Time (finally) to mark calendars on long-delayed Robinson Museum project
August 18, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Key dates for the long-delayed Eddie Robinson Museum are being talked about in terms of months, instead of years.
For a project now nearly a decade in the making, that's a remarkable achievement in itself.
"We're hoping to have a groundbreaking some time in the fall, and we'll get the ball rolling," said Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne, whose office would oversee the project. "We're making great progress."
At Grambling State from 1941-97, Robinson retired as the winningest football coach in college history with 408 wins — leading the Tigers to 17 Southwestern Athletic Conference titles over the years. He passed away in April 2007 at age 88, as the state moved to approve a plan to house a museum in his honor in the former women's gym on the Grambling campus.
Over the intervening year, the museum began to build a belated head of steam.
Organizers are now hailing the opening of bids on the long-delayed project, which are being accepted through Sept. 11 through the state's Office of Facility Planning and Control. A pre-bid conference is slated for Thursday at the former women's gym on the GSU campus.
"The time frame from there goes like this: six weeks to award the bid to the contractor and then a start date is set — and then construction begins," Robinson Museum board chairman John Belton said. "I think the end of October looks good for that date."
Belton, a governor-appointed board member since the project's inception, adds: "God is good."
The bidding follows quick approval by the Louisiana Bond Commission of $1.3 million — $300,000 in cash and a $1 million line of credit — to be used for renovating exhibit space in the women's gym and hiring an exhibit designer.
Those were the first state funds ever specifically earmarked for the effort.
"We are on our way," local museum fundraiser and Robinson family friend Wilbert Ellis enthused. "I'm tickled to death."
This project was first proposed nearly a decade ago in 1999 — two years after Robinson's retirement at Grambling and several before the onset of the Alzheimer's-related symptoms that ultimately led to his death.
But a series of setbacks followed, including budget cuts and a since-resolved argument over where the museum would be located.
"You know it's often very difficult to get in line for capital outlay projects," Dardenne admitted.
Robinson's passing spurred renewed interest in the concept.
"It has taken off," said Eddie Robinson Jr., the coach's only son and a former player and assistant under his father.
"That's so great for the family. It's an inspiration to all of us. We're all so very happy about that."
The Secretary of State's office has also been consistent in its support for a proposed Robinson Museum.
"I had just been elected right before he died and had already been committed to try and move that project along," Dardenne said, "because I was very interested in it, personally. And I think the combination of those two events helped kick start it to get to the point where we're now going to have it as a reality in the next year or so."
Word came last week that a groundbreaking ceremony has been scheduled for 2 p.m. Sept. 20 at the proposed museum site. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Dardenne and other state and local officials are scheduled to attend, said Ray Higgins, museum curator.
Higgins recently reviewed the state's extensive collection of Robinson-related material, including a priceless briefcase containing materials from the coach's final season at Grambling.
That's part of a months-long project he's undertaking to collect and catalogue items for inclusion in the exhibit space — yet another tangible sign the museum, though it's taken a while to get here, is no longer a faraway point on the horizon.
"We've had Coach with us that whole time," Ellis said. "I think he's working right along with us on this. I feel Coach's hand in all of it."
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Organizers praised for ushering long-delayed Robinson Museum forward
August 29, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Members of the Eddie Robinson Museum Commission are hailing the opening of bids on their long-delayed project.
They met on Thursday for the first time in a location dedicated to the museum, the former women's gymnasium on the Grambling State University campus where Robinson coached for nearly 60 years.
"A long time coming," marveled John Belton, a governor-appointment board member since the project's 1999 inception. "We're almost there."
After the commission met, prospective contractors then toured the facility, used more recently as university office space and for practice by GSU cheer groups, as part of a pre-bid question-and-answer session.
Bids will be taken beginning Sept. 11 to underwrite a retrofit of the gym and a sweeping plan — on display during the meeting — to showcase Robinson through memorabilia and interactive exhibits.
"You should all be very proud of your tenacity," said Cliff Deal, coordinator of museums with the Louisiana Secretary of State's office, which will oversee the project. "Your energy got it where it is today. Your desire and your hope got us here — no other reason."
A museum in Robinson's honor was first approved by the Louisiana Legislature nine years ago, just after Robinson's retirement from a career that ended with a Division I record of 408 career football victories. But a series of disagreements over where the exhibits would be housed slowed the project to a near standstill until more recently.
Robinson died in April 2007 from complications related to Alzheimer's at age 88, and that too gave an emotional charge to the efforts. The museum received its first state funding earlier in the year, and has now begun setting projected dates for groundbreaking and opening ceremonies.
"It's a terrific feeling," said Eddie Robinson Jr., who played for and coached with his father. "The hay is almost in the barn."
Deal was joined by Sailor Jackson of the Louisiana State Archives, who helped set an agenda for the coming months. The museum, for instance, still has to work out a loan agreement for memorabilia with the Robinson family.
"This is not the end; it's just the beginning," Jackson said. "Next, we'll open bids, then we're on a fast track. We're talking mid-October when hammers start swinging."
Exhibit designer Jules Babineaux outlined his plans for the space, which include a special exhibit for former players called "Tigers in the Pros," an interactive database, a large bronze statue of Robinson and a re-creation of his office.
"We're trying to make it like the man was, bigger than life," said Babineaux, of Exhibits Etc.
Organizers hope to hold a groundbreaking on the weekend of Grambling's first home football game this season, and open the doors on the weekend it returns to play at Robinson Stadium in 2009.
The museum would include free admission, Deal said. "Our interest is in celebrating the memory of Coach," he said, "and to let everyone who can enjoy it."
Former Grambling coach and athletic administrator Wilbert Ellis, a family friend and principal local fundraiser for the museum effort, praised a number of major donors — including the Dallas alumni chapter and the Shack Harris-Doug Williams Foundation.
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Eddie Rob Museum groundbreaking gets emotional
September 21, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — A groundbreaking ceremony for the proposed Eddie Robinson Museum, nearly a decade in the making, moved many to tears.
"Coach used to say: 'Nobody can outwork me, if God gives me the strength,'" said former Grambling State University baseball coach and athletic administrator Wilbert Ellis. "And God gave him the strength. He gave us that strength, too."
Ellis was one of a handful of locals who worked tirelessly toward this goal of honoring Robinson, who died in 2007 at age 88 after setting a still-standing Division I mark for college football victories.
They gathered Saturday to unveil plans for the exhibit space, to be housed at the former women's basketball gymnasium on the Grambling State campus where Robinson coached for most of six decades.
But a largely ceremonial moment took on a deeper emotion after so many years of struggle.
"It's a great day, an unbelievable day," Eddie Robinson Jr. said, smiling even as he cried. "We are so blessed as a family."
Recent dental work limited comments from Doris Robinson, the former GSU coach's widow. But she was in great spirits, presenting the state's renovation plans and then — after donning a hardhat affixed with the familiar Grambling "G" logo — turning over the initial mounds of dirt with a golden shovel.
As many as a half a dozen people were dabbing tears by then.
Robinson's legend, established over a career that spanned 1941-97, still holds that kind of startling power. Grambling President Horace Judson on Saturday called his school "the house that Eddie Robinson built," to widespread applause.
But plans to honor him with a museum, first mentioned in 1999, hit a series of roadblocks involving funding, arguments over location, then shifting commission dynamics.
That changed over the last few years as a rejuvenated board — helmed by John Belton, a governor-appointed member, with help from former Robinson assistant coach Doug Porter — began to pick up key support from Louisiana officials.
Robinson's passing, after years of battling complications related to Alzheimer's, gave the efforts a final push.
In a matter of months, the University of Louisiana System, which oversees Grambling, worked out a deal to house the exhibits on campus. The Louisiana Legislature then funded the museum for the first time since its inception.
Throughout the long journey, the Secretary of State's Office — through the administrations of Fox McKeithen, Al Ater and now Jay Dardenne — has remained a strong advocate.
"I appreciate the work that has gone on for the past 10 years," Dardenne said. "Their sweat and tears made this possible."
Choudrant businessman James Davison, a longtime family friend of the Robinsons, was one of several in attendance wearing specially made shirts inscribed with the motto: "Coach Rob — we kept the faith."
Like many, he paused several times during his remarks to compose himself.
"This is a collective achievement, a historic occasion," Belton said. "Many asked: Will it ever happen? The answer is yes, and praise God for it."
He specifically mentioned others besides Robinson who had not lived to see this belated ceremony, including original board chair Lottie Green; former Grambling professor David Lewis; and McKeithen, an early advocate.
A surprise guest was former state Sen. Randy Ewing — who in 1999 introduced Senate Bill No. 919, which created the Robinson Museum commission.
"We come here to honor Coach Robinson, but also his wife," Ewing said, gesturing to Robinson's partner of 64 years. "That was a winning team, too."
Familiar faces from Grambling lore dotted the audience, including NBA Hall of Famer Willis Reed.
"I am proud to have gone to a university where such a great man coached," Reed said.
