EDDIE ROB: Coach’s best
Six decades of Grambling talent are hard to narrow down
April 9, 2007
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
BATON ROUGE — They’ll gather, some of Eddie Robinson’s most noted pupils, to say goodbye today.
Former Grambling State players have been invited to a private ceremony, to be held at 9:30 a.m. in the State Capitol Memorial Hall, before Robinson’s public viewing.
“This is an opportunity for us to show our appreciation, a last hurrah for Coach,” said ex-GSU player and coach Doug Williams, who helped organize the event. “A viewing at the capitol is major credence to everything Coach accomplished. He deserves it.”
The bells of St. Joseph Cathedral will toll as the fallen coach’s body is carried up the capitol steps this morning at 9. Public viewing will then follow from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and then from 6-7 p.m., after a memorial ceremony in the House Chamber.
Still, most of today’s attention will fall on the athletes who come to pay their respects.
That got us to thinking about the best of the best. So, we compiled our own top five players from each of the six decades of Grambling football under Robinson.
Here are our suggestions, listed by decade and alphabetically:
1940s
1. Fred Hobdy: A guard on Grambling’s renowned “un” team in 1942 — which went unbeaten, untied and unscored upon — Hobdy returned from the war and coached young men for most of the next five decades. He worked first as an ends coach on the football team (he was an assistant on 1955’s undefeated squad), and then as Louisiana’s most successful college hoops coach ever. He was a member of the GSU Hall of Fame’s second class, along with Robinson, in 1981.
2. Willie “Automatic” Joseph: His name says it all: Joseph, over the 1947-49 seasons, established a 48-point school record for career points by a kicker that still stands. Grambling wouldn’t lose more than three games in a season over that span.
3. Legolian “Boots” Moore: Helped Grambling to its seminal 21-6 win over Southern University in 1947, a first-time-ever moment that Robinson always said put the program on the map. Later toured with the Harlem Globetrotters.
4. Dan H. Washington: A member of Robinson’s first squad, as well as its subsequent “un” team in 1942, Washington then touched thousands of lives as team trainer for 45 years before his death in 1996 at age 74.
5. Paul “Tank” Younger: Despite playing from 1945-48, still holds GSU record for career points with 369. His 86-yard blast against Morgan State in 1946 also remains the school’s longest non-scoring run.
In all, Younger scored 60 touchdowns — at the time a collegiate record, and still tops at Grambling — during his storied career under Robinson. Named black college player of the year in 1949, he was the first Grambling player inducted into the SWAC Hall of Fame, in 1973. Induction into the GSU hall followed in 1982.
Significantly, Younger went on to become one of the highest-ranking early black pro executives ever. He entered the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000, but died just days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
1950s
1. Willie Davis: A two-time black college All-America defensive tackle in 1954-55, Davis anchored Grambling’s first national black college championship team — the 10-0 squad from 1955.
“Willie had hitting power,” Robinson once recalled. “He was our captain, an outstanding leader.”
Davis, after a Hall of Fame pro career, became one of black America’s most important business leaders. He was GSU’s second SWAC Hall of Famer in 1977, and was inducted into GSU hall in ’82.
2. Willie Brown: So deep was Grambling’s roster in the late 1950s, the only NFL player to intercept a least one pass in 16 consecutive seasons never played cornerback. Still he lettered all four years at split end and outside linebacker, and GSU won a title in 1960. A 1983 GSU Hall of Fame inductee, Brown has shepherded countless NFL careers as an assistant with the Oakland Raiders.
3. Ernie “Big Cat” Ladd: At 6-9 and 315 pounds, Ladd arrived in the late 1950s as arguably the biggest GSU star ever. A first-team all-league defensive lineman in his final season at Grambling in 1960, he helped Grambling to its first-ever SWAC championship. Inducted into the GSU hall in 1989, Ladd was an activist for players’ rights as a pro player and, later, an prison evangelist before passing last month after a long bout with cancer.
4. Melvin Lee: As quarterback of the offensive line at center on Grambling’s undefeated 1955 championship squad, Lee had an astonishing impact on generations of men at his alma mater. He would work for the next 40 seasons as a Robinson assistant, tinkering and perfecting Robinson’s fabled Wing-T offense.
5. Edward “Bo” Murray: A critical piece of Grambling’s 1955 undefeated team, the then-redshirt sophomore won the Orange Blossom Classic on scoring runs of 75 and 8 yards. He also kicked the extra point on his winning TD, beating Florida A&M 28-21. A 1995 GSU Hall of Fame inductee.
1960s
1. Junious “Buck” Buchanan: From his sophomore season onward, this tackle earned a trio of All-America and all-conference honors while helping Grambling to a 23-5-2 record.
Robinson would often gush about Buchanan’s dominance, even in practice: “If we went to the right, he would tackle us. If we went to the left, he would tackle us. If we went right at him, he would tackle us. Boy, he was really tough.”
Buchanan, a 1987 GSU Hall of Fame inductee, passed away in 1992 after a long bout with lung cancer. He was posthumously inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1996.
2. James “Shack” Harris: Harris passed for 4,128 yards and 43 touchdowns as Grambling went 24-5-1 between 1965-68, winning three straight SWAC titles.
“Coach Robinson had the utmost confidence in me that I could play, and that meant a lot, knowing how he felt,” Harris said. “Eddie Robinson is perhaps the greatest person that I’ve ever been around.”
In his senior season alone, Harris passed for 1,972 yards and 21 touchdowns on only 225 attempts. He was first-team All-SWAC in 1967-68, and also earned SWAC and GSU hall of fame honors.
Just as importantly, he broke barriers as an early starting NFL quarterback, and now serves as one of the league’s top-ranking pro personnel executives.
3. Charlie Joiner: Led all Grambling receivers from 1966-68, gaining 2,066 yards, on the way to a trio of conference titles. An amazing 78 of quarterback Harris’ 289 career completions at Grambling were hauled in by the steady Joiner, who led the team in touchdowns in 1966-67.
“Charlie goes all out,” Robinson once noted. “Beating the man, that’s where he excelled.”
He was named first-team All-SWAC three times, then joined the GSU Hall of Fame in 1986 and the SWAC hall in 1996. He has worked for years as a pro football assistant coach.
4. Frank Lewis: A do-it-all player who led Grambling in receiving in 1969-70 and in rushing in 1969, as well. He scored 28 touchdowns in his junior and senior seasons, averaging 18.65 yards per catch.
“I played with Frank and I don’t know if I have ever seen a better athlete than Frank,” Harris said. “I don’t know of anything that Frank couldn’t do.”
Lewis was named first-team all-conference as a junior and senior, and was second team as a sophomore when Grambling won the SWAC in 1968. He is a community leader in his hometown of Houma, working with the disadvantaged.
5. Jerry “Ghost” Robinson: A two-time first-team All-SWAC halfback from 1960-61, a stint that included Grambling’s first-ever league title in 1960. Led all Grambling rushers over those two seasons, running for 1,300 yards.
1970s
1. James “Hound” Hunter: A first-team All-SWAC honoree in 1974-75, he helped Grambling to the ’74 SWAC title. Hunter was the team leader in picks for two years, pulling down 16 passes in 1973-74. His eight in 1974 ranks fourth all-time at GSU; still shares school mark for most career returns for a touchdown.
2. Gary “Big Hands” Johnson: Holds the school record for most tackles in a career, with 367 between 1971-74 as GSU won four straight SWAC titles.
In his senior season of 1974 alone, Johnson had 134 tackles, 89 unassisted, and was named the team’s Most Valuable Player. That led to coveted invites to both the East-West Shrine Game and the Senior Bowl — and Johnson was named Most Valuable Player in both.
Johnson earned first-team All-SWAC in 1972-74, followed by 1996 induction into the GSU Hall of Fame, and then 1997 honors in both the College Football and SWAC halls of fame.
3. Robert Parham: Grambling’s leading rusher from 1978-80, he amassed 2,700 yards over that span as GSU won three consecutive SWAC titles. He was a first-team all-conference running back in each of those seasons.
4. Sammy White: Inducted into the SWAC Hall of Fame in 2005 in recognition of a collegiate career that included two school-leading years for receptions in 1973 and 1975 — and a co-offensive player of the year award as a senior. White was also first-team All-SWAC in ’73. He has shaped youngsters as an assistant football coach at his alma mater now for nine seasons.
5. Doug Williams: Williams, who established school passing marks that stood for nearly 25 years, started quickly — winning a SWAC title as a redshirt freshman in 1974.
“I was blessed to have some veterans around me and Coach Robinson ran a conservative offense that didn’t put too much pressure on me,” Williams said.
He would win another SWAC championship as a senior in 1977, earning second-team All-SWAC honors in 1975 and then offensive player of the year honors in his final collegiate campaign. He was inducted into the GSU hall in 1985 and the SWAC and College halls in 2001.
A groundbreaker as a Heisman Trophy finalist and a Super Bowl MVP, Williams is now a part of a second revolution as an NFL executive.
1980s
1. Trumaine Johnson: The 1980 and ’82 SWAC offensive player of the year (when he had 1,000 yards and averaged 14 yards a catch), Johnson was also first-team All-SWAC in 1981. Grambling won the conference championship in ’80. His 16 scores that season is still tied for fifth best in school history.
2. Fred Jones: GSU’s best receiver during the 1987-89 seasons, collecting a total of 2,000 yards as well as a SWAC title in his senior campaign. He also led Grambling in scoring in ’88 with 10 touchdowns, and earned first-team All-SWAC honors in ’88-89.
