Remembering: The debut of 'The Rob'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alcorn was apparently caught off guard.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then, we got down to Lee's list:

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

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

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

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

Grambling won 34-31.

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

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

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

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

Final score, Grambling 30-27.

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

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

Grambling fell 15-13.

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

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

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

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

Remembering: Eddie Rob's right-hand men

Robinson's former Grambling assistants reminisce
April 18, 2005

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They each contributed something to Robinson's storied stay.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Grambling greats: Everson Walls

Walls to the hall
GSU legend can now also be called one of SWAC's elite
December 16, 2006

By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
Everson Walls can hardly believe it.

But there he is, climbing up on the Southwestern Athletic Conference's Mount Rushmore with legends of his youth like Junious "Buck" Buchanan, Willie Davis and Willie Brown.

Walls, a defensive back at Grambling State under former coach Eddie Robinson, was inducted into the SWAC Hall of Fame on Friday night in Birmingham, Ala. He later played for the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants and Cleveland Browns.

"When you start talking about Grambling and all the guys who I knew about coming in, guys that were really on the ground floor, that part of what's so significant," Walls said. "They were the ones you think of when you talk about the lore. They are legendary. To be associated with those fellows, that something I am very, very proud of."

As a senior on the 1980 squad, Walls was one of seven first-team All-SWAC performers from Grambling. They won 10 of 11 regular-season games on the way to a league co-championship, then participated in the I-AA playoffs for the first time in school history.

"I always thought we could compete against any team — on our level or I-A, it didn't matter," Walls said.

Walls, a first-team Division I-AA All-American in 1980, still holds the school record for interceptions in a season with 11. He later became the only player to top the NFL in picks three times, and led Dallas in interceptions a franchise-record five times.

Still, news of Walls' pending honor was largely overshadowed this week by a separate story concerning former Cowboys teammate Ron Springs, who has been stricken with diabetes and is in desperate need of a kidney transplant.

The 50-year-old Springs, a versatile back who played opposite Tony Dorsett in the early 1980s, has already been confined to a wheelchair after losing his right foot to the disease.
Son Shawn Springs, a defensive back with the Washington Redskins, made a career-threatening offer to donate a kidney, but the elder Springs refused.

Walls, a donor match, then privately agreed to give up one of his own. Word leaked out when Springs' son mentioned it to Washington-area reporters.

Walls, never one to grandstand, spent several days trying to downplay the donation.

"I was surprised at the number of calls," Walls said. "I thought of it as very private, but it's too late for that now."

He's since scheduled a news conference for Monday in Dallas, where he and Ron Springs still live, to discuss the donation.

"We'll use that opportunity to bring some awareness to organ donors, maybe kill two birds with one stone," Walls said. "It's been amazing, though, how this took off."
Same thing with Walls, who somehow went undrafted out of Grambling.

After signing with his hometown Cowboys, Walls would craft a stellar 14-year NFL career anyway. He was invited to four Pro Bowls (1981-83 and 1985) — and still shares both the career and single-game records for interceptions in that yearly all-star contest.

Walls later called the defensive plays for Bill Parcells in New York's 1990 Super Bowl victory over Buffalo. He finished his playing days with former Giants defensive coordinator Bill Belichick in Cleveland.

"Eddie Robinson, Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick were my coaches," Walls likes to say. "I had to learn something."

Even so, Walls has never advanced past the preliminary stage for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Perhaps more shocking, he is not a member of Dallas' Ring of Honor.

That's why this kind of appeciation for Walls' efforts as a SWAC player takes on a deeply personal meaning.

"I don't think young people realize how big a deal that association is, when you talk about guys like Buchanan and (fellow Grambling great Roosevelt) Taylor," Walls said. "You don't take stuff like that for granted."

Walls was part of a 2006 induction class that also included Southern product Avery Johnson, a former NBA champion with the San Antonio Spurs who now serves as head coach of the Dallas Mavericks.

This SWAC honor follows Walls' induction into the GSU and Louisiana Sports halls of fame, both in 1998.

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The best, at last
December 15, 2006

By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com

Former New York Giants coach Bill Parcells always refers to the biggest moment of Everson Walls' NFL career when he introduces people to the Grambling product.

"He saved a Super Bowl with one tackle," Parcells will say.

He did. And in that moment, "Cubby" redeemed a terrific stay in the pros that had been previously -- and unfairly -- defined by The Catch.

They inducted him into the SWAC Hall of Fame tonight, honoring a tenure at GSU that produced a best-in-the-nation 11 picks in the 1980 season alone. That school record still stands.

Walls then began a long climb to respectibility in the NFL, after somehow getting passed over in the draft. His journey wasn't made any easier by playing for a Dallas team that fell three consecutive times in the NFL Championship Game in the early 1980s, and never more dramatically than when the Niners' Dwight Clark made that improbable reception over Walls in 1981.

It made the cover of Sports Illustrated. But so did the exuberant Walls, now playing for Parcells' Giants, after that Super Bowl victory nine years later. A win that never would have been if he hadn't stopped Buffalo's Thurman Thomas on a sure TD run earlier in the game.

"My whole thing in that game was this: They are not going to pin this on me,'" Walls said. "I made sure I was ready mentally and physically."

Walls had failed to win a state title as a high schooler out of Richardson, Texas; a national championship in Grambling's first-ever trip to the I-AA playoffs; and, until then, the Lombardi Trophy over a period of unprecedented frustration for the storied Cowboys franchise.

But not this time.

He'd been on the other side of that celebration before. But not this time.

If only he could have soaked every moment in.

"I missed the press conference after the game," Walls admitted. "I sat in the lockerroom and cried the whole time."