Respected school architects were represented by Mary Hobdy, widow of Reed's former basketball coach Fred Hobdy and secretary to the school's second president, R.W.E. Jones; along with Ophelia Nicholson, widow of the school's renowned former sports information director, Collie J. Nicholson.
Several ex-players were in attendance, including Albert Dennis III and Eddie Scott, who has formed an alumni group called Eddie Robinson's Boys.
Grambling Mayor Martha Andrus ruminated on the emotional reunion of so many faces from the area's storied past.
"History is born again today, as we break ground for this museum," she said. "We are humble, fortunate and oh-so-very proud to see this come to fruition."
State Sen. Bob Kostelka (R-Monroe) and state Rep. Rick Gallot (D-Ruston) both spoke as part of the official program, as well.
"How sweet it is," Gallot said, "that this day has finally come."
Other officials on hand included Ruston mayor Dan Hollingsworth, University of Louisiana System president Randy Moffett, District Attorney Bob Levy and Ruston-Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau president Kyle Edmiston.
The Rev. Julius R. Sumler, pastor at Grambling's New Rocky Valley Baptist — Robinson was a member there — gave the invocation: "We thank you, Lord, for a dream that you wouldn't allow to die."
Grambling's Tiger Marching Band performed, both before and after the ceremony — playing Bill Wither's classic soul favorite "Lovely Day" as the program got under way and then the school's alma mater and fight song to conclude the event.
"I'm pleased to be a part of history," Ellis said, as more tears welled up again. "This is a day I will always remember. I can see Coach now — and he's smiling."
Showing posts with label Doug Porter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Doug Porter. Show all posts
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Grambling greats: College Hall of Famer Doug Porter
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."
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."
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Remembering: Coach Rob as pioneer
'Our' Robinson also a pioneer
Like Jackie, late Grambling coach was gentle giant in fighting racism
April 17, 2007
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — A man named Robinson left this country forever changed, opening minds and then doors for generations of black athletes.
The focus this week has been on Jackie Robinson, the pioneering baseball player who broke the Major League color barrier 60 seasons ago.
Those who knew Eddie Robinson, Grambling’s late longtime former coach, say he belongs in the conversation, as well.
"Two men named Robinson changed America," said Richard Lapchick, who directs the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport and writes the annual Racial and Gender Report Card.
Eddie Robinson, who retired in 1997 having coached 57 seasons at GSU, died April 3 at age 88 from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease.
"The breakthroughs provided by the work of Coach Robinson might have been less dramatic than the day Jackie Robinson donned the Dodger uniform," said the Rev. Jesse Jackson. "However, they were no less meaningful."
Those thoughts were echoed throughout Eddie Robinson’s lavish funeral, held last Wednesday on the Grambling campus. Many focused on Robinson’s contributions outside of sports, calling him a deeply underappreciated civil rights activist.
"He knew the climate and could bridge that gap," said Curtis Armand, a Monroe school administrator and coach who played for Robinson in the 1940s. "The man was ahead of his time."
Grambling’s Robinson suceeded in a fashion remarkably similar to baseball’s Robinson, quietly excelling and, in so doing, altering sensibilities.
"None of my players or coaches were seen at demonstrations in the 1960s. We made our own," Robinson told Lapchick for the biography "Never Before, Never Again." "The civil rights movement was helping to change the laws. Our goal was to help to change attitudes."
By the time he’d finished, Robinson’s tiny college program had sold out Yankee Stadium, become the first to play overseas, established an annual football game on national broadcast television and sent hundreds of players into groundbreaking roles in the pro game.
His coaching career reached back into pre-war 1941, through the upheaval of the 1950s and ‘60s, past integration in the ’70s and into widespread acceptance, even celebrity.
"The contributions Eddie Robinson made changed the color of football in America," Grambling’s late longtime publicist Collie J. Nicholson once said. "He made his impact in an inobtrusive way. That helped to break down barriers in other areas."
Along the way, his life ran parallel to — and, in many ways, helped propel — momentous changes in the way people look at black America.
That included the people who played for him.
"He made a difference for rich and poor, for black and white," said former Robinson player Joseph B. Johnson, who later served as president at Grambling for 14 years through 1991. "He had a mission that did not include hate. He used his education and status in athletics not for personal gain, but for progress."
Lapchick rightly noted that Robinson would one day lie in state at the Louisiana capitol, just across town from the state-run Louisiana State University that once refused to sell him a ticket to a football game.
"He used the gridiron to bring us together," said Gov. Kathleen Blanco said, "and became one of the most important civil rights leaders in Louisiana history."
Her comments came during that remarkable memorial service in Baton Rouge. Only five others had ever been so honored at the capitol’s Memorial Hall.
"He tore down barriers to open the door for all players," Blanco said. "He always said, in America, anything is possible."
That would, however, take some time.
‘STARTING FROM SCRATCH’
"I’ve seen a lot," Robinson once said. "I have ridden on the back of the bus. I’ve drunk at segregated fountains. But I’m not trying to make anybody pay. All I wanted was an opportunity to prove that I can do what other people can do. I got that at Grambling."
In his earliest days as a coach in the Jim Crow-era, Robinson would have to map out friendly places along the route between games. That included minority-owned business and even other historically black colleges.
"You had to figure out where you could buy sandwiches, where you might be able to use the facilities," said former Grambling assistant coach Douglas Porter.
Lighter-skinned players and coaches, those who could pass as white, were sent on emergency runs for supplies.
Even into the 1960s, as Grambling began its national barnstorming football tours, the team still traveled to conference games in a Bluebird school bus — and was forced to stay and eat on the opposing team’s campus, since many local establishments wouldn’t have them.
"With what he accomplished — and the way he accomplished it, starting from scratch — there are very few that have done it any better," said Monroe native James "Shack" Harris, a quarterback on those mid-’60s teams under Robinson who is now a high-ranking NFL official. "Even with what he had to go through, there was no one more dedicated — and no one who enjoyed it more along the way."
Robinson, who at the time might have just finished leading his team into signature sports venues in major metropolitan areas, was once again reduced to second-class citizenship.
"You played, then you got on the bus and tried to make it back to Grambling before breakfast," Porter said. "You might make one stop, so guys could use the bathroom."
Sometimes, that meant a trip into a wooded area, if no safe haven could be found.
Later generations were surprised to learn that the Robinson legend was first established not on a brightly lit Bayou Classic dais but with leftovers and friendly handouts.
"Rob never grumbled," Porter said. "He might take a light-hearted approach, rather than finding negativity in the situation. He knew that in the final analysis, if we won, that was the main thing. He stayed focused."
Robinson’s passion for his job, and for this country, never wavered. As a consequence, his players’ never did, either.
"The fervor that he had for America endured, even though the playing field wasn’t level," Jackson said.
‘HE CAN NEVER BE REPLACED’
Jackie Robinson, as important as he was to baseball, didn’t solve all of its problems. The same could be said of Eddie Robinson, despite his sweeping influence in the game he loved.
Lapchick notes that there are fewer black college coaches today than there were 10 years ago when he began work on "Never Before, Never Again" with Robinson.
Some wonder if there ever will be another like the steel-willed Eddie Robinson, who coached so long at one place and did so much for so many. His patient pursuit of excellence would eventually convince the masses, one winning season at a time.
"He came to Grambling, in the middle of nowhere, and produced quality people," said Larry Metevia, a 1966 all-conference center for Robinson who later played four seasons for the Houston Oilers. "That’s all because of him. He was a leader in the civil rights struggles, as well as a great coach. He can never be replaced."
Lapchick would like to encourage others to try.
He is calling on NCAA President Myles Brand to create a rule which would require that blacks be part of the interview process for prospective college football coaches — similar to the so-called Rooney Rule in the NFL.
He said it should be called the Robinson Rule, and others said it would be a fitting tribute.
Though its unclear if he would have considered such a thing, it’s startling to think that Robinson — even as he established a Division I record for career wins that still stands — never got another college job offer, and barely a sniff from the NFL.
"He is a man that would have been special in any endeavor," Harris said. "We were just fortunate he ended up as a football coach at Grambling."
The field is still not level, despite the gains made by Robinson and his many former players.
"But it’s levelling more," said U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, who presented a special proclamation honoring Robinson at his funeral, "thanks to him."
Like Jackie, late Grambling coach was gentle giant in fighting racism
April 17, 2007
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — A man named Robinson left this country forever changed, opening minds and then doors for generations of black athletes.
The focus this week has been on Jackie Robinson, the pioneering baseball player who broke the Major League color barrier 60 seasons ago.
Those who knew Eddie Robinson, Grambling’s late longtime former coach, say he belongs in the conversation, as well.
"Two men named Robinson changed America," said Richard Lapchick, who directs the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport and writes the annual Racial and Gender Report Card.
Eddie Robinson, who retired in 1997 having coached 57 seasons at GSU, died April 3 at age 88 from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease.
"The breakthroughs provided by the work of Coach Robinson might have been less dramatic than the day Jackie Robinson donned the Dodger uniform," said the Rev. Jesse Jackson. "However, they were no less meaningful."