3. Albert “Snow” Lewis: Was first-team All-SWAC at cornerback in 1981-82, after leading the team in interceptions in 1981 with seven. A stellar performance earned him a starting position by popular vote in 2002 on the 50th anniversary all-time Senior Bowl team. Has worked as an assistant coach with the San Diego Chargers, in NFL Europe and at his alma mater.
4. Everson “Cubby” Walls: Still holds the school record for most interceptions in a season, 11 set in 1980. Was All-SWAC that season. Made national headlines recently for an act that said much about his character, donating a kidney to a former NFL teammate.
5. Mike Williams: Williams, brother and successor at quarterback to Doug, won SWAC titles in 1978-80 and was named first-team all-conference as both a junior and senior. He threw for 3,700 yards and 46 touchdowns at Grambling, and remains active in support of Grambling.
1990s
1. Curtis Caesar: Led all Grambling receivers in 1993-94, averaging 868 yards per season. A second-team 1994 All-SWAC honoree, his numbers for his final two years are still in Grambling’s all-time Top 20. Grambling shared its last co-championship in the SWAC under Robinson in 1994.
2. Walter Dean: The first SWAC player to win the Walter Payton Award, Dean was also the conference’s offensive player of the year in 1990. No senior has ever run for more than his 1,401 yards. Dean was also first-team all-conference in 1989, when GSU won the SWAC.
3. Eric Gant: A two-time All-SWAC first-teamer beginning in 1991, Gant is one of only 17 Grambling players ever invited to the Senior Bowl. Still holds school records for yards in season (1,417 in 1992) and yards in a career (3,795), as well those for rushing yards by sophomore and junior.
4. Gilad Landau: His 188 career total in PATs was a state record. An All-SWAC first-team kicker in 1992-93, Landau earned All-America honors in 1993 from The Sports Network — becoming a significant figure in the history of Jewish sports in America.
5. Kendrick Nord: Passed for 6,600 yards in 1993-95, beating Alcorn in an epic Robinson Stadium battle and also winning a SWAC title as a senior. Those career yards, not to mention his marks for completions and touchdowns, have only been bested twice ever at Grambling.
Showing posts with label Mike Williams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mike Williams. Show all posts
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Friday, April 06, 2007
FAREWELL TO EDDIE ROB
America loses football legend
Grambling's Eddie Robinson, winningest coach in Division I, dies at 88
April 4, 2007
We were the first in the nation to disclose Eddie Rob's passing, which happened after 11 p.m. on a Tuesday evening. This began an emotional week in northeastern Louisiana, and around the world.
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
Eddie Robinson, coach at Grambling for nearly 60 years, has died at age 88.
He was rushed to a Lincoln Parish hospital Tuesday afternoon with heart problems and died just after 11 p.m., family members confirmed. Robinson had suffered from Alzheimer’s-like symptoms for several years.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete this morning for a coach who still holds the Division I record for wins in college football, 10 seasons after retiring.
Robinson logged 408 victories at Grambling between 1941-97. He also produced 45 winning seasons; won nine National Black College championships and 17 Southwestern Athletic Conference titles; coached four college football Hall of Famers (Buck Buchanan, Younger, Gary “Big Hands” Johnson and Doug Williams); and sent more than 200 players to the NFL, including four Pro Football Hall of Famers (Buchanan, Willie Davis, Willie Brown and Charlie Joiner).
“He ranks right up there with Bear Bryant and Amos Alonzo Stagg,” Joiner said. “It reminds me of one time when another person asked this one guy if Coach Rob was in a class by himself. He stood there and thought for a long time. I really can’t say, but it doesn’t take long to call the roll.”
Robinson’s greatest influence, many former players said, was outside of football.
“I think the thing that stands out about Coach the most is the development of transforming boys into men and preparing them for life,” said Monroe native James “Shack” Harris, vice president of player personnel for the Jacksonville Jaguars and a former Grambling and NFL quarterback. “He understood the players and where they came from and what it took to be successful.”
Robinson once estimated he coached more than 4,500 varsity athletes in football, basketball and baseball with an 85 percent graduation rate.
“I tended to want to bring things out in a football player as a student,” Robinson said. “We were blessed to have some good football players, but when you graduate people, they seem to be good people. They get a degree, and they can go out and handle things.”
EDDIE ROB ON ... EDDIE ROB
On the band
“There’s more than football at Grambling. We have a great show band. You can be killing us on the field, but people aren’t going to leave until after the half.”
On the secrets of having one job and one wife
"It takes two to tango. It takes two to make a good marriage. You have to respect each other."
“People talk about the record I’ve compiled at Grambling, but the real record is the fact that for over 50 years I’ve had one job and one wife. I don’t believe anybody can out-American me.”
What he learned from his players
"I learned more about what they meant to me and what they meant to the game. I never won a game - they did. You learn from every player because they’re not the same.”
“Means can be justifiable in the end. The football players are the most important people in the world to me. Without them, there would be no me.”
“I firmly believe that football players and coaches are entertainers.”
On being called a legend
"I can’t even spell it. Whatever it means, I hope I didn’t let anyone down. What I’ve done since 1941 has been more for them than for me.”
“Everything I’ve done, I think I dreamed of it first.”
“I can still remember when I was three years old and I had it in my mind then to do this for a living.”
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Bayou Classic stands as Rob's final legacy
Legendary Grambling coach left signature rivalry game for future generations
April 4, 2007
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING -- Back then, even the participants couldn’t have imagined how successful the Bayou Classic would someday become -- or how it would help propel the late Eddie Robinson onto the national stage.
“We just came along at the right time. I tell you, the Lord was in the plan,” Collie J. Nicholson, Grambling State’s original sports information director from 1948-78, once said.
As word of his passing spreads, the Bayou Classic stands as the most visible portion of Robinson's legacy -- a nationally televised testament to his dreams for this small country school.
“It was timing: Coach Robinson was developing all these players for pro football - and we had a marketing plan,” said Nicholson, who also passed last year. “Eddie and I didn’t know what it was -- they didn’t call it marketing, back then -- but we had a concept.”
The anchor for the weekend remains the football game between Grambling State and Southern University. These two schools -- rivals both in the Southwestern Athletic Conference’s West Division and in the state of Louisiana -- have fought to a virtual draw in New Orleans.
“To appreciate the rivalry,” Robinson said a few years ago, “you have to realize Grambling and Southern fans are close -- friends, as well as relatives. In fact, in the early years, when Southern people came to Grambling for the game, they would stay at my house -- because there were no hotels for blacks. They were for Southern, but it didn’t make a difference.”
Late in Robinson’s long tenure at GSU, Southern began to assemble what would be the Bayou Classic’s longest win streak, taking eight in a row in the 1990s. Yet, the all-time record stands at 17-16, with SU now just one game ahead.
A matchup so evenly matched can only gather fan interest.
But the Bayou Classic is more than Xs and Os. In the three decades since its founding, the game has been surrounded by a lively slate of social events - including a legendary Battle of the Bands and Greek Show, a job fair, elaborate formals, a gospel brunch, countless smaller get-togethers and various sponsored business events.
Doug Williams still marvels at the game’s sweeping glory.
“Playing in the Superdome?” asked Williams, a redshirt starting freshman quarterback in the inaugural game in 1974. “Playing for a championship? Playing in front of 75,000? It wasn’t like that at that particular time.”
Nicholson agreed: “We didn’t think we’d do that many. We thought it might attract about 50,000,” he said.
At its pre-Katrina peak, the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau reported that 200,000 people visit the Big Easy for Bayou Classic weekend -- representing an economic impact of $85 million.
In honor of those sweeping contributions, a banner with Robinson’s name hangs in the Superdome.
The truth is, the rivalry was squarely in place, long before the game had a name: In 1971, an estimated 35,000 stood at Grambling to watch these two schools battle. A sold-out game in northwestern Louisiana was followed by another in New Orleans - where 76,753 fans crammed into Tulane Stadium.
“I looked around and said: ‘What am I doing here?’ ” Williams said. “We had 75,000 at a historically black college football game. I was a redshirt freshman, and scared to death. I was blessed to have some veterans around me and Coach Robinson ran a conservative offense that didn’t put too much pressure on me.”
Robinson coached Grambling State to the series’ only shutout in 1974, beating Southern 21-0. The Tigers, at 11-1, finished as co-champions of the SWAC with Alcorn State. GSU then defeated South Carolina State 28-7 in the Pelican Bowl.
The following year, in 1975, the game found its current home with the completion of the Superdome. Later, with the addition of a national viewing audience through NBC in 1990 and the sponsorship of State Farm in 1996, the Bayou Classic became an even larger cultural event.
“It used to just be the local fans,” said GSU assistant coach Sammy White, the game’s MVP in 1975. “Now, it’s a national thing.”
With the televised coverage, every corner of America could finally put a face with the name of Eddie G. Robinson -- who died at 88 just before midnight on Tuesday after battling Alzheimer's-like symptoms for years.
“It became a showcase for Eddie Robinson and all the great coaches at Southern,” Williams said. “Scheduling played a part, too -- with so many families back to visit for Thanksgiving. Then, there’s the in-state rivalry. It was a natural.”
What had once been a football game is something far, far greater -- if only because, through these telecasts, so many got to meet Grambling’s great man.
“When Eddie Robinson came to Grambling, people in Lincoln Parish didn’t even know where Grambling was,” Nicholson once said.