Redemption took a while for Walls, just like tonight's honor. That's got to make it all the sweeter.

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Field was his proof
Undrafted Walls spent his career showing he had skills
April 1, 2006

By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — When nobody believed in Everson Walls, and that was often, he always, always believed in himself.

"You're going to have to have the heart," he'd tell himself. "You're going to have to come through for yourself."

Finally, after years of steady effort, the former Grambling State defensive back came to understand one of football's basic truths: "Whatever was going to happen for me," Walls said, "would have to happen because of what I did on the field."

Walls spoke to a packed house on Friday night as the guest speaker at GSU's annual football banquet, held in the Black and Gold Room on campus.

Often missed on the long list of Grambling's greats, Walls' triumphal return works as further validation for a career that should have received more notice.

"Everson was a great technician; he worked hard all the time," said teammate Andre Robinson, a former GSU linebacker. "He had a nose for the ball. He was always where the ball was going to be, a real smart football player."

Walls led the nation with 11 interceptions as a senior cornerback. That mark has stood as a school record at Grambling for 25 seasons now.

And Walls did it in a scheme that demanded accountability.

Former Grambling defensive coordinator Fred Collins employed a classic 4-3 look, with the corners on an island. Seldom did they get help from an extra defensive back, the so-called "nickel" or "dime" packages.

In the end, this group helped establish one of Grambling's most dominant periods, as the Tigers won four straight conference championships from 1977-80.

"Things just started to fall in line all at the same time," said Walls, now a Dallas businessman. "When I came to Grambling, (legendary former) Coach (Eddie) Robinson was at the peak of his coaching career."

Walls, named first-team all-Southwestern Athletic Conference in 1980, still ranks fourth all-time at Grambling for single-season interception-return yardage.

"He was the quiet type, nonchalant," said teammate Charlie Lewis, a 1979 Bayou Classic MVP from GSU's famed "Trees of Terror" defensive line. "But when he got on the field, it was a totally different thing. I think that led to him being overlooked."

PROVING THEM WRONG
Some pro scouts also questioned Everson Walls' ability to track top receivers after he was clocked at 4.72 in the 40-yard dash.

"They were predicating it on the stopwatch," Andre Robinson said. "They should have known more about what he had done."

The NFL Draft came and went in 1981, and Walls' phone never rang.

He eventually signed as a free agent with his hometown Dallas Cowboys, who practiced two miles from where Walls grew up.

"That was something that got all of us, that he didn't get drafted," said Robinson, a 1980 Bayou Classic MVP who now coaches GSU's linebackers. "It wasn't just that he was great his senior year; he was steady every year he was here."

What Walls did after that draft snub was historic.

He became the only player to have led the NFL in interceptions three times, a feat Walls accomplished in 1981-82 and again in '85 — all Pro Bowl campaigns with the Cowboys.

"There have been two themes to my career," Walls likes to say, "people dogging me —and me proving them wrong."

Charley Armey, who later worked in the New England and St. Louis front offices, was the scout who recommended Walls to Dallas.

"He taught me," Armey said later, "there's a hell of a lot of difference between timed speed and playing speed."

Walls led the Cowboys in interceptions a record five seasons, and his 44 career picks while with Dallas ranks behind only Pro Football Hall of Famer Mel Renfro in club history.

"He looked like he didn't have great speed, but he was always in position," said Lewis, who also now coaches his former position at Grambling. "They still didn't talk much about him."

Walls capped a 14-year pro career with a Super Bowl title playing for the 1990 New York Giants — leading the team in picks that season under former defensive coordinator Bill Belichick.

"He was a master, even then, not only at preparation but also at making adjustments," Walls said. "That's pretty scary when you can master both. I was extremely fortunate."

A QUIET CONFIDENCE
Walls was perhaps best known for some time as the player who gave up "The Catch" — Niners quarterback Joe Montana's desperate touchdown heave to Dwight Clark with 58 seconds left to beat Dallas in the 1981 NFC Championship game — a moment that many say symbolized the beginning of San Francisco's period of 1980s dominance.

Forgotten somehow was that Walls made two interceptions that day, along with a fumble recovery, three deflected passes and seven tackles.

This was typical of Walls' life. Yet he never crumbled under the weight of diminished expectations, never seemed to lose his ability to work hard outside the glaring spotlight.

"In a way, I don't want people to forget 'The Catch,' because they might forget the other things I did," Walls said. "People still come to me to use it in commercials. I've almost made an industry off the play myself."

Everson Walls didn't even play football until he was a senior at Berkner High in Richardson, Texas, yet nobody had more picks in his district that year. Walls enrolled at Grambling without a football scholarship, but played his way to Division I-AA All-America honors.

Others might have felt his career was in twilight when he left Dallas in 1989. A season later, playing deep safety for Belichick, Walls made a game-saving stop on a long run by Bills back Thurman Thomas in the final two minutes to help seal the win in Super Bowl XXV.

"It was the most pressure-packed moment, when he was coming at me," Walls said of a play that was called the No. 2 stop in Super Bowl history by FOX Sports. "I did not want anyone to say that I was the reason we lost. I just wanted to bring him down."

Walls called all of the second-half plays as New York frustrated Buffalo's vaunted no-huddle offense on the way to victory. The lasting image from that night, however, is Buffalo kicker Scott Norwood pushing it wide right.

All in a day's work for this often-overlooked legend, who was eventually inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 1998.

Walls was reminded of something his father told him when he was young: "You have to be able to think on your feet."

"By nature, as a family, we are an easy-going group," Walls said. "I have a very quiet confidence. That inner strength has been a plus for me in my career. There are going to be surprises. But I always knew that I could figure it out."