Those thoughts were echoed throughout Eddie Robinson’s lavish funeral, held last Wednesday on the Grambling campus. Many focused on Robinson’s contributions outside of sports, calling him a deeply underappreciated civil rights activist.
"He knew the climate and could bridge that gap," said Curtis Armand, a Monroe school administrator and coach who played for Robinson in the 1940s. "The man was ahead of his time."
Grambling’s Robinson suceeded in a fashion remarkably similar to baseball’s Robinson, quietly excelling and, in so doing, altering sensibilities.
"None of my players or coaches were seen at demonstrations in the 1960s. We made our own," Robinson told Lapchick for the biography "Never Before, Never Again." "The civil rights movement was helping to change the laws. Our goal was to help to change attitudes."
By the time he’d finished, Robinson’s tiny college program had sold out Yankee Stadium, become the first to play overseas, established an annual football game on national broadcast television and sent hundreds of players into groundbreaking roles in the pro game.
His coaching career reached back into pre-war 1941, through the upheaval of the 1950s and ‘60s, past integration in the ’70s and into widespread acceptance, even celebrity.
"The contributions Eddie Robinson made changed the color of football in America," Grambling’s late longtime publicist Collie J. Nicholson once said. "He made his impact in an inobtrusive way. That helped to break down barriers in other areas."
Along the way, his life ran parallel to — and, in many ways, helped propel — momentous changes in the way people look at black America.
That included the people who played for him.
"He made a difference for rich and poor, for black and white," said former Robinson player Joseph B. Johnson, who later served as president at Grambling for 14 years through 1991. "He had a mission that did not include hate. He used his education and status in athletics not for personal gain, but for progress."
Lapchick rightly noted that Robinson would one day lie in state at the Louisiana capitol, just across town from the state-run Louisiana State University that once refused to sell him a ticket to a football game.
"He used the gridiron to bring us together," said Gov. Kathleen Blanco said, "and became one of the most important civil rights leaders in Louisiana history."
Her comments came during that remarkable memorial service in Baton Rouge. Only five others had ever been so honored at the capitol’s Memorial Hall.
"He tore down barriers to open the door for all players," Blanco said. "He always said, in America, anything is possible."
That would, however, take some time.
‘STARTING FROM SCRATCH’
"I’ve seen a lot," Robinson once said. "I have ridden on the back of the bus. I’ve drunk at segregated fountains. But I’m not trying to make anybody pay. All I wanted was an opportunity to prove that I can do what other people can do. I got that at Grambling."
In his earliest days as a coach in the Jim Crow-era, Robinson would have to map out friendly places along the route between games. That included minority-owned business and even other historically black colleges.
"You had to figure out where you could buy sandwiches, where you might be able to use the facilities," said former Grambling assistant coach Douglas Porter.
Lighter-skinned players and coaches, those who could pass as white, were sent on emergency runs for supplies.
Even into the 1960s, as Grambling began its national barnstorming football tours, the team still traveled to conference games in a Bluebird school bus — and was forced to stay and eat on the opposing team’s campus, since many local establishments wouldn’t have them.
"With what he accomplished — and the way he accomplished it, starting from scratch — there are very few that have done it any better," said Monroe native James "Shack" Harris, a quarterback on those mid-’60s teams under Robinson who is now a high-ranking NFL official. "Even with what he had to go through, there was no one more dedicated — and no one who enjoyed it more along the way."
Robinson, who at the time might have just finished leading his team into signature sports venues in major metropolitan areas, was once again reduced to second-class citizenship.
"You played, then you got on the bus and tried to make it back to Grambling before breakfast," Porter said. "You might make one stop, so guys could use the bathroom."
Sometimes, that meant a trip into a wooded area, if no safe haven could be found.
Later generations were surprised to learn that the Robinson legend was first established not on a brightly lit Bayou Classic dais but with leftovers and friendly handouts.
"Rob never grumbled," Porter said. "He might take a light-hearted approach, rather than finding negativity in the situation. He knew that in the final analysis, if we won, that was the main thing. He stayed focused."
Robinson’s passion for his job, and for this country, never wavered. As a consequence, his players’ never did, either.
"The fervor that he had for America endured, even though the playing field wasn’t level," Jackson said.
‘HE CAN NEVER BE REPLACED’
Jackie Robinson, as important as he was to baseball, didn’t solve all of its problems. The same could be said of Eddie Robinson, despite his sweeping influence in the game he loved.
Lapchick notes that there are fewer black college coaches today than there were 10 years ago when he began work on "Never Before, Never Again" with Robinson.
Some wonder if there ever will be another like the steel-willed Eddie Robinson, who coached so long at one place and did so much for so many. His patient pursuit of excellence would eventually convince the masses, one winning season at a time.
"He came to Grambling, in the middle of nowhere, and produced quality people," said Larry Metevia, a 1966 all-conference center for Robinson who later played four seasons for the Houston Oilers. "That’s all because of him. He was a leader in the civil rights struggles, as well as a great coach. He can never be replaced."
Lapchick would like to encourage others to try.
He is calling on NCAA President Myles Brand to create a rule which would require that blacks be part of the interview process for prospective college football coaches — similar to the so-called Rooney Rule in the NFL.
He said it should be called the Robinson Rule, and others said it would be a fitting tribute.
Though its unclear if he would have considered such a thing, it’s startling to think that Robinson — even as he established a Division I record for career wins that still stands — never got another college job offer, and barely a sniff from the NFL.
"He is a man that would have been special in any endeavor," Harris said. "We were just fortunate he ended up as a football coach at Grambling."
The field is still not level, despite the gains made by Robinson and his many former players.
"But it’s levelling more," said U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, who presented a special proclamation honoring Robinson at his funeral, "thanks to him."
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Remembering: Eddie Rob's right-hand men
Robinson's former Grambling assistants reminisce
April 18, 2005
Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING - Those who worked with Eddie Robinson are in an exclusive fraternity. Robinson retired in 1997 after nearly 60 seasons as head coach at Grambling State, yet throughout that time his staffs had remarkable stability.
"We enjoyed a great opportunity, to get to know and get to work with one of the game's great minds," said Doug Porter, whose 42 coaching seasons included eight with Robinson beginning in the late 1960s. "I realize now how lucky I was."
These coaches, friends and co-workers, will be honored on Friday night during a banquet at 6 p.m. at the Washington-Johnson Complex. For details, call the Grambling State football office at 274-6539 or the athletics department at 274-2374.
"We're sending out an open invitation to all of the former coaches that worked with Coach Robinson," said Melvin Spears, GSU's eighth head coach. "We hope to see the Melvin Lees, the Doug Porters, the Billy Mannings, the Ed Stevenses - all the guys. We want to say how much we appreciate them laying this foundation for us."
Rare was the Robinson staff turnover, long were the tenures. There was an old-school mix of ex-players and family.
For instance, Lee, the former center on Grambling's undefeated 1955 team, then spent 40 years under Robinson as an offensive coach. He put his own indelible stamp on the Wing-T scheme that would contribute to a record-breaking 408 wins at Grambling.
"He was the offensive coordinator after Coach Porter left. He was dedicated," said former receiver and current assistant Sammy White, who played for both Porter and Lee. "Before I left here, we were throwing the ball probably 60 percent of the time out of the Wing T. That was all because of Coach Lee."
Manning played for Robinson, then had a long tenure coaching the offensive line for him. The late defensive coordinator Fred Collins was alongside Robinson for more than 20 seasons.
Eddie Robinson Jr., now the coach at Grambling Lab, grew up around GSU football - and eventually worked as an assistant with his father.
"You can probably talk about it more in retrospect," said Robinson Jr., who worked with Grambling's offensive backfield and receivers for 15 seasons. "At the time, there wasn't much time to think about that. When it all boils down, it was like any other situation when you work for a guy. He could be very demanding, and that caused you to be that way too."
A cyclic, almost seasonal rhythm is found in the history of this group. Connections are made, and never broken. In the 1960s, Robinson was invited to speak at the awards banquet for Cocoran High in California by assistant coach "Convincer" Calloway, who had played at Grambling. Robinson met Ed Stevens, the head coach, and Jim Gregory, a talented quarterback.
Gregory - later famously dubbed "Grambling's White Tiger" - eventually played for Robinson and Stevens would work on his staff for years.
In fact, Robinson's first assistant, Jessie Applewhite, was a former football player then working as the school's night watchman.
Ernest Sterling, another ex-GSU gridiron great, later became known for his "Trees of Terror" as defensive line coach. He put in more than two decades as an assistant - then became one of just two coaches who stayed on when Doug Williams succeeded Robinson.
Even Porter, who had a relatively short term, has remained associated with the program. When he retired after 42 seasons in coaching, Porter returned to Grambling to work as an adviser to Williams and now Spears.
He's also remained friends with the coach who took over offensive duties when Porter left GSU.
"Melvin Lee lives three doors down from me, so our families are very close," said Porter, who was on the legendary Tigers' staff that had every senior drafted by the NFL in 1969. "We like to tell stories about the great games, and those ties we always wore, and the players. We'll try to tell the best tale, or the tallest tale."