Same with Robinson. The Bayou Classic changed that forever.
ALL THE KING'S MEN
Here’s a look at a baker’s dozen of Coach Eddie Robinson’s former players who advanced to the National Football league -- just a few of the more than 300 to do so during his tenure at Grambling State (with years in the league in parenthesis):
Paul “Tank” Younger, a running back and linebacker with Los Angeles Rams and Pittsburgh (1949-58):
Inducted into College Football Hall of Fame in 2000; also a member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame
Willie Davis, a defensive and offensive lineman with Green Bay and Cleveland (1958-69):
First Grambling State player ever drafted; inducted into Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1981
Junius “Buck” Buchanon, a defensive lineman with Kansas City (1963-75):
Inducted into Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990; first GSU player to be drafted in first round
Willie Brown, a defensive back with Denver and Oakland (1963-78):
Posted 54 picks in 16-year career; inducted into Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1984
Ernie “Big Cat” Ladd, defensive lineman with Kansas City and Houston Oilers (1966-68):
Twice named All-AFL; later had second career, earning induction into Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame
James “Shack” Harris, a quarterback with Buffalo, Los Angeles Rams, San Diego (1969-81):
First black quarterback drafted into NFL, former Carroll High standout was Pro Bowl MVP in 1975
Charlie Joiner, wide receiver with San Diego, Cincinnati and Houston Oilers (1969-86):
Inducted into Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1996; had 50 or more catches in seven seasons
WR Frank Lewis, wide receiver with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Buffalo Bills:
Inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame last summer; won two Super Bowls with the Steelers.
Gary “Big Hands” Johnson, defensive tackle with San Francisco and San Diego (1975-85):
Sheridan Black College Defensive Player of Year in 1974, inducted into College Hall of Fame in 1997
Sammy White, wide receiver with Minnesota (1976-86):
Two-time Pro Bowler is member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame; NFL Rookie of the Year in 1976
Doug Williams, quarterback with Tampa Bay and Washington (1978-89):
The 1988 Super Bowl winner and MVP; inducted into College Football Hall of Fame in 2001
Everson Walls, defensive back with Dallas, New York Giants and Cleveland (1981-93):
Four-time Pro Bowler; a walk on at GSU, still holds school’s single-season interception record
Albert Lewis, defensive back with Los Angeles Raiders and Kansas City (1983-98):
First-round pick by Chiefs; nominated for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2003
Other NFL notables from the Robinson era: DB Fahkir Brown (New Orleans/St. Louis), OL Albert Dennis III (Cleveland and San Diego, former GSU athletics director), WR Andrew Glover Los Angeles Raiders, Minnesota and New Orleans) , DB Delles Howell (former Richwood High standout, New Orleans and New York Jets), WR Trumaine Johnson (Buffalo and San Diego), DE Billy Newsome (Baltimore Colts, New Orleans, New York Jets and Chicago) and Nate Singleton (San Francisco and Philadelphia).
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Bigger than football
April 03, 2007
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
UPDATED AT MIDNIGHT, TUESDAY.
The news that Eddie Robinson passed brought me back to the last in-depth on-the-record interview he ever did.
It was with me, talking about the 15th anniversary of protege Doug Williams' emotional Super Bowl victory.
Robinson, who was in San Diego on that day in 1988, at one point happily recalled going down on the field to remind Williams of the support he always had back home.
"I talked to him a long time after the game," Robinson said. "I told him how proud the people were - in our community and our churches."
Robinson was a football coach, his resume says as much. But he was bigger than that, even as he struggled in intensive care tonight -- losing a battle against his own body's failures at age 88.
Robinson never framed things by what happened on the field, never talked about winning 408 times. That wasn't what it was all about.
His pride in what his former players accomplished couldn't be contained on the gridiron. Fans talked about the Bayou Classic. But he always talked about his players as community leaders, as fathers, as great Americans.
"The thing we are most proud of is that they graduated from college," Robinson said.
Still, in microcosm, he helped smash the color barrier under center. Grambling products would use that piece of paper as a battering ram in a league locked up tight with misconceptions about an African-American's ability to master the complexity of a pro offense.
James "Shack" Harris, the Carroll product who starred for Robinson in the 1960s, cracked the door with his Pro Bowl MVP performance in 1975. Williams knocked the thing off its hinges in 1988.
Then they both, Coach said quite proudly, went on to other leadership roles -- Harris as an NFL general manager and Williams as Robinson's successor at Grambling and then, later, as a pro personnel executive as well.
"It makes you feel really fine that they can go out and do those kind of things," Robinson said. "It just makes you know what our school can do - and what our students can do."
He wouldn't say so, but it also reminds us - it always will - of what Coach Rob could do, too.
That was much bigger than football.
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Even at the last, Robinson was a giant
April 5, 2007
This column was part of eight pages of tributes we published on the Thursday morning after Robinson's passing.
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — The final days for Eddie Robinson were an ebb and flow, with good days and bad.
On the worst of them, football became a jumbled mess in his mind. Those were the times when his wife Doris has said she worried most about him, the times when he seemed sickest of all.
In the earliest days of his illness, which family members blamed on a series of small strokes, Robinson turned to Friday night boxing matches, something his late friend Collie J. Nicholson said was easier to follow. Later, he watched old football movies, but paid little attention.
On the best of days, however, Robinson gripped life like he’d always gripped an out-stretched hand — firmly and completely.
“Once he gets a line on you, he remembers you. He still remembers you,” Nicholson, Grambling’s long-time former sports information director, said as Robinson’s Alzheimer’s-like symptoms began to become noticeable in 2003. “And he keeps that smile, always that smile.”
Still, Robinson was more apt to remember former quarterback Doug Williams’ triumphal Super Bowl win in 1987 than his own final coaching days at Grambling State a decade later.
In the end, he only rarely came to the stadium on campus that bears his name — appearing at the contest against McNeese in 2003, then at 2004’s spring Black and Gold scrimmage but not much thereafter.
Doris Robinson said he was emotionally drained by the experience, and frustrated that he had trouble following the action on the field.
As his failing memory robbed him of so much, he spent more time at home. Doris, his only love, did all she could.
She worked tirelessly in caring for him, only revealing the specifics of Robinson’s deterioration as his career wins record fell in 2004 to a lower division coach. Still, Doris was so protective of him that she didn’t let anyone from the national press talk to her husband.
She said she never told him that the once thought-unassailable 408-win plateau had been reached.
I called, and stopped by, sometimes. When Robinson spoke to me, it was about the classic Wing-T formation, about players like Bell Pepper Anderson from the old days, about his grandchildren.
His trips away from there slowed to a stop. Robinson, in his final public appearances, attended 2004 birthday parties thrown both for himself and his old friend Nicholson — but Nicholson soon joined him in battling health problems and passed late in 2006.
Yet, even inside his modest brick home in Grambling, Robinson remained a source of inspiration.
A never-ending line of well wishers met him, old and young alike. Many were folks turning off the interstate, just because they saw the Grambling sign.
The football team also walked up the hill on Adams Street on more than one occasion to pay tribute to the former coach.
During one memorable visit in 2005, Robinson was animated and friendly, displaying a familiar gusto as he sang along with the school’s alma mater. His eyes lit up at the sight of former players, and he simply refused to let the moment end.
Sammy White, Andre Robinson and Charlie Lewis, all of whom played for Robinson and now coach at Grambling, bracketed Robinson. As the players trickled back onto the street afterward, Robinson asked to sing again — one more blazing moment of remembrance shared, and the last, with GSU’s coaching staff.
“I have had a lot of great things happen to me around football,” said an emotional White, a former GSU great who later helped lead Minnesota to a Super Bowl. “That was one of mine. Right there.”
And for me, someone who got a cherished opportunity to be around Robinson late in his career and, sadly, also late in his life.
Inside their home, Mrs. Doris worked as tour guide through 60 years of magical memory. She might point out the painting the emperor of Japan gave Robinson, or the photo with President Ronald Reagan.
After a hospital bed was brought in, mattresses from their room were stacked in Robinson’s treasured study. Slowly, his illness seemed to obscure everything that came before.
So a group of locals furiously attempted to establish a long-overdue museum in his honor. A temporary exhibit of memorabilia and trophies opened in June 2005 on campus, though Robinson never saw it.
An inaugural benefit banquet for the museum project followed in September at GSU, but neither Coach nor Mrs. Robinson could attend. Son Eddie Robinson Jr. spoke in their place.
Grambling resident Doug Porter, an assistant for nine seasons with Robinson and a family friend, was part of those efforts.
“Because he was as constant presence, people might have taken him for granted,” said Porter, who made several other subsequent coaching stops. “Anybody, like me, who has been away from Grambling knows well his mystique around the rest of the country. I guess I didn’t completely appreciate all of it until I left.”
Eddie Jr. could often be seen driving the elder Robinson around town. It was an effort to keep the former coach active and engaged that Eddie Jr. shared with Wilbert Ellis, a long-time former GSU baseball coach and athletic administrator.
Robinson fought until the very end, spending time in a Ruston nursing home and, on several occasions, in a Lincoln Parish hospital.
Ellis rushed there to visit on Dec. 12, for instance, just days after the Grambling football team won the 2005 Southwestern Athletic Conference championship.
“He said: ‘Boy, where you been?’” Ellis remembered. “I said, ‘I’ve been down there trying to win a game for you.’”
There were these moments of shimmering clarity.
