lewis, a Houma product and All-America receiver at GSU, was an All-Pro for the Buffalo Bills after winning two Super Bowl rings with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Cannon, a respected educator, is now a Class 3A representative on the Louisiana High School Athletics Association executive committee as principal at Lake Charles-Boston.
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Connecting again
June 19, 2006
Want to get former Grambling quarterback James Harris going?
Talk about his old teammate Frank Lewis.
"I don't know of anything that Frank couldn't do," enthused Harris. "I'm not sure that Frank couldn't have played in the NBA."
And to think, Harris' other receiver at GSU that season was one Charlie Joiner, a future Pro Football Hall of Famer.
"With those weapons, you wanted to get to third down," Harris said, laughing uproariously.
A favorite story happened in Week 3 of the '68 season, as Grambling faced Tennessee State. The Tigers, then three-time Southwestern Athletic Conference champs, had unexpectedly stumbled out of the gate, falling to Alcorn and then Morgan State.
Zippy Tennessee State cornerback James Marsalis thought he saw an opening, and said so to a hometown reporter.
"He said that he had never been beat," Harris said. "We didn't allow that at Grambling. We're sitting there with Frank Lewis and Charlie Joiner. The nerve!"
Harris cut the article out of the newspaper, and brought it to the lockerroom.
"I told Frank: 'Here's what we're going to do: In the second quarter, you're going deep,'" Harris said "I wanted to wait until the second quarter for the fans who are late. I didn't want them to miss it."
Kansas City fans will recall that Marsalis would become the Chiefs' No. 1 pick in the following year's NFL Draft. GSU fans, however, have their own special memory.
"I told Frank: 'Run, and don't look back,'" Harris said, laughing again. "'Look in your right shirt pocket, and you will find the ball.'"
Harris connected on that pass and Grambling won 30-21 - and, in fact, never lost again over the next eight games in 1968 on the way to another league title.
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Catching on
June 24, 2006
Grambling great Frank Lewis recognized how the game of football has changed even while he was being honored as one of Louisiana's best.
"It's kind of hard to compare it to my time," said Lewis, inducted tonight in Natchitoches as GSU's 19th inductee into the state Sports Hall of Fame. "You are going to catch 60 or 100 passes these days. The game has opened up so much."
Lewis signed out of Grambling with the Pittsburgh Steelers - a run-oriented team in the early part of its four-time Super Bowl championship run.
In 1974, he led all Pittsburgh receivers with just 30 catches as the Steelers won the first of two titles with Lewis at wideout. (By 1978, the year that Lewis signed with Buffalo, the Steelers had begun to evolve - even as Pittsburgh won a third championship. Receiver Lynn Swann had 61 catches for 880 yards that season.)
Lewis had similar numbers in college, leading all Grambling players in receptions for both 1969 and '70 while averaging 28 catches and 360 yards per season.
"The running back catches that many today," Lewis said, chuckling. "It's a whole different ball game."
By contrast, GSU's leading receiver in 2005, Henry Tolbert, had 74 catches for 1,391 yards.
Still, for all those fireworks, Tolbert averaged 18.8 per catch. Lewis' old-school output? A comparable 18.65 per.
Clearly, Lewis could have held his own.
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