By Robinson's own estimation in his 1999 autobiography "Never Before, Never Again," nine of the coaches in 1997 had fathers who had played for Grambling.
"Most of the guys on the staff had played for him," said Robinson Jr., "so they knew him as well as I did. They were guys who were there when I was playing, and they were still there when I got on the staff in 1984. Coach Lee had coached me. There was a tradition to uphold."
That tradition was one of endurance, of loyalty. Robinson once said that his six early-1990s assistants had been coaching with him for an amazing 102 seasons combined.
They each contributed something to Robinson's storied stay.
"I think we need to make certain that we recognize that legacy," said Spears. "What we want to do is continue to expose the young guys to the things that have gone on here before, to the great history we have."
What they say ...
Two of Eddie Robinson's assistants reminisce about working for him:
Favorite win
--Eddie Robinson Jr. (1984-97): We had a lot of them. (Laughs.) I always remember the games where we were behind, especially against Alcorn, and then came back and won. Anytime you get a victory like that, you remember it. The Bayou Classic in 1992, for instance, we were behind for most of the game. Then we came back and won it at the end.
--Doug Porter (1966-74): I don't think I have a favorite. I remember fondly our first trip to Hawaii, and our first trip to New York. It seems like most of my best memories, ironically, were away from Grambling.
Compare and contrast
--Porter: It's more of a business today among the coaches. There's not as much camaraderie. I was blessed to meet and get to know some of the giants - John Merritt (who coached at Jackson State and Tennessee State), Jake Gaither (of Florida A&M) and, of course, Eddie Robinson. I don't compare the players, either. With the way Division I programs are recruiting, there aren't the sleeper players you used to find.
Final thoughts
--Robinson Jr.: It was quite an experience for me because I had grown up around Grambling football. We got to go to a lot of places that I never dreamed I would go. And I got to go there with him.
What he said ...
The now-ailing Eddie Robinson mentioned several assistants in his 1999 autobiography, called "Never Before, Never Again":
· On Melvin Lee: It would be impossible to describe how much Melvin Lee meant to me over all these years. It was his genius that helped make out Wing-T offense so effective for so long.
· On Eddie Jr.: We never pushed Eddie Jr. to be involved in athletics. We hoped he would be a doctor or a lawyer. We wanted him to do whatever he wanted to do and be the best at it. But all he ever wanted to do was play and then coach. ... I loved coaching with him, each and every day.
· On Ernest Sterling: Ernest coached with me for 24 years. He had played for me and then in the NFL. He was like a rock and my foundation guy.
· On Doug Porter: I told Doug Porter, who was then (in the early 1970s) my 42-year-old chief assistant, that he should stay at Grambling because he would probably succeed me in a few years. Decades later, he joked with me - because he was smart enough to take the head coaching job at Howard.
The legacy continues ...
Former Grambling State assistant Doug Porter is just one of several coaches to find success after working with Eddie Robinson.
Porter - who had previously served as head coach at Mississippi Valley from 1961-65, a tenure that included a conference title in 1963 - left GSU for a stint at Howard University from 1974-78. He finished his coaching career in 1997, but not before leading Division II's Fort Valley State to a 106-61-3 record over 16 seasons.
Several former assistants continue to coach, ensuring the Robinson legacy will continue. For instance, SMU's current defensive tackle coach Joe Sawyer oversaw GSU's D-line from 1991-93. Dennis Winston, an assistant in 1992-94 then again in 1995-97, coached at Toledo for four seasons before accepting a position with the CFL's Edmonton franchise this offseason.
Lee Fobbs, a former player and graduate assistant, has had a long career in coaching - most recently as a fifth-year assistant to Dennis Franchione, first at Alabama and now at Texas A&M. He was a finalist to follow Robinson as head coach at Grambling, and then in the search for a replacement for Doug Williams.
Tennessee Tech's linebackers coach Marty Steward was on Robinson's staff during his final season. Williams Jones III, a defensive assistant in 1994-95, has been at Kentucky State and now Pearl River (Miss.) Community College.
April 18, 2005
Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING - Those who worked with Eddie Robinson are in an exclusive fraternity. Robinson retired in 1997 after nearly 60 seasons as head coach at Grambling State, yet throughout that time his staffs had remarkable stability.
"We enjoyed a great opportunity, to get to know and get to work with one of the game's great minds," said Doug Porter, whose 42 coaching seasons included eight with Robinson beginning in the late 1960s. "I realize now how lucky I was."
These coaches, friends and co-workers, will be honored on Friday night during a banquet at 6 p.m. at the Washington-Johnson Complex. For details, call the Grambling State football office at 274-6539 or the athletics department at 274-2374.
"We're sending out an open invitation to all of the former coaches that worked with Coach Robinson," said Melvin Spears, GSU's eighth head coach. "We hope to see the Melvin Lees, the Doug Porters, the Billy Mannings, the Ed Stevenses - all the guys. We want to say how much we appreciate them laying this foundation for us."
Rare was the Robinson staff turnover, long were the tenures. There was an old-school mix of ex-players and family.
For instance, Lee, the former center on Grambling's undefeated 1955 team, then spent 40 years under Robinson as an offensive coach. He put his own indelible stamp on the Wing-T scheme that would contribute to a record-breaking 408 wins at Grambling.
"He was the offensive coordinator after Coach Porter left. He was dedicated," said former receiver and current assistant Sammy White, who played for both Porter and Lee. "Before I left here, we were throwing the ball probably 60 percent of the time out of the Wing T. That was all because of Coach Lee."
Manning played for Robinson, then had a long tenure coaching the offensive line for him. The late defensive coordinator Fred Collins was alongside Robinson for more than 20 seasons.
Eddie Robinson Jr., now the coach at Grambling Lab, grew up around GSU football - and eventually worked as an assistant with his father.
"You can probably talk about it more in retrospect," said Robinson Jr., who worked with Grambling's offensive backfield and receivers for 15 seasons. "At the time, there wasn't much time to think about that. When it all boils down, it was like any other situation when you work for a guy. He could be very demanding, and that caused you to be that way too."
A cyclic, almost seasonal rhythm is found in the history of this group. Connections are made, and never broken. In the 1960s, Robinson was invited to speak at the awards banquet for Cocoran High in California by assistant coach "Convincer" Calloway, who had played at Grambling. Robinson met Ed Stevens, the head coach, and Jim Gregory, a talented quarterback.
Gregory - later famously dubbed "Grambling's White Tiger" - eventually played for Robinson and Stevens would work on his staff for years.
In fact, Robinson's first assistant, Jessie Applewhite, was a former football player then working as the school's night watchman.
Ernest Sterling, another ex-GSU gridiron great, later became known for his "Trees of Terror" as defensive line coach. He put in more than two decades as an assistant - then became one of just two coaches who stayed on when Doug Williams succeeded Robinson.
Even Porter, who had a relatively short term, has remained associated with the program. When he retired after 42 seasons in coaching, Porter returned to Grambling to work as an adviser to Williams and now Spears.
He's also remained friends with the coach who took over offensive duties when Porter left GSU.
"Melvin Lee lives three doors down from me, so our families are very close," said Porter, who was on the legendary Tigers' staff that had every senior drafted by the NFL in 1969. "We like to tell stories about the great games, and those ties we always wore, and the players. We'll try to tell the best tale, or the tallest tale."
By Robinson's own estimation in his 1999 autobiography "Never Before, Never Again," nine of the coaches in 1997 had fathers who had played for Grambling.
"Most of the guys on the staff had played for him," said Robinson Jr., "so they knew him as well as I did. They were guys who were there when I was playing, and they were still there when I got on the staff in 1984. Coach Lee had coached me. There was a tradition to uphold."
That tradition was one of endurance, of loyalty. Robinson once said that his six early-1990s assistants had been coaching with him for an amazing 102 seasons combined.
They each contributed something to Robinson's storied stay.
"I think we need to make certain that we recognize that legacy," said Spears. "What we want to do is continue to expose the young guys to the things that have gone on here before, to the great history we have."
What they say ...
Two of Eddie Robinson's assistants reminisce about working for him:
Favorite win
--Eddie Robinson Jr. (1984-97): We had a lot of them. (Laughs.) I always remember the games where we were behind, especially against Alcorn, and then came back and won. Anytime you get a victory like that, you remember it. The Bayou Classic in 1992, for instance, we were behind for most of the game. Then we came back and won it at the end.
--Doug Porter (1966-74): I don't think I have a favorite. I remember fondly our first trip to Hawaii, and our first trip to New York. It seems like most of my best memories, ironically, were away from Grambling.
Compare and contrast
--Porter: It's more of a business today among the coaches. There's not as much camaraderie. I was blessed to meet and get to know some of the giants - John Merritt (who coached at Jackson State and Tennessee State), Jake Gaither (of Florida A&M) and, of course, Eddie Robinson. I don't compare the players, either. With the way Division I programs are recruiting, there aren't the sleeper players you used to find.
Final thoughts
--Robinson Jr.: It was quite an experience for me because I had grown up around Grambling football. We got to go to a lot of places that I never dreamed I would go. And I got to go there with him.
What he said ...