Just weeks before he succumbed, Robinson had been hospitalized, only to rouse himself once again. He asked for a cheeseburger on the way out the door.
But finally, Robinson suffered a damaging heart attack on Tuesday afternoon and Ellis returned, desperately fighting back emotion, to read a family plea for privacy.
Robinson would pass later that night.
Ellis was overcome with the thought, as if a corner in the very foundation of Grambling had crumbled.
“Coach is gone,” Ellis kept saying. “Coach is gone.”
NICK DERISO is sports editor at The News-Star, 411 N. Fourth St., Monroe, La., 71201. Contact him at nderiso@thenewsstar.com or (318) 362-0234.
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A shared memory
April 04, 2007
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
Wednesday brought a jumble of emotions, as people celebrated Eddie Robinson, even as they mourned him.
"I talked to a lot of teammates today, and we probably laughed more than anything," said Doug Williams, former GSU quarterback and Robinson's coaching successor, as tears welled up. "Today has been kind of a sad day, but also a celebration of the man."
Williams wasn't alone as he openly wept. In fact, he joined countless others who found themselves honestly unable to imagine the school, the town and their own lives without Robinson's towering presence.
"Wow, this guy was bigger than life itself. He really impressed me by the way he handled himself, what he believed in and what he stood for," said Pro Football Hall of Famer Willie Brown, a standout in the 1960s at Grambling for Rob. "He was a man of high class, a motivator and innovator. He loved his players. I couldn't have learned from a better coach than Robinson."
Robinson passed away late Tuesday night, in a story first reported around the nation in the print and online editions of The News-Star.
Fans almost immediately began sending text messages and then e-mails, to the point that I had to delete out some old sent-files in order to open by box.
A fast-food restaurant on U.S. 167 in Ruston immediately changed its sign to read: "We'll Miss You, Coach Rob." The phones began ringing early, and they were still ringing late.
"I'm so empty," said Tom Lavigne, a 1970s-era All-America defensive back at Grambling who lost everything to the hurricane in his native New Orleans. "This is nothing compared to Katrina. I'd go through Katrina every day to not feel like this."
As celebrated as he was in life, and that continued today with his passing, several former players said Robinson deserved more. Much more.
"There will never be another one like him," said Everson Walls, who led the nation in picks for Rob in 1980 before a standout pro career. "There will never be another one that will do it the way he did it. He put Grambling on the map and made it a football powerhouse. But I never thought he got the respect he deserved. Even when the talent dried up, when black athletes starting going to white schools, he built champions on and off the field."
We're putting out eight pages of stuff about Rob on Wednesday -- stories, columns, pictures, the works. And we kept coming back to the same conclusion.
It's not enough. Every conversation we had, every word we wrote, made that all the more clear.
There's no top to Eddie Robinson's legacy. Every one he ever knew says that, in their own way.
May he forever, and ever, live on through that sweeping influence.
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Searching for the right way to say goodbye
April 6, 2007
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING -- The driveway was filled with cars at 234 Adams St., and still they came up the hill.
They parked in the yard, then across the street.
And more still arrived.
Once inside, they spoke of the late Eddie G. Robinson not in hushed tones, but like he was only in the next room.
Instead, one door down from the boisterous reunion in the den, Robinson’s hospital bed had been dissembled -- replaced with the original queen-sized model he shared for many of his 65 years of marriage to Doris Robinson before passing at 88 this week.
Every door was open, and friends and family streamed in from them all. Many arrived so early on Thursday, as news of Robinson’s passing crisscrossed the world, that his wife was still in her housecoat.
Doris Robinson quickly changed into a fashionable purple outfit, even as friends like Ruby Higgins -- a longtime administrator at Grambling State, where her husband coached football for nearly 60 seasons -- helped answer the ever-ringing phones.
Careful notes were taken so that Doris could return the calls.
Like the cars, they never stopped.
There were messages left by former players from across the spectrum of a coaching career that spanned 1941-97 -- everyone from Willie Davis (who anchored Robinson’s first National Black College championship team in ’55) to Michael Kornblau (who was quarterback on his final squad.)
Doris looked over the morning’s newspaper accounts, and wondered aloud what her reliably humble spouse would have made of all that attention.
“He’d probably say: ‘They did all that for me?’” she said, chuckling softly. “‘I guess I must have done pretty good.’ That was how he was.”
Television coverage of Robinson’s passing ran on a loop, captivating an ever-changing group of well wishers that included Larry Wright, the Grambling men’s basketball coach.
Moments after one segment, he walked into the Robinsons’ kitchen, visibly shaken. Wright hasn’t begun to come to grips yet, he said, with what Grambling might be like without Robinson.
Less than two days after his passing, not many could.
In particular, the woman he married in 1941, Robinson’s childhood sweetheart.
“When I saw her today, Mrs. Robinson grabbed me and cried,” said former GSU baseball coach and family friend Wilbert Ellis. “I don’t think we knew all that would happen to us when Eddie Robinson was gone.”
Asked more than once what she would do without him, Doris Robinson said simply: “I have no idea.”
Grambling president Horace Judson sat with her for much of the morning --- reminiscing, like most of the visitors on this day, about one of the many games Robinson coached.
There were 588 of them, and several times as many stories.
Former school president Joseph Johnson called, and so did classmates like Mildred Jones.
Richard Lapchick, the co-author of Eddie Robinson’s as-told-to autobiography, called at midmorning to speak with Doris. He had already left a message of “love from he and his wife Ann” the day before.
Well wishes arrived from coaches who had worked with Robinson (40-year sidekick Melvin Lee), succeeded him (former GSU coach Melvin Spears) or simply admired him (West Virginia State’s Oree Banks, who preceded Willie Jeffries at South Carolina State in the 1960s).
A sign-in sheet was placed near the door, and several friends left personal messages for the Robinson family: “Try not to worry; God will supply your needs. I love you, Denene Stringfellow.”
Doris Robinson held up well for most of the morning, though the sight of some treasured friends would sometimes bring her to tears.
“I’m not the first to go through this,” she said, holding one well-wisher’s hand. “I’ve just got to buckle down.”
She was shaking by then, and soon retired to bed for an afternoon nap.
The group -- which by then included Eddie Robinson Jr. and family friend James Davison, among others -- later toured Grambling’s new assembly center, where services for Robinson will be held on Wednesday.
They then met for several hours to discuss the details of the event.
Six decades of protégés had to be turned into a short list of pallbearers. Flowers had to be selected. Doris had insisted that informational material on donating to a proposed museum in her husband’s honor be included in the program booklet, so a group of friends began stuffing envelopes.
The smallest details consumed those trying both to pay tribute to an American icon, and perhaps to busy themselves in a time of shattering grief.
“When you look around at this, everybody has been really positive,” Ellis said. “This is so big, though. The kind of person we are dealing with, we recognize what we have. People from all over the world will be there to see this man’s home going.”
Rusty Ponton, who coaches the women’s basketball team at GSU, brought over one of his celebrated cheesecakes.
He had made it for Robinson, after hearing that the late coach had been discharged from the hospital early this week. He couldn’t deliver it before Robinson was readmitted on Tuesday and passed away.
Ponton said Doris Robinson (who he calls ‘Mama D’) told him to bring it anyway: “She said: ‘I like cheesecake, too, you know.’”
The Robinson kitchen exploded with laughter, a welcome and increasingly common respite.
As the day went on, there was more laughter. And more food.
And always, always, more cars.
A group of guys fired up the charcoal grill in the backyard, with the idea of cooking some chicken for those inside, when Robinson Jr. volunteered to go to the store.
“Junior, you know your money doesn’t spend this weekend,” Wright said.
A smile, a rare one, curled up the unusually solemn Robinson’s face.
Later, he took everything in.
“It’s helping,” Robinson Jr. said. “It’s important for me to have everyone around, and my mom, too. I appreciate what everybody is doing. We can’t ask for more support.”
As the sun set behind the stadium that bears Robinson’s name, passersby stopped to take pictures of his red brick home, even though he wasn’t inside anymore.
Some were strangers, people Robinson never knew but had nevertheless touched.
Those inside at 234 Adams St. found no small amount of comfort in scenes like that.
“Eddie Robinson is beyond a king; a king is just for one country.” Ellis said. “A guy from The New York Times said that to me. Eddie Robinson belongs to everyone, and in that way he’ll never die. He will live on in our memories and in our men.”
Grambling's Eddie Robinson, winningest coach in Division I, dies at 88
April 4, 2007
We were the first in the nation to disclose Eddie Rob's passing, which happened after 11 p.m. on a Tuesday evening. This began an emotional week in northeastern Louisiana, and around the world.
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
Eddie Robinson, coach at Grambling for nearly 60 years, has died at age 88.
He was rushed to a Lincoln Parish hospital Tuesday afternoon with heart problems and died just after 11 p.m., family members confirmed. Robinson had suffered from Alzheimer’s-like symptoms for several years.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete this morning for a coach who still holds the Division I record for wins in college football, 10 seasons after retiring.
Robinson logged 408 victories at Grambling between 1941-97. He also produced 45 winning seasons; won nine National Black College championships and 17 Southwestern Athletic Conference titles; coached four college football Hall of Famers (Buck Buchanan, Younger, Gary “Big Hands” Johnson and Doug Williams); and sent more than 200 players to the NFL, including four Pro Football Hall of Famers (Buchanan, Willie Davis, Willie Brown and Charlie Joiner).