The now-ailing Eddie Robinson mentioned several assistants in his 1999 autobiography, called "Never Before, Never Again":
· On Melvin Lee: It would be impossible to describe how much Melvin Lee meant to me over all these years. It was his genius that helped make out Wing-T offense so effective for so long.
· On Eddie Jr.: We never pushed Eddie Jr. to be involved in athletics. We hoped he would be a doctor or a lawyer. We wanted him to do whatever he wanted to do and be the best at it. But all he ever wanted to do was play and then coach. ... I loved coaching with him, each and every day.
· On Ernest Sterling: Ernest coached with me for 24 years. He had played for me and then in the NFL. He was like a rock and my foundation guy.
· On Doug Porter: I told Doug Porter, who was then (in the early 1970s) my 42-year-old chief assistant, that he should stay at Grambling because he would probably succeed me in a few years. Decades later, he joked with me - because he was smart enough to take the head coaching job at Howard.
The legacy continues ...
Former Grambling State assistant Doug Porter is just one of several coaches to find success after working with Eddie Robinson.
Porter - who had previously served as head coach at Mississippi Valley from 1961-65, a tenure that included a conference title in 1963 - left GSU for a stint at Howard University from 1974-78. He finished his coaching career in 1997, but not before leading Division II's Fort Valley State to a 106-61-3 record over 16 seasons.
Several former assistants continue to coach, ensuring the Robinson legacy will continue. For instance, SMU's current defensive tackle coach Joe Sawyer oversaw GSU's D-line from 1991-93. Dennis Winston, an assistant in 1992-94 then again in 1995-97, coached at Toledo for four seasons before accepting a position with the CFL's Edmonton franchise this offseason.
Lee Fobbs, a former player and graduate assistant, has had a long career in coaching - most recently as a fifth-year assistant to Dennis Franchione, first at Alabama and now at Texas A&M. He was a finalist to follow Robinson as head coach at Grambling, and then in the search for a replacement for Doug Williams.
Tennessee Tech's linebackers coach Marty Steward was on Robinson's staff during his final season. Williams Jones III, a defensive assistant in 1994-95, has been at Kentucky State and now Pearl River (Miss.) Community College.
Friday, December 08, 2006
Remembering: 'Grambling's White Tiger'
TV spotlight was on changeIssue of integration in college football hit the small screen 25 years ago with 'Grambling's White Tiger'
September 24, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
Twenty-five years ago, a film crew descended on the town of Grambling to retell a turning-point moment in the history of its football team.
Coach Eddie Robinson's decision to integrate his then-all black college football team — and a book detailing the transition — had come in the turbulence of the late 1960s.
But the story had always struck former Olympian Bruce Jenner as one that would connect with a mainstream audience — and, more than a decade later, Jenner turned it into his first movie project.
"This was a true story of integration," Jenner said, "but it was going in the opposite direction."
Standing at the center of the book — "My Little Brother is Coming Tomorrow" by Bruce Behrenberg — and subsequent film was Jim Gregory. He became known forever by the 1981 TV movie's title: "Grambling's White Tiger."
"The experience itself was something that I would never want to do away with," said Gregory, who has since worked for 30 years as a teacher and coach at California's Reedley High. "It was a great experience. I would do it again in a heartbeat."
Parts of it, anyway.
Gregory's memories of his time at Grambling — he warmly describes the towering leadership of Robinson, and an enduring friendship with teammates like Monroe's Charles "Tank" Smith — have been forever changed by the media maelstrom that surrounded his presence.
He unwittingly contributed to that whirlwind when, as youngster, he signed the deal that led to Behrenberg's book.
But in the end, Gregory says that publication and the subsequent, more widely seen film stand as testament to the times more so than to his own story.
"It's not my life," Gregory likes to say. "It was only a semester."
A BRAND-NEW ERA
Robinson had met Gregory when he spoke at the high schooler's football banquet.
Two of Cocoran High's coaches had Grambling connections: Its head coach played for Robinson and an assistant, Ed Stevens (pictured above), later joined his staff.
Robinson, who is in failing health today, once said the times dictated his decision to integrate the team. He insisted that Grambling's players would have to live their lives around white people, and that segregation in school only prolonged that acclimation process.
In the end, he felt that no other player could have handled the adversity as well as Gregory did.
"I knew that I had learned something from 'Greg,' and he from us," Robinson said. "We all taught others some things in the process."
Gregory didn't see much playing time, beginning his career as a freshman on a team led by James "Shack" Harris and ending it behind Matt Reed, another Monroe native. But Robinson always stressed that football was just one small part of the journey.
"Eddie was looking for someone who would make it through and graduate; that was one of Eddie's goals all along — whether you became a star player or not," Gregory said. "He wanted us to go out into society and contribute."
Though he says he endured his share of curious looks as the only white person on the team, Gregory said he was greeted on campus with open arms.
"That was one thing about Eddie Robinson, he was going to make sure that anybody who came here was going to be treated equally," said Douglas Porter, then the offensive coordinator. "That was almost like a religion. It was going to be the same for everybody."
Players like Harris, then fighting to become the first black quarterback to be drafted at his true position, saw in Gregory a kindred spirit.
"It took a unique guy to go through that," said Harris, now an NFL personnel executive. "He had to accept some critical circumstances. But I think during that time, it may have been easier for Jim than it was to do it in the reverse."
Gregory, for his part, was introduced to a whole new world of Southern hospitality, soul food surprises and funky good times.
"I was put into the dorm with guys like James Harris and Charlie Joiner, and they had a lot of questions," Gregory said. "I can remember guys who didn't like me, because they had never been around a white guy before. Those people became some of my better friends as time went on."
BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS
The novelty of the situation soon drew nationwide attention. Grambling, becoming known as the cradle of the pros, suddenly had a sideshow.
"There was too much hype surrounding it," Gregory said. "It (the color barrier) was being broken, whether I did it or not. I just wanted to play football."
Still, Gregory signed the book deal that eventually became the basis for Jenner's movie while he was still enrolled at Grambling.
"I was a young kid and we jumped into it," Gregory said. "There were times I wished it had never come about. I was having trouble with the fact that I was stabbing my buddies in the back, as the white kid getting all the notoriety. It was really a tough time."
Grambling, through the brilliance of Robinson and sports information director Collie J. Nicholson, was coming into its own as a national presence.
The founding of the Urban League Classic, played at a sold-out Yankee Stadium in 1968, coincided with Gregory's arrival. Hundreds of Grambling products were flooding into the NFL.
Yet a cluster of reporters greeted the white quarterback at every GSU stop — cruelly ironic to the others in that he wasn't a starter.
"They were always trying to pull things from you that didn't have anything to do with what was going on, or put me at a higher standing than I was," Gregory said. "I was a freshman, after all. I was only traveling with the team because I could kick."
Through it all, Porter said Gregory deftly avoided becoming a disruptive force.
"We used to go a lot of places and reporters would try to draw him into making a remark about not getting a chance to play," Porter said. "He wouldn't do it. He never let them make that an issue."
Gregory earned his teammates' respect with that fair-minded attitude — not to mention gutty practice-yard play, even if that never transferred to all-conference stats.
"Jim Gregory was a real tough competitor," Harris said. "He just didn't have the ability that (former Grambling passers) Frank Holmes and Matthew Reed had. He won over some guys because when he practiced on the freshman team, he competed and took his hits."
He also learned a lot in those times of dramatic change in America.
Gregory said a scene from "Grambling's White Tiger" where a black co-ed is reluctant to go on a shopping trip with him accurately depicts the struggles between races at the time.
"Just my walking downtown in Ruston or Monroe with 'Tank,' we'd get dirty looks," Gregory said. "There were some tough times, but we hung through it. Over the five years I was there, I saw great change. There were still people who didn't like each other, but the overall relationship had become a lot better."
THE SPOTLIGHT RETURNS
While Gregory was toiling away in graduate school when work on Jenner's film began, his teammates and coach had become national figures.
Robinson was within sight of Paul "Bear" Bryant's once-thought unassailable all-time record for wins. Harris and Joiner were playing for the San Diego Chargers, while Smith was a member of the Philadelphia Eagles' roster.
So, the project — boosted, too, perhaps Jenner's involvement — drew some notable talents.
Harry Belafonte made his television acting debut as a tribute to his regard for Robinson. Harris would be played by Dennis Haysbert, who has since starred as President David Palmer in TV's "24" and in a series of Allstate commercials.
Smith was portrayed by LeVar Burton, best known for the ground-breaking miniseries "Roots" and later for his work on "Star Trek: The Next Generation."
The film was directed by Georg Stanford Brown, who worked on TV's "Hill Street Blues" and won an Emmy for an episode of "Cagney and Lacey."
Yet, despite getting largely good notices for "Grambling's White Tiger" — the only quibble was, in fact, with the star's sometimes-wooden delivery as Gregory — Jenner's fledgling production company didn't take off.
He has worked on various television and movie projects since, but devotes most of his time now to a corporate coaching company that works on staff development, leadership programs and crafting sales programs.
"It was certainly the high point of my acting career," Jenner said. "It was very well received and it was an important movie, I thought."