“He ranks right up there with Bear Bryant and Amos Alonzo Stagg,” Joiner said. “It reminds me of one time when another person asked this one guy if Coach Rob was in a class by himself. He stood there and thought for a long time. I really can’t say, but it doesn’t take long to call the roll.”
Robinson’s greatest influence, many former players said, was outside of football.
“I think the thing that stands out about Coach the most is the development of transforming boys into men and preparing them for life,” said Monroe native James “Shack” Harris, vice president of player personnel for the Jacksonville Jaguars and a former Grambling and NFL quarterback. “He understood the players and where they came from and what it took to be successful.”
Robinson once estimated he coached more than 4,500 varsity athletes in football, basketball and baseball with an 85 percent graduation rate.
“I tended to want to bring things out in a football player as a student,” Robinson said. “We were blessed to have some good football players, but when you graduate people, they seem to be good people. They get a degree, and they can go out and handle things.”
EDDIE ROB ON ... EDDIE ROB
On the band
“There’s more than football at Grambling. We have a great show band. You can be killing us on the field, but people aren’t going to leave until after the half.”
On the secrets of having one job and one wife
"It takes two to tango. It takes two to make a good marriage. You have to respect each other."
“People talk about the record I’ve compiled at Grambling, but the real record is the fact that for over 50 years I’ve had one job and one wife. I don’t believe anybody can out-American me.”
What he learned from his players
"I learned more about what they meant to me and what they meant to the game. I never won a game - they did. You learn from every player because they’re not the same.”
“Means can be justifiable in the end. The football players are the most important people in the world to me. Without them, there would be no me.”
“I firmly believe that football players and coaches are entertainers.”
On being called a legend
"I can’t even spell it. Whatever it means, I hope I didn’t let anyone down. What I’ve done since 1941 has been more for them than for me.”
“Everything I’ve done, I think I dreamed of it first.”
“I can still remember when I was three years old and I had it in my mind then to do this for a living.”
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Bayou Classic stands as Rob's final legacy
Legendary Grambling coach left signature rivalry game for future generations
April 4, 2007
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING -- Back then, even the participants couldn’t have imagined how successful the Bayou Classic would someday become -- or how it would help propel the late Eddie Robinson onto the national stage.
“We just came along at the right time. I tell you, the Lord was in the plan,” Collie J. Nicholson, Grambling State’s original sports information director from 1948-78, once said.
As word of his passing spreads, the Bayou Classic stands as the most visible portion of Robinson's legacy -- a nationally televised testament to his dreams for this small country school.
“It was timing: Coach Robinson was developing all these players for pro football - and we had a marketing plan,” said Nicholson, who also passed last year. “Eddie and I didn’t know what it was -- they didn’t call it marketing, back then -- but we had a concept.”
The anchor for the weekend remains the football game between Grambling State and Southern University. These two schools -- rivals both in the Southwestern Athletic Conference’s West Division and in the state of Louisiana -- have fought to a virtual draw in New Orleans.
“To appreciate the rivalry,” Robinson said a few years ago, “you have to realize Grambling and Southern fans are close -- friends, as well as relatives. In fact, in the early years, when Southern people came to Grambling for the game, they would stay at my house -- because there were no hotels for blacks. They were for Southern, but it didn’t make a difference.”
Late in Robinson’s long tenure at GSU, Southern began to assemble what would be the Bayou Classic’s longest win streak, taking eight in a row in the 1990s. Yet, the all-time record stands at 17-16, with SU now just one game ahead.
A matchup so evenly matched can only gather fan interest.
But the Bayou Classic is more than Xs and Os. In the three decades since its founding, the game has been surrounded by a lively slate of social events - including a legendary Battle of the Bands and Greek Show, a job fair, elaborate formals, a gospel brunch, countless smaller get-togethers and various sponsored business events.
Doug Williams still marvels at the game’s sweeping glory.
“Playing in the Superdome?” asked Williams, a redshirt starting freshman quarterback in the inaugural game in 1974. “Playing for a championship? Playing in front of 75,000? It wasn’t like that at that particular time.”
Nicholson agreed: “We didn’t think we’d do that many. We thought it might attract about 50,000,” he said.
At its pre-Katrina peak, the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau reported that 200,000 people visit the Big Easy for Bayou Classic weekend -- representing an economic impact of $85 million.
In honor of those sweeping contributions, a banner with Robinson’s name hangs in the Superdome.
The truth is, the rivalry was squarely in place, long before the game had a name: In 1971, an estimated 35,000 stood at Grambling to watch these two schools battle. A sold-out game in northwestern Louisiana was followed by another in New Orleans - where 76,753 fans crammed into Tulane Stadium.
“I looked around and said: ‘What am I doing here?’ ” Williams said. “We had 75,000 at a historically black college football game. I was a redshirt freshman, and scared to death. I was blessed to have some veterans around me and Coach Robinson ran a conservative offense that didn’t put too much pressure on me.”
Robinson coached Grambling State to the series’ only shutout in 1974, beating Southern 21-0. The Tigers, at 11-1, finished as co-champions of the SWAC with Alcorn State. GSU then defeated South Carolina State 28-7 in the Pelican Bowl.
The following year, in 1975, the game found its current home with the completion of the Superdome. Later, with the addition of a national viewing audience through NBC in 1990 and the sponsorship of State Farm in 1996, the Bayou Classic became an even larger cultural event.
“It used to just be the local fans,” said GSU assistant coach Sammy White, the game’s MVP in 1975. “Now, it’s a national thing.”
With the televised coverage, every corner of America could finally put a face with the name of Eddie G. Robinson -- who died at 88 just before midnight on Tuesday after battling Alzheimer's-like symptoms for years.
“It became a showcase for Eddie Robinson and all the great coaches at Southern,” Williams said. “Scheduling played a part, too -- with so many families back to visit for Thanksgiving. Then, there’s the in-state rivalry. It was a natural.”
What had once been a football game is something far, far greater -- if only because, through these telecasts, so many got to meet Grambling’s great man.
“When Eddie Robinson came to Grambling, people in Lincoln Parish didn’t even know where Grambling was,” Nicholson once said.
Same with Robinson. The Bayou Classic changed that forever.
ALL THE KING'S MEN
Here’s a look at a baker’s dozen of Coach Eddie Robinson’s former players who advanced to the National Football league -- just a few of the more than 300 to do so during his tenure at Grambling State (with years in the league in parenthesis):
Paul “Tank” Younger, a running back and linebacker with Los Angeles Rams and Pittsburgh (1949-58):
Inducted into College Football Hall of Fame in 2000; also a member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame
Willie Davis, a defensive and offensive lineman with Green Bay and Cleveland (1958-69):
First Grambling State player ever drafted; inducted into Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1981
Junius “Buck” Buchanon, a defensive lineman with Kansas City (1963-75):
Inducted into Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990; first GSU player to be drafted in first round
Willie Brown, a defensive back with Denver and Oakland (1963-78):
Posted 54 picks in 16-year career; inducted into Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1984
Ernie “Big Cat” Ladd, defensive lineman with Kansas City and Houston Oilers (1966-68):
Twice named All-AFL; later had second career, earning induction into Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame
James “Shack” Harris, a quarterback with Buffalo, Los Angeles Rams, San Diego (1969-81):
First black quarterback drafted into NFL, former Carroll High standout was Pro Bowl MVP in 1975
Charlie Joiner, wide receiver with San Diego, Cincinnati and Houston Oilers (1969-86):
Inducted into Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1996; had 50 or more catches in seven seasons
WR Frank Lewis, wide receiver with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Buffalo Bills:
Inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame last summer; won two Super Bowls with the Steelers.
Gary “Big Hands” Johnson, defensive tackle with San Francisco and San Diego (1975-85):
Sheridan Black College Defensive Player of Year in 1974, inducted into College Hall of Fame in 1997
Sammy White, wide receiver with Minnesota (1976-86):
Two-time Pro Bowler is member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame; NFL Rookie of the Year in 1976
Doug Williams, quarterback with Tampa Bay and Washington (1978-89):
The 1988 Super Bowl winner and MVP; inducted into College Football Hall of Fame in 2001
Everson Walls, defensive back with Dallas, New York Giants and Cleveland (1981-93):
Four-time Pro Bowler; a walk on at GSU, still holds school’s single-season interception record
Albert Lewis, defensive back with Los Angeles Raiders and Kansas City (1983-98):
First-round pick by Chiefs; nominated for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2003
Other NFL notables from the Robinson era: DB Fahkir Brown (New Orleans/St. Louis), OL Albert Dennis III (Cleveland and San Diego, former GSU athletics director), WR Andrew Glover Los Angeles Raiders, Minnesota and New Orleans) , DB Delles Howell (former Richwood High standout, New Orleans and New York Jets), WR Trumaine Johnson (Buffalo and San Diego), DE Billy Newsome (Baltimore Colts, New Orleans, New York Jets and Chicago) and Nate Singleton (San Francisco and Philadelphia).
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Bigger than football
April 03, 2007
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
UPDATED AT MIDNIGHT, TUESDAY.
The news that Eddie Robinson passed brought me back to the last in-depth on-the-record interview he ever did.
It was with me, talking about the 15th anniversary of protege Doug Williams' emotional Super Bowl victory.
Robinson, who was in San Diego on that day in 1988, at one point happily recalled going down on the field to remind Williams of the support he always had back home.
"I talked to him a long time after the game," Robinson said. "I told him how proud the people were - in our community and our churches."
Robinson was a football coach, his resume says as much. But he was bigger than that, even as he struggled in intensive care tonight -- losing a battle against his own body's failures at age 88.
Robinson never framed things by what happened on the field, never talked about winning 408 times. That wasn't what it was all about.
His pride in what his former players accomplished couldn't be contained on the gridiron. Fans talked about the Bayou Classic. But he always talked about his players as community leaders, as fathers, as great Americans.
"The thing we are most proud of is that they graduated from college," Robinson said.
Still, in microcosm, he helped smash the color barrier under center. Grambling products would use that piece of paper as a battering ram in a league locked up tight with misconceptions about an African-American's ability to master the complexity of a pro offense.
James "Shack" Harris, the Carroll product who starred for Robinson in the 1960s, cracked the door with his Pro Bowl MVP performance in 1975. Williams knocked the thing off its hinges in 1988.
Then they both, Coach said quite proudly, went on to other leadership roles -- Harris as an NFL general manager and Williams as Robinson's successor at Grambling and then, later, as a pro personnel executive as well.
"It makes you feel really fine that they can go out and do those kind of things," Robinson said. "It just makes you know what our school can do - and what our students can do."
He wouldn't say so, but it also reminds us - it always will - of what Coach Rob could do, too.
That was much bigger than football.
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Even at the last, Robinson was a giant
April 5, 2007
This column was part of eight pages of tributes we published on the Thursday morning after Robinson's passing.
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — The final days for Eddie Robinson were an ebb and flow, with good days and bad.
On the worst of them, football became a jumbled mess in his mind. Those were the times when his wife Doris has said she worried most about him, the times when he seemed sickest of all.
In the earliest days of his illness, which family members blamed on a series of small strokes, Robinson turned to Friday night boxing matches, something his late friend Collie J. Nicholson said was easier to follow. Later, he watched old football movies, but paid little attention.
On the best of days, however, Robinson gripped life like he’d always gripped an out-stretched hand — firmly and completely.
“Once he gets a line on you, he remembers you. He still remembers you,” Nicholson, Grambling’s long-time former sports information director, said as Robinson’s Alzheimer’s-like symptoms began to become noticeable in 2003. “And he keeps that smile, always that smile.”
Still, Robinson was more apt to remember former quarterback Doug Williams’ triumphal Super Bowl win in 1987 than his own final coaching days at Grambling State a decade later.
In the end, he only rarely came to the stadium on campus that bears his name — appearing at the contest against McNeese in 2003, then at 2004’s spring Black and Gold scrimmage but not much thereafter.
Doris Robinson said he was emotionally drained by the experience, and frustrated that he had trouble following the action on the field.
As his failing memory robbed him of so much, he spent more time at home. Doris, his only love, did all she could.
She worked tirelessly in caring for him, only revealing the specifics of Robinson’s deterioration as his career wins record fell in 2004 to a lower division coach. Still, Doris was so protective of him that she didn’t let anyone from the national press talk to her husband.
She said she never told him that the once thought-unassailable 408-win plateau had been reached.
I called, and stopped by, sometimes. When Robinson spoke to me, it was about the classic Wing-T formation, about players like Bell Pepper Anderson from the old days, about his grandchildren.
His trips away from there slowed to a stop. Robinson, in his final public appearances, attended 2004 birthday parties thrown both for himself and his old friend Nicholson — but Nicholson soon joined him in battling health problems and passed late in 2006.
Yet, even inside his modest brick home in Grambling, Robinson remained a source of inspiration.
A never-ending line of well wishers met him, old and young alike. Many were folks turning off the interstate, just because they saw the Grambling sign.
The football team also walked up the hill on Adams Street on more than one occasion to pay tribute to the former coach.
During one memorable visit in 2005, Robinson was animated and friendly, displaying a familiar gusto as he sang along with the school’s alma mater. His eyes lit up at the sight of former players, and he simply refused to let the moment end.
Sammy White, Andre Robinson and Charlie Lewis, all of whom played for Robinson and now coach at Grambling, bracketed Robinson. As the players trickled back onto the street afterward, Robinson asked to sing again — one more blazing moment of remembrance shared, and the last, with GSU’s coaching staff.
“I have had a lot of great things happen to me around football,” said an emotional White, a former GSU great who later helped lead Minnesota to a Super Bowl. “That was one of mine. Right there.”
And for me, someone who got a cherished opportunity to be around Robinson late in his career and, sadly, also late in his life.
Inside their home, Mrs. Doris worked as tour guide through 60 years of magical memory. She might point out the painting the emperor of Japan gave Robinson, or the photo with President Ronald Reagan.
After a hospital bed was brought in, mattresses from their room were stacked in Robinson’s treasured study. Slowly, his illness seemed to obscure everything that came before.
So a group of locals furiously attempted to establish a long-overdue museum in his honor. A temporary exhibit of memorabilia and trophies opened in June 2005 on campus, though Robinson never saw it.
An inaugural benefit banquet for the museum project followed in September at GSU, but neither Coach nor Mrs. Robinson could attend. Son Eddie Robinson Jr. spoke in their place.
Grambling resident Doug Porter, an assistant for nine seasons with Robinson and a family friend, was part of those efforts.
“Because he was as constant presence, people might have taken him for granted,” said Porter, who made several other subsequent coaching stops. “Anybody, like me, who has been away from Grambling knows well his mystique around the rest of the country. I guess I didn’t completely appreciate all of it until I left.”
Eddie Jr. could often be seen driving the elder Robinson around town. It was an effort to keep the former coach active and engaged that Eddie Jr. shared with Wilbert Ellis, a long-time former GSU baseball coach and athletic administrator.
Robinson fought until the very end, spending time in a Ruston nursing home and, on several occasions, in a Lincoln Parish hospital.
Ellis rushed there to visit on Dec. 12, for instance, just days after the Grambling football team won the 2005 Southwestern Athletic Conference championship.
“He said: ‘Boy, where you been?’” Ellis remembered. “I said, ‘I’ve been down there trying to win a game for you.’”
There were these moments of shimmering clarity.
Just weeks before he succumbed, Robinson had been hospitalized, only to rouse himself once again. He asked for a cheeseburger on the way out the door.
But finally, Robinson suffered a damaging heart attack on Tuesday afternoon and Ellis returned, desperately fighting back emotion, to read a family plea for privacy.
Robinson would pass later that night.
Ellis was overcome with the thought, as if a corner in the very foundation of Grambling had crumbled.
“Coach is gone,” Ellis kept saying. “Coach is gone.”
NICK DERISO is sports editor at The News-Star, 411 N. Fourth St., Monroe, La., 71201. Contact him at nderiso@thenewsstar.com or (318) 362-0234.
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A shared memory
April 04, 2007
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
Wednesday brought a jumble of emotions, as people celebrated Eddie Robinson, even as they mourned him.
"I talked to a lot of teammates today, and we probably laughed more than anything," said Doug Williams, former GSU quarterback and Robinson's coaching successor, as tears welled up. "Today has been kind of a sad day, but also a celebration of the man."
Williams wasn't alone as he openly wept. In fact, he joined countless others who found themselves honestly unable to imagine the school, the town and their own lives without Robinson's towering presence.
"Wow, this guy was bigger than life itself. He really impressed me by the way he handled himself, what he believed in and what he stood for," said Pro Football Hall of Famer Willie Brown, a standout in the 1960s at Grambling for Rob. "He was a man of high class, a motivator and innovator. He loved his players. I couldn't have learned from a better coach than Robinson."
Robinson passed away late Tuesday night, in a story first reported around the nation in the print and online editions of The News-Star.
Fans almost immediately began sending text messages and then e-mails, to the point that I had to delete out some old sent-files in order to open by box.
A fast-food restaurant on U.S. 167 in Ruston immediately changed its sign to read: "We'll Miss You, Coach Rob." The phones began ringing early, and they were still ringing late.
"I'm so empty," said Tom Lavigne, a 1970s-era All-America defensive back at Grambling who lost everything to the hurricane in his native New Orleans. "This is nothing compared to Katrina. I'd go through Katrina every day to not feel like this."
As celebrated as he was in life, and that continued today with his passing, several former players said Robinson deserved more. Much more.
"There will never be another one like him," said Everson Walls, who led the nation in picks for Rob in 1980 before a standout pro career. "There will never be another one that will do it the way he did it. He put Grambling on the map and made it a football powerhouse. But I never thought he got the respect he deserved. Even when the talent dried up, when black athletes starting going to white schools, he built champions on and off the field."
We're putting out eight pages of stuff about Rob on Wednesday -- stories, columns, pictures, the works. And we kept coming back to the same conclusion.
It's not enough. Every conversation we had, every word we wrote, made that all the more clear.
There's no top to Eddie Robinson's legacy. Every one he ever knew says that, in their own way.
May he forever, and ever, live on through that sweeping influence.
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Searching for the right way to say goodbye
April 6, 2007
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING -- The driveway was filled with cars at 234 Adams St., and still they came up the hill.
They parked in the yard, then across the street.
And more still arrived.
Once inside, they spoke of the late Eddie G. Robinson not in hushed tones, but like he was only in the next room.
Instead, one door down from the boisterous reunion in the den, Robinson’s hospital bed had been dissembled -- replaced with the original queen-sized model he shared for many of his 65 years of marriage to Doris Robinson before passing at 88 this week.
Every door was open, and friends and family streamed in from them all. Many arrived so early on Thursday, as news of Robinson’s passing crisscrossed the world, that his wife was still in her housecoat.