As time passed, Gregory's perspective on the book and the movie subtly changed.
He eventually integrated them into his classroom curriculum. Both are on file in his school library.
"It's a great history lesson on segregation and desegregation," he said. "I eventually had a better feeling about the movie, because I'd come to think of it as a learning tool."
Seeing his life story through the eyes of successive generations of young people continues to teach Gregory new things about those times.
"Whether I like it or not, my coming to Grambling had an effect on society," Gregory said. "As I finished up, other schools were just starting to beginning to integrate. We were part of something."
g g g
Lights, camera, Grambling!
September 24, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
Bruce Jenner's 1981 film stands as historical artifact not just because of its dramatic portrayal of the integration of Eddie Robinson's football team but also because it was shot on location in Grambling.
Jenner and his crew spent a month on campus that summer shooting "Grambling's White Tiger," using members of the current GSU football team as extras to portray events from 12 years before.
"We had to do it at Grambling, just because it was such a unique place and had such a rich history," said Jenner. "To give the storyline any credibility, it had to be done there."
Of course, that meant the whole town got to share in the experience.
Jenner, a former Olympic decathlon champion, shot a football game actually held in Marshall, Texas, against Wiley College at GSU's old Memorial Stadium.
As always, locals filled the background for crowd shots.
"They painted the press box on the visitors side purple and white," said Grambling alum Kenn Rashad, then a 13-year-old. "At the top of that press box was a sign that read 'Wylie College.' The movie producers misspelled the name of the school."
Pretty soon, everyone was angling for their big Hollywood moment.
"I begged the crew a number of times to get me into the movie," said John Barabin, who grew up in Baton Rouge but used to spend summers in Grambling with relatives. "They finally obliged by having me run down Grambling's Main Street sidewalk and do a double take at Bruce Jenner. I hung out with stars, ate from their catering truck — and, best of all, I received a paycheck for it!"
The television film originally aired Oct. 4, 1981, and has been rerun countless times since. Highlights include now-poignant glimpses into former coach Eddie Robinson's office and inside the Memorial Stadium locker rooms — neither of which are still used by the GSU football team.
There was at least one interruption of filming, after a student government representative objected to something in the script. But Jenner said even that turned into a moment of discovery.
"They thought it put the school in a bad light," Jenner said. "Coach Robinson said: 'Let's meet with the students and hear what they have to say, but let the process play out. Let them learn from the experience.' We made some minor changes, and kept going."
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Eddie Robinson Museum project
This dream also lives onAttempts to build a Robinson museum have made for saga
January 18, 2005
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING - Everyone agrees that a museum dedicated to Eddie Robinson would be a good thing. What some haven't been able to agree upon is where it should be. Location was once again the center of conversation when a group of interested locals met last week at Grambling State in an attempt to revisit the now-dormant project.
"We had more or less settled on having it on campus," Doug Porter of Grambling, an original ex-officio Robinson museum board member, recalled during Friday's meeting. "The original plan had it near the stadium."
But, when potential sponsorship money popped up in Shreveport, the state of Louisiana's support for the museum went soft. Proposed funding out of Baton Rouge was cut last May, and the museum commission stopped convening.
That didn't sit well with some Grambling supporters, who call the unrealized museum one of the parish's most important economic opportunities.
That led to Friday's meeting in the conference room of GSU President Horace Judson. Among those in attendance were two representatives from Secretary of State W. Fox McKeithen's office - museum program director Stacy Sharpe and archivist Louis Morris - who said they were ready to jumpstart a new initiative.
Letters are to be sent out this week from Sharpe's office, polling past members about their interest in rejoining the effort. Then, she said, a new commission would be put together as soon as possible.
That would be a dramatic resurrection for a project that board members like Porter feared had been left for dead.
A BRIGHT BEGINNING
The museum was originally mentioned during the Louisiana Legislature's 1999 session, when then-Sen. Randy Ewing introduced Senate Bill No. 919.
The bill, co-sponsored by the late Rep. Pinky Wilkerson of Grambling and several others, created a commission that would develop a Robinson museum. The project was to be a part of the Department of State Museums Program, administered by the secretary of state.
Robinson - who has since limited his public appearances because of health issues - attended the board's first meeting, held Sept. 7, 2001, in Ruston. McKeithen spoke briefly to the assembled supporters, and addressed praise for the former coach's commitment to America's youth directly to Robinson.
Former Gov. Mike Foster had appointed four members to the board: John Belton, James Davison, Lottie Green - who was the group's leader - and Johnny Maxwell.
Others in attendance for that first meeting were Deputy Secretary of State Al Ater; Robert Wiley, then-president of Grambling Chamber of Commerce; Florent Hardy, Jr., Louisiana State Archivist; former GSU trainer Eugene "Doc" Harvey; James Bradford, president of the GSU Alumni Association; and Porter, president of the GSU Athletic Foundation.
"This first meeting of the Board of Governors earmarks the beginning of a long and exciting journey towards fruition of a dream long held by many people in our state and across the nation," McKeithen said that day in 2001.
The project sought to pull into tight focus both Robinson's achievements on the gridiron and in America. Head coach at Grambling from 1941-97, Robinson retired as the winningest coach in college history with 408 wins - leading the Tigers to 17 Southwestern Athletic Conference titles.
But Green would fall ill. Then a series of ex-officio commission members also left the school - including acting president Neari Warner, athletics director Albert Dennis III and football coach Doug Williams.
The project was already grinding to a halt by then.
A SEPARATE PROPOSAL
While the secretary of state's office moved forward with a Grambling location, another proposal was broached that would locate the museum in Caddo Parish.
In February 2002, Shreveport officials even announced that outside sponsorship meant the museum could one day open on "one of two sites along the city's riverfront," according to news reports.
Supporters saw sponsorship dollars from Harrah's Casino as a foundation that would help ensure the museum's eventual reality.
The Caddo Parish location was linked to support from Harrah's Casino, where Robinson's 83rd birthday party was held in 2002. A Shreveport-based architectural firm was reportedly contacted to design the new building.
One of the possible locations, owned by the city of Shreveport, was between sites for an amphitheater and convention center that were proposed in 2002 on Cross Bayou. The other location, according to news reports, was a privately-owned parcel across Cross Bayou and north of the former Harrah's Casino on the banks of Red River.
Robinson has always been well loved in nearby Shreveport, where GSU plays regularly. He's a member of both the Greater Shreveport Chamber's Walk of Stars as well as the Northwest Louisiana Hall of Fame, which is on display at the Louisiana State Exhibit Building.
Even so, Robinson reportedly spoke before the museum commission and asked that the facility remain in Grambling.
"Everything that I accomplished and most of the service I rendered to the state and nation originated right here on this campus," Robinson is quoted as saying in separate releases from McKeithen's office and Grambling State.
That commission meeting, according to school documents, took place on April 12, 2002.
McKeithen's office quickly moved to rebuff the Shreveport option, issuing a contradictory news release on May 2, 2002. The museum would, the release said, be located in the town of Grambling - "in accordance with Coach Robinson's wishes."
McKeithen, in that same 2002 release, said: "It makes sense that a tribute to this legendary coach should be located in the area which was most directly affected by his excellent work."
Harrah's has since divested the downtown casino, which is now called Sam's Town, to avoid problems with regulators when it sought to buy Caesar's gaming operations.
Still, the confusion had a chilling effect on the proposed state funding.
AND THEN MONEY WOES
Louisiana's financial commitment was wavering anyway. The state intended to allocate $600,000 to the project in the 2000-01 fiscal year, according to legislative documents, with another $3.9 million promised over the next two to five years.
But, even as the Louisiana State Archives collected truckloads of memorabilia from Robinson's career, funding didn't follow.
McKeithen's staff was instructed to begin cataloging and taking inventory of these items, which would then return to the museum once the facility was ready to open. The collection - which includes awards won by Robinson, as well as playbooks, equipment and a large stockpile of videotape from Grambling's football history - remains in storage, state archivist Louis Morris said during the Friday meeting at GSU.
Yet, like so many hoped-for projects in Louisiana, budget constraints had slowed the project - and probably led to the Shreveport proposal.
"The (new basketball and physical education) building was on the budget for 17 or 18 years, I understand," Judson said on Friday. "So sometimes, I am not so optimistic about state funding. I suggest we develop a Plan B that involves fund raising."
Perhaps the museum's closest brush with funding came as Foster prepared to leave office, when he approved a wide variety of favored projects. His final state budget for fiscal year 2004 included $5.5 million dollars earmarked for the Grambling facility.
But the Robinson museum was part of nearly $700 million in projects slashed by Gov. Kathleen Blanco last May in an effort to balance the teetering state budget.
Even so, the Robinson museum was not technically rejected. Two legislators listed all of those deleted projects, for the record, in House Concurrent Resolution 194 during the last session.
The museum was also mentioned on Aug. 25, 2004, by the Board of Regents facilities and property committee. But that was only to recommend that the project be made part of the next fiscal year's capital outlay budget requests.