Doris Robinson quickly changed into a fashionable purple outfit, even as friends like Ruby Higgins -- a longtime administrator at Grambling State, where her husband coached football for nearly 60 seasons -- helped answer the ever-ringing phones.
Careful notes were taken so that Doris could return the calls.
Like the cars, they never stopped.
There were messages left by former players from across the spectrum of a coaching career that spanned 1941-97 -- everyone from Willie Davis (who anchored Robinson’s first National Black College championship team in ’55) to Michael Kornblau (who was quarterback on his final squad.)
Doris looked over the morning’s newspaper accounts, and wondered aloud what her reliably humble spouse would have made of all that attention.
“He’d probably say: ‘They did all that for me?’” she said, chuckling softly. “‘I guess I must have done pretty good.’ That was how he was.”
Television coverage of Robinson’s passing ran on a loop, captivating an ever-changing group of well wishers that included Larry Wright, the Grambling men’s basketball coach.
Moments after one segment, he walked into the Robinsons’ kitchen, visibly shaken. Wright hasn’t begun to come to grips yet, he said, with what Grambling might be like without Robinson.
Less than two days after his passing, not many could.
In particular, the woman he married in 1941, Robinson’s childhood sweetheart.
“When I saw her today, Mrs. Robinson grabbed me and cried,” said former GSU baseball coach and family friend Wilbert Ellis. “I don’t think we knew all that would happen to us when Eddie Robinson was gone.”
Asked more than once what she would do without him, Doris Robinson said simply: “I have no idea.”
Grambling president Horace Judson sat with her for much of the morning --- reminiscing, like most of the visitors on this day, about one of the many games Robinson coached.
There were 588 of them, and several times as many stories.
Former school president Joseph Johnson called, and so did classmates like Mildred Jones.
Richard Lapchick, the co-author of Eddie Robinson’s as-told-to autobiography, called at midmorning to speak with Doris. He had already left a message of “love from he and his wife Ann” the day before.
Well wishes arrived from coaches who had worked with Robinson (40-year sidekick Melvin Lee), succeeded him (former GSU coach Melvin Spears) or simply admired him (West Virginia State’s Oree Banks, who preceded Willie Jeffries at South Carolina State in the 1960s).
A sign-in sheet was placed near the door, and several friends left personal messages for the Robinson family: “Try not to worry; God will supply your needs. I love you, Denene Stringfellow.”
Doris Robinson held up well for most of the morning, though the sight of some treasured friends would sometimes bring her to tears.
“I’m not the first to go through this,” she said, holding one well-wisher’s hand. “I’ve just got to buckle down.”
She was shaking by then, and soon retired to bed for an afternoon nap.
The group -- which by then included Eddie Robinson Jr. and family friend James Davison, among others -- later toured Grambling’s new assembly center, where services for Robinson will be held on Wednesday.
They then met for several hours to discuss the details of the event.
Six decades of protégés had to be turned into a short list of pallbearers. Flowers had to be selected. Doris had insisted that informational material on donating to a proposed museum in her husband’s honor be included in the program booklet, so a group of friends began stuffing envelopes.
The smallest details consumed those trying both to pay tribute to an American icon, and perhaps to busy themselves in a time of shattering grief.
“When you look around at this, everybody has been really positive,” Ellis said. “This is so big, though. The kind of person we are dealing with, we recognize what we have. People from all over the world will be there to see this man’s home going.”
Rusty Ponton, who coaches the women’s basketball team at GSU, brought over one of his celebrated cheesecakes.
He had made it for Robinson, after hearing that the late coach had been discharged from the hospital early this week. He couldn’t deliver it before Robinson was readmitted on Tuesday and passed away.
Ponton said Doris Robinson (who he calls ‘Mama D’) told him to bring it anyway: “She said: ‘I like cheesecake, too, you know.’”
The Robinson kitchen exploded with laughter, a welcome and increasingly common respite.
As the day went on, there was more laughter. And more food.
And always, always, more cars.
A group of guys fired up the charcoal grill in the backyard, with the idea of cooking some chicken for those inside, when Robinson Jr. volunteered to go to the store.
“Junior, you know your money doesn’t spend this weekend,” Wright said.
A smile, a rare one, curled up the unusually solemn Robinson’s face.
Later, he took everything in.
“It’s helping,” Robinson Jr. said. “It’s important for me to have everyone around, and my mom, too. I appreciate what everybody is doing. We can’t ask for more support.”
As the sun set behind the stadium that bears Robinson’s name, passersby stopped to take pictures of his red brick home, even though he wasn’t inside anymore.
Some were strangers, people Robinson never knew but had nevertheless touched.
Those inside at 234 Adams St. found no small amount of comfort in scenes like that.
“Eddie Robinson is beyond a king; a king is just for one country.” Ellis said. “A guy from The New York Times said that to me. Eddie Robinson belongs to everyone, and in that way he’ll never die. He will live on in our memories and in our men.”
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Bayou Classics That Mattered Most
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
More than three decades in, which Bayou Classic games mattered the most? I'm talking turning-point moments. Not just because that particular day was (or wasn't) a big win, but because it had a lasting impact. Leading up to Saturday's Bayou Classic, I'll make my six points:
1980 Bayou Classic
November 19, 2006
SIX: When Mike Williams walked off the Superdome carpet with the most valuable player award after the 1980 Bayou Classic, it marked the end of an era.
The Williams' era.
A quarterback named Williams, either Mike or older brother Doug, had started for Grambling in every Classic until that point - and had won four of the seven MVPs ever given.
GSU had also gone 6-1 against Southern with a Williams under center, falling only in 1979. Five of the Top 6 best-attended games, including Nos. 1-4, occurred during this span, as well.
Doug Williams remembered the very first game, played at Tulane in 1974 while construction of the Superdome was completed:
"I looked around and said: 'What am I doing here?'" he told The News-Star in 2003. "We had 75,000 at a historically black college football game. I was a redshirt freshman, and scared to death. I was blessed to have some veterans around me and Coach Robinson ran a conservative offense that didn't put too much pressure on me."
Doug Williams would, of course, be named MVP in that game, as well as the third Bayou Classic in 1976. Mike Williams took over in 1978, and won the Classic MVP that season and in 1980.
(Grambling wingback Sammy White, now the program's offensive coordinator, was MVP in 1975, followed by GSU wingback Robert Woods in 1977. Southern quarterback Wilfred Charles was the 1979 honoree.)
g g g
1993 Bayou Classic
November 20, 2006
FIVE: In 1993, rookie Southern coach Pete Richardson stormed into the SWAC - beating his first six league opponents by an average of 30 points. In fact, he'd only stumble once coming into the season-ending Bayou Classic, and that was against out-of-conference foe Nicholls State.
"I voted for him for Coach of the Year," former GSU line coach Billy Manning told The News-Star in 1993. "It's hard to come in and turn a team around like that. ... It all boils down to execution, motivation, technique and preparation. The talent has been there."
Southern had already punched its ticket to the Heritage Bowl, after GSU fell to Alabama State three weeks before. Richardson then topped Eddie Robinson in the 1993 Bayou Classic 31-13 with sophomore quarterback Eric Randall as MVP.
A subsequent bowl win over South Carolina State meant the first-year coach had led Southern to the school's second 11-win season ever, its first SWAC title in 18 years and its first outright championship since 1959.
What followed was a stunning run of dominance for Southern, as Pete eventually took eight straight Classics -- six from Robinson and two from Doug Williams, Rob's eventual successor. He beat Grambling by an average of two touchdowns over that span.
Before Pete, Grambling actually held a 13-6 Classic series lead, and Southern had never won more than two in a row (1981-82 and 1987-88). By 2000, the Richardson had already won four SWAC titles (1993, then 1997-99) -- and pulled ahead in the Classic series, 14-13.
It all started with that 1993 victory.
g g g
1990 Bayou Classic
November 21, 2006
FOUR: In many ways, the 1990 Bayou Classic was somewhat routine, as Grambling won 25-13 - Eddie Robinson's second in a row over Southern coach Gerald Kimble. GSU had, at that point, won 12 of the initial 17 editions.
Only this time, 200 million people had the opportunity to experience the game - not to mention the halftime pageantry - through a new partnership deal with NBC TV.
Former Grambling sports information director Collie J. Nicholson's dream - 12 years after his celebrated 30-year run at GSU ended - had finally been completely realized.
"When Eddie Robinson came to Grambling, people in Lincoln Parish didn't even know where Grambling was," Nicholson told The News-Star in 2003. "It took a long time to build name recognition for the school, during the time of segregation."
This was a guy who used to type up the game stories, then drive 70 miles to Shreveport to wire them all over the country. Now, Nicholson's game was being beamed into every home in America.
GSU quarterback Shawn Burras was the 1990 Classic's MVP, leading a unit that included SWAC offensive player of the year Walter Dean and future NFL receiver Jake Reed. Still, I think my favorite guy from this period is Raymond Smith, the 6-7, 435-pound offensive tackle who so richly earned the nickname: "World."
Oddly enough, despite the addition of television coverage, the 1990 edition turned out to be the highest attended Classic since Southern beat Grambling 22-17 in 1982. The announced crowd of 70,600 was then No. 7 all time.
Nicholson, who was recognized with the Bayou Classic Founder's Award two seasons later, passed earlier this year after experiencing a series of health problems. The press box at Robinson Stadium is named in his honor.
g g g
1992 Bayou Classic
November 22, 2006
THREE: Coaching legends Eddie Robinson and Marino Casem - winners between them of 568 college contests - faced off again, producing another remarkable rivalry game.