In the end, however, there was no money. There was no one meeting to talk about the project. There wasn't even a consensus on where the museum should be.
Until last week, when Belton made an impassioned plea to get the museum back on track.
NEW HOPES
Wilkerson's son John Barabin Jr. attended Friday's informal talk - and opened another conversation about location.
Barabin had flown in from Philadelphia to encourage the group of interested locals to put the museum in Grambling's downtown area, and offered to contact legislators and help with land acquisition. He was greeted with excited approval by everyone from Judson to Ora Sampson, the current head of Grambling's chamber.
Judson spoke at length about how the museum could, if located off campus, helped spark tourism that would ultimately help both the city and the university. Year-round programming - including, perhaps, a Grambling Hall of Fame - ought to provide a more consistent level of interest, he said.
"You could put this in the context of African-American history, and how that played out in athletics," said Judson, who took office last July.
The group on Friday agreed that it would like to supplement whatever funding the state might provide, specifically through the formation of Friends of the Eddie Robinson Museum group - answering Judson's call for a "Plan B."
Belton, the only original governor-appointed board member to attend last week's organizational meeting, said he hoped to gather again in early February. His said the goal was to present a new outline for the museum to the Louisiana Legislature, scheduled to reconvene this spring in Baton Rouge.
This renewed enthusiasm - and a tight focus on establishing the museum in Grambling - could lead to seed money, said Morris, one of those two representatives from McKeithen's office.
Morris mentioned possible funds "that could produce a study on feasibility and land funding. Then, down the road, there might be other money for a building and exhibits."
Porter - an assistant on Robinson's staff in the late 1960s and early 1970s - was jubilant afterward.
"It might really happen," he said, as a big smile curled up his face. "It just might happen, after all."
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Exhibit to offer taste of museum to come
June 10, 2005
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING - It may only be a short stroll through his towering legacy, but organizers hope a peek at some Eddie Robinson memorabilia will jumpstart the long-delayed project to honor him with a museum.
Members of the Eddie Robinson Museum Commission, as first reported at www.thenewsstar.com, on Thursday put the finishing touches to plans for a temporary exhibit that would open as part of the city of Grambling's Juneteenth celebration next week.
That represents a small but important breakthrough for an idea that's stalled since first being approved by the Louisiana Legislature back in 1999. While the larger project has been delayed by budget cuts and indecision on where to put the proposed museum, the temporary exhibit idea has come together quickly.
"It's not everything we want it to be," said governor-appointed board member John Belton, a Ruston attorney. "But at least we are moving forward."
Robinson retired after the 1997 season, having spent almost 60 seasons as head coach at Grambling State University. He held the record for most wins in all of college football, with 408, from 1984 through 2003. It still stands as the record in Division I.
The temporary exhibit honoring him, featuring selected pieces of memorabilia from GSU's in-house collection, will open at 9 a.m. June 17 in the Stadium Support Facility next to Robinson Stadium.
Several local and university officials are expected to attend, as well as members of the Robinson family. Former Robinson assistant Douglas Porter, who is still a close family friend, also will speak.
"It's very satisfying to see that at last we've got some positive movement," said Porter, an ex-officio member of the board who, like Belton, was at the original commission meeting in 2001. "I hope and pray that we can get this done while Coach is still alive."
GSU athletics director Willie Jeffries on Thursday suggested the addition of a multimedia presentation, designed to highlight Robinson's accomplishments not just as a coach, but also as a great American.
"When you talk about Eddie Robinson and what he stands for, it's fitting," said GSU coach Melvin Spears, who was a driving force behind the idea to establish a temporary exhibit in the already-existing trophy cases that line the walls of the support facility where his office is located.
"I'm elated we are so close to getting it done," Spears said. "It's a way to honor one of this country's most important individuals - and to talk about the way he influenced so many people."
Belton also thanked the group on Thursday for its hard work on the project, which Belton said directly led to his receiving the Tourism Service Award last month from the Ruston-Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Ruston Main Street Commission.
To go
A temporary exhibit will debut next week featuring memorabilia to be included in a proposed museum to honor former Grambling State University coach Eddie Robinson. Hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 17-18, then noon to 5 p.m. June 19, at the Stadium Support Facility next to Robinson Stadium in Grambling. For details, call 274-2542.
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Coach's legacy plays out at exhibit
Grambling `has a treasure within its midst' - Eddie Robinson
June 18, 2005
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING - Emotion shot through the Friday morning opening of an exhibit of memorabilia from Eddie Robinson's storied career at Grambling State University.
Doris Robinson entered to a standing ovation, then brought the house down with her touching memories of a life spent around husband Eddie Robinson - the football-coaching legend who she knows as a childhood sweetheart.
"It's been a great adventure," said Doris Robinson, who attended with son Eddie Robinson Jr. "I don't know what it would have been like if he didn't get this job. My years here have been great, and that's to say nothing of Eddie's years."
The exhibit, presented in conjunction with the city of Grambling's on-going Juneteenth celebrations, represents a long stride forward in a sometimes-bumpy six-year journey to honor Robinson with a museum.
The Louisiana Legislature first approved the project in 1999. Former Gov. Mike Foster named a four-member commission, with ex-officio membership from throughout the GSU administration, which first met in 2001.
But a series of budget cuts and disagreements over where the museum would be located stalled the project - until Ruston attorney John Belton and others reconvened in January, after nearly a year of inactivity. They vowed to jumpstart the museum by opening a display that was smaller in scope.
The artifacts are presented exclusively from the collection of Grambling State University. Robinson, who is suffering from Alzheimer's-like symptoms, was unable to attend. But a succession of friends and admirers reminisced about his legacy.
"I think he would have been very appreciative," said former GSU assistant coach Douglas Porter, a long-time family friend. "He would have been humbled - because that's the nature of the man. He would be moved, emotionally, to know that Grambling has finally awakened to the fact that it has a treasure within its midst."
Both Doris Robinson and Porter were nearly moved to tears as they spoke. Several local dignitaries mixed with Grambling alumni - including the mayors of Grambling, Ruston and Arcadia, who each paid tribute to Robinson. Grambling Mayor Martha Andrus read a proclamation dedicated to "A Tiger in Winter."
Athletics director Willie Jeffries closed out the ceremony with a series of humorous memories about Robinson, who he faced a number of times during his own 44-year career in coaching - mainly at South Carolina State.
"To have known him, to have had a chance to play against him, it's just amazing," said Jeffries, who joined the GSU administration late last year.
"Everybody wanted to beat him; that would've been a star in your crown," said Jeffries, with a hearty chuckle. "Of course, you're looking at one of Coach Rob's victims."
About Robinson
Eddie Robinson was hired as a coach and teacher in 1941 by what was then the Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute, which would later become Grambling. By 1995, he had become the first coach to win 400 games. Robinson eventually amassed 408 victories before retiring in 1997, a mark that stood as the best in college football until the 2003 season. A member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, he led Grambling to 17 Southwestern Athletic Conference titles.
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Ater backs Robinson museum
Secretary of state lauds legend at project's inaugural banquet
November 12, 2005
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING - Louisiana Secretary of State Al Ater gave a stirring speech in support of a proposed Eddie Robinson Museum during the project's inaugural banquet on the campus of Grambling State University.
"We need to make sure that not just this generation, but future generations know that there was a man at this small school who did whatever it took to build this legacy," Ater said before about 250 museum supporters. "With commitment, anything is possible. He epitomizes that."
The Robinson Museum Board and Community Trust Bank presented the event, which also included remarks by Grambling State University President Horace Judson, Grambling Mayor Martha Andrus, Ruston Mayor Dan Hollingsworth and former longtime GSU baseball coach Wilbert Ellis, among others.
"This is a project whose time came a long time ago," Judson said. "We're building momentum."
The museum board opened a temporary exhibit site on campus that coincided with the town of Grambling's Juneteenth festival. That stirred new hopes to rejuvenate a project that had been bogged down through a series of budget cuts at the state level.
Ater, whose office would oversee the proposed museum, pledged to see the funding through.
"We'll do what it takes to make it happen," said Ater, who took over in the summer after the death of Fox McKeithen. "We do truly have a national treasure in Coach Rob."
Andrus presented a key to the city of Grambling to Eddie Robinson Jr., who attended in place of his ailing parents. Museum board chairman John Belton recognized key supporters with plaques, including Ruston businessman Johnny Maxwell and several other local banks. He also made special mention of Lottie Green, the board's original chairwoman.
The master of ceremonies was Santoria Black, who broadcasts GSU's football games. In a tip of the hat to Robinson, Black wrote his speech on the back of an envelope - drawing laughs of appreciation from the audience.
"This is an historic occasion, one that's a long time coming," Black said. "It's great for Grambling, and it's great for America."
There also was a video presentation featured a recorded interview with Robinson, as well as remarks by Judson, Belton and GSU football coach Melvin Spears.
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Obstacle of location appears to be solved
Sunday, May 7, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — The ninth item on last Thursday's agenda might have been the single most important development in seven years of struggles to construct a museum honoring legendary former Grambling State coach Eddie Robinson.
The Louisiana Legislature passed a resolution authorizing the project in 1999, but it has never had a home. That is, until the museum board's building and grounds committee suggested, and got unanimous approval for, converting Grambling State's soon-to-be-vacant Women's Memorial Gym into exhibit space this week.
GSU president Horace Judson has signed off on the idea, as long as logistics can be worked out, said museum board chair John Belton.
"This is huge," enthused Belton, a Ruston attorney. "Everybody is on board; there were no dissensions. All we have to do now is raise the money for renovations."
Retired GSU baseball coach and family friend Wilbert Ellis, named to lead the Friends of the Eddie Robinson Museum fundraising group last month, played a key role.
He met with Judson, along with Belton and longtime faculty member David Lewis, on Monday to lay out the proposal. He then sold the idea to Doris Robinson, the ailing former coach's wife, who attended Thursday's meeting in a show of support.
"I'm excited because of the history; that would be an ideal place for it," said Ellis, who worked as an assistant to former coach and school president R.W.E. Jones and then led the baseball team for a staggering 43 combined years.
"It's exciting and encouraging," Ellis said, "and Coach would love it."
Mrs. Robinson pledged to return for every board gathering until the project was complete. Alumni — including D'Wayne Priestley, an active supporter from Dallas — quickly warmed to the idea, as well.
Priestley, in an e-mail of support to Judson on Friday, said: "If the women's gym can be used in this capacity and renovated to a representative facility, this site appears to be a win-win situation. This may ensure some degree of continuous funding and maintenance from the state of Louisiana, by having the museum on the GSU campus."
Indeed, re-energized state officials, along with prospective sponsors and potential museum designers, could be found this week in prominent seats on the bandwagon — which continued to pick up speed.
Representatives from the Secretary of State's office agreed to work on funding for maintenance and staffing. Two exhibit companies out of Tennessee made pitches to work on the project. Chase Bank is considering a major underwriting initiative.
That flurry of activity was particularly meaningful for former Robinson assistant coach Doug Porter. He and Belton are the only members to attend every museum board meeting over these seven long years.
"For me, there was never a question of feeling like it wouldn't happen," said Porter, the board's vice chair. "Some people said we were underdogs. But when I was coaching at Grambling, we always felt we could win. That's the same way I felt about this. I knew there were enough people who had a sincere desire to do something for Coach that it wouldn't die."
The 8,000-square-foot gymnasium, which was being used as practice space by GSU spirit groups, is certainly large enough to accommodate even the most grandiose exhibit plan.
"That's three times larger than the (former Alabama coach Paul) 'Bear' Bryant Museum," Belton said. "You have enough space to build an museum exhibit — and to expand in the future. The space is not limited. Even with (the originally appropriated but never administered) $5 million in state money, we couldn't build a museum space that large."
The gym, set to become vacant with the opening of a new Health, Physical Education and Recreation facility, would have to be retrofitted to provide adequate climate control and security. But, it's a prime location: on the village side of Grambling and in a visible spot on campus next to GSU's administration building, Long-Jones Hall.
Locating the museum there, and in this renovated historical setting, would work as a critical tool in recruiting, Priestley said.
"A possible by-product is the visitors to the museum may consider GSU for their child's higher educational needs," he said. "This will give alums, friends and others another reason to visit the campus and bring others. Hopefully, the exposure will generate more funding towards GSU."
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Proposed Eddie Robinson Museum gaining momentum
August 4, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — The proposed Eddie Robinson Museum received $63,500 in funding on Thursday as the long-delayed project gained surprising momentum.
"All I can say is God is good," enthused Wilbert Ellis, who heads up the project's fundraising arm. "Things are just falling into place."
Robinson led the football program at Grambling State for nearly 60 years, retiring in 1997 as the winningest coach in college history with 408 wins. He also mentored four future Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees and won 17 conference titles along the way.
A bill to fund a museum that would honor those storied accomplishments was passed in 1999, but the plans hit a series of snags before its oversight board was reconstituted in 2005. A proposal to house the proposed exhibits in the former women's basketball gym on campus followed earlier this year.
That led to the Louisiana Secretary of State office's Thursday pledge of $50,000 in start-up funding for the next fiscal year, money that will be used for utilities and hiring a staff member. The funds are contingent on approval by the University of Louisiana System board to use the gymnasium as the museum site.
John Belton, a governor-appointed museum commission member, said the group was working with GSU school officials to present the idea for preliminary approval at the ULS' regular meeting later this month.
Secretary of State Al Ater confirmed the funding in an open letter presented at the Thursday museum commission meeting. Kyle Edmiston of the Ruston-Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau also presented $13,500 in funds earmarked for promoting the museum.
"This museum could have a huge impact on tourism in Lincoln Parish," Edmiston said. "We feel it could be one of the top, if not the top, site in the area."
Edmiston said he had also met with members of the local legislative contingency to discuss their continued support. The CVB has already provided office materials and clerical help.
"The convention and visitors' bureau has been there supporting this project from the beginning," Ellis said. "It's been a good marriage."
Belton said the Robinson family attorney was at work on a letter backing the project. The document, he said, would protect their rights through future licensing efforts, as well.
"This family is very, very happy about how everything is going," said Eddie Robinson Jr., son of the legendary former coach. "We are just excited about it."
The commission is continuing to iron out its contract with a national fundraising group. A brochure detailing these efforts is also being prepared for distribution to local supporters, chamber members and residents.
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Efforts to honor Grambling's Eddie Robinson continue to gain traction in year following his death
April 4, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Eddie Robinson's family spent the anniversary of his death in quiet reflection, even as efforts to build a museum in his honor continued at an ever-quickening pace.
Robinson, who coached at Grambling State University for 57 years, died from complications related to Alzheimer's on April 3, 2007. He was 88.
"I'm doing OK," Doris Robinson, the football legend's wife for 67 seasons, said Thursday. "Eddie Jr. and I are spending the day together. We've been so lucky to have each other."
Junior, who played for and then coached with his father at Grambling, became deeply involved with the museum project late in Robinson Sr.'s life. He's witnessed firsthand how the coach's passing helped push the initiative along.
"It has taken off," Robinson Jr. said. "That's so great for the family. It's an inspiration to all of us. We're all so very happy about that."
Help flowed in both from Grambling graduates and from faraway fans. Museum organizers, for instance, set up an informational table during the emotional day that saw Robinson's body lay in respose a year ago in the Capitol rotunda in Baton Rouge — only to run out of brochures in a flurry of activity.
Donations began showering down within days, from strangers and from familiar supporters alike. By June, two of Robinson's most famous former quarterbacks, Doug Williams and James "Shack" Harris, had given $10,000 to the project.
The Louisiana Legislature promised funding, then, later in the year, upped the pledge to $2 million for restoration of an on-campus gymnasium and grounds, as well as the museum's primary exhibit.
Donated memorabilia and other signature items then began flowing in from across the Grambling community.
"We are seeing so many people working on the same page, working as a team," said John Belton, the governor-appointed board chairman of the Robinson Museum commission. "Coach was all about that kind of effort, never about 'I.' This project has always been about uplifting that message, from Day 1."
That it took Robinson's passing to achieve this momentum is no small irony, in particular to longtime friends like Wilbert Ellis, who coached baseball at Grambling for more than 40 years.
"We wanted this to happen so badly in Coach's lifetime," said Ellis, now working as a fundraiser and spokesman for the proposed museum. "That didn't happen, but the time did finally come. Donations and offerings of help started happening right away after this death. There's no question, it was a rallying point. Eddie Robinson touched the lives of so many people."
A museum in Robinson's honor was first proposed nine years ago — two seasons after Robinson's retirement at Grambling and several before the onset of his final illness.
One of the points of contention for years was where the museum would be located, though that was resolved when GSU and its oversight board agreed to make room for exhibit space in the school's former women's gymnasium — where Robinson had once coached basketball early in his career, as well.
"What better thing can happen than for that museum to be housed on campus?" Ellis said.
A temporary exhibit of Robinson-related items opened in the lobby of the Grambling Stadium Support Facility in June 2005. But Hurricane Katrina's devastation sapped promised state dollars to build on that momentum.
Robinson's passing, organizers say, quickly refocused attention on the museum. The funds followed.
"We've been overwhelmed, and we continue to be," said Belton, his voice coloring with emotion. "I can only say that it's almost like he has his hands on the project from up in heaven. That's the best way I can put it."
A year later, Eddie Robinson's son said he finds solace on this somber anniversary within the ongoing efforts to honor Grambling's fallen coach.
They've kept his father's contributions in people's thoughts, he said, and helped ease the pain associated with losing a loved one — not to mention other subsequent health issues within his immediate family.
"You have special days in your life, even if they are sad ones, and this would have to be one of ours," Robinson Jr. said on Thursday. "In our own little way, we respect this date. We're not doing a whole lot. Just spending it quietly, together, and thinking of him."
SEE MORE of The News-Star's award-winning coverage of Eddie Robinson's passing, including staff-written stories, fan memories, more photo galleries, audio and video here: http://www.thenewsstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/SPORTS/70404008&theme=EDDIEROB&template=theme
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