And another razor-thin margin.
Three times, they roamed the sidelines at the Bayou Classic. The average margin of victory: 6 points.
This time, GSU won 30-27 before a sold-out crowd of 71,283, the year before Casem moved up to become Southern's athletics director. It was the last time these two Southwestern Athletic Conference legends met on the field.
The Classic's most valuable player was Grambling quarterback Alex Perkins, who would then help craft a 45-15 win over Florida A&M in the Heritage Bowl to win the '92 black college national championship - the final under Robinson. (Current GSU running backs coach Darius Matthews was also on that team.)
This would be the only time Robinson got the better of Casem in New Orleans. Southern beat Grambling by a touchdown in both 1987 and '88. (Southern's Daryl Garner and Chris Scott, respectively, were named MVPs.)
In all, 182,516 people saw these titanic struggles, which led to one of the most famous descriptions of this game from Casem - who called it "the biggest and best thing in all of blackdom."
Known as The Godfather of the SWAC, Casem served as coach and athletics director at both Southern, Alcorn and, for one season early in his coaching career, at Alabama State.
That run included seven football titles at Alcorn, where he set a school record for wins. (Though the two played to a virtual draw over Casem's first decade at Alcorn, Rob eventually established a 13-8 advantage). Casem oversaw another four SWAC championships as AD at Southern, then had another brief tenure in the same position at Alcorn before retiring.
Both Robinson and Casem, who finished with a coaching record of 160-91-8, are now members of the College Football Hall of Fame.
g g g
1975 Bayou Classic
November 23, 2006
TWO: It's not just that this game was the first to be played in the Superdome, which is reason enough.
This one boasted more eventual NFL talent from Grambling than any Bayou Classic ever: Eight starters went on to play three or more years in the pros, and at least 15 were eventually invited to NFL camps.
"Grambling's football tradition is second to none," former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue told The News-Star in 1992. "Under Eddie Robinson's leadership, Grambling contributed an unusually large number of players to the NFL."
Wingback Sammy White (Vikings, 1976-86) took handoffs from quarterback Doug Williams (Buccaneers, 1978-83; and Redskins, 1986-89). Now GSU's offensive coordinator, White was named the game's most valuable player.
Williams also had Dwight Scales (Rams, 1976-79; Chargers, 1981-83; and Seahawks, 1984) as a top target. Big Ron Singleton (Chargers, 1976; and Niners, 1977-80) would play both tight end and offensive tackle. The group scored 33 points that year on Charlie Bates' Jaguars, thrilling a crowd of 73,214 at the Dome.
Defensive back James Hunter (Lions, 1976-82) and linebacker Robert Pennywell (Niners, 1976; and Falcons, 1977-80) led a unit that held Southern to 17 points. The defensive line was anchored by Robert Barber (Packers, 1976-80) and Michael St. Claire (Browns, 1976-79; and Bengals, 1980-82).
Others from this amazingly talented Tiger team who appeared on NFL rosters included offensive tackle Larry Favorite (Falcons); defensive end Arthur Gilliam (Broncos); defensive tackle Jessie O'Neal (Oilers, Seahawks and Redskins); offensive lineman Robert Simon (Oilers); defensive backs Eugene Williams (Jets) and Michael Harris (Eagles, Jets and Steelers); and center Billy Manning (Saints) -- who later became an assistant under Robinson.
The Bayou Classic would be played another 29 times at the Superdome before Hurricane Katrina rendered the facility unplayable in 2005. After a one-year hiatus at Houston's Reliant Stadium, the contest returns home this year.
g g g
1997 Bayou Classic
November 24, 2006
ONE: There would be no stopping Southern's Pete Richardson, then in the midst of eight years of domination in New Orleans.
Nevertheless, Eddie Robinson's final game, after 57 seasons at Grambling, provided the proper send off to college football's winningest coach.
The NBC broadcast included several features chronicling his storied career. Tributes flowed in from then President Bill Clinton, fellow coaches like Penn State's Joe Paterno and a bevy of former players.
More than 300 media credentials were issued, and they quickly scattered out to interview the likes of Willie Davis, Charles "Tank" Smith, Elfrid Payton, Henry Dyer, Mike Williams, James Hunter, and others.
The build up threatened to subsume the Bayou Classic itself.
Of course, Robinson took it all in stride: "I'm really not trying to think of this game as my last," he told The News-Star in 1997. "It's there in the back of my mind, but I'm really just trying to take this as just the next game we have to try to win."
That didn't happen, as Southern dispatched GSU, 30-7.
Even so, there were other numbers threading through the four-hour broadcast, staggering numbers - 408 wins in 587 games, 17 SWAC titles and 210 players in the NFL. Hundreds, if not thousands of young men, with a road map to life in the form of a college degree.
In carrying the game, NBC shared the story of Eddie Robinson with the world one final time.
The 1997 Classic was one instance - this year, with the return to New Orleans, is another - when it seemed appropriate that the game turned into a sideshow. Robinson's towering achievements deserved no less.
Also considered: 2004 Bayou Classic, an upset win by Grambling that sent Richardson into a tailspin. Then the reigning SWAC champion, the Jaguars went on to lose in the '04 title match and haven't had a winning season since. ... 1974 Bayou Classic, the first ever held. This game was held at Tulane Stadium while construction of the Superdome continued. ... 2006 Bayou Classic, which is set to include an emotional homecoming in New Orleans, a year after Hurricane Katrina.
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
More than three decades in, which Bayou Classic games mattered the most? I'm talking turning-point moments. Not just because that particular day was (or wasn't) a big win, but because it had a lasting impact. Leading up to Saturday's Bayou Classic, I'll make my six points:
1980 Bayou Classic
November 19, 2006
SIX: When Mike Williams walked off the Superdome carpet with the most valuable player award after the 1980 Bayou Classic, it marked the end of an era.
The Williams' era.
A quarterback named Williams, either Mike or older brother Doug, had started for Grambling in every Classic until that point - and had won four of the seven MVPs ever given.
GSU had also gone 6-1 against Southern with a Williams under center, falling only in 1979. Five of the Top 6 best-attended games, including Nos. 1-4, occurred during this span, as well.
Doug Williams remembered the very first game, played at Tulane in 1974 while construction of the Superdome was completed:
"I looked around and said: 'What am I doing here?'" he told The News-Star in 2003. "We had 75,000 at a historically black college football game. I was a redshirt freshman, and scared to death. I was blessed to have some veterans around me and Coach Robinson ran a conservative offense that didn't put too much pressure on me."
Doug Williams would, of course, be named MVP in that game, as well as the third Bayou Classic in 1976. Mike Williams took over in 1978, and won the Classic MVP that season and in 1980.
(Grambling wingback Sammy White, now the program's offensive coordinator, was MVP in 1975, followed by GSU wingback Robert Woods in 1977. Southern quarterback Wilfred Charles was the 1979 honoree.)
g g g
1993 Bayou Classic
November 20, 2006
FIVE: In 1993, rookie Southern coach Pete Richardson stormed into the SWAC - beating his first six league opponents by an average of 30 points. In fact, he'd only stumble once coming into the season-ending Bayou Classic, and that was against out-of-conference foe Nicholls State.
"I voted for him for Coach of the Year," former GSU line coach Billy Manning told The News-Star in 1993. "It's hard to come in and turn a team around like that. ... It all boils down to execution, motivation, technique and preparation. The talent has been there."
Southern had already punched its ticket to the Heritage Bowl, after GSU fell to Alabama State three weeks before. Richardson then topped Eddie Robinson in the 1993 Bayou Classic 31-13 with sophomore quarterback Eric Randall as MVP.
A subsequent bowl win over South Carolina State meant the first-year coach had led Southern to the school's second 11-win season ever, its first SWAC title in 18 years and its first outright championship since 1959.
What followed was a stunning run of dominance for Southern, as Pete eventually took eight straight Classics -- six from Robinson and two from Doug Williams, Rob's eventual successor. He beat Grambling by an average of two touchdowns over that span.
Before Pete, Grambling actually held a 13-6 Classic series lead, and Southern had never won more than two in a row (1981-82 and 1987-88). By 2000, the Richardson had already won four SWAC titles (1993, then 1997-99) -- and pulled ahead in the Classic series, 14-13.
It all started with that 1993 victory.
g g g
1990 Bayou Classic
November 21, 2006
FOUR: In many ways, the 1990 Bayou Classic was somewhat routine, as Grambling won 25-13 - Eddie Robinson's second in a row over Southern coach Gerald Kimble. GSU had, at that point, won 12 of the initial 17 editions.
Only this time, 200 million people had the opportunity to experience the game - not to mention the halftime pageantry - through a new partnership deal with NBC TV.
Former Grambling sports information director Collie J. Nicholson's dream - 12 years after his celebrated 30-year run at GSU ended - had finally been completely realized.
"When Eddie Robinson came to Grambling, people in Lincoln Parish didn't even know where Grambling was," Nicholson told The News-Star in 2003. "It took a long time to build name recognition for the school, during the time of segregation."
This was a guy who used to type up the game stories, then drive 70 miles to Shreveport to wire them all over the country. Now, Nicholson's game was being beamed into every home in America.
GSU quarterback Shawn Burras was the 1990 Classic's MVP, leading a unit that included SWAC offensive player of the year Walter Dean and future NFL receiver Jake Reed. Still, I think my favorite guy from this period is Raymond Smith, the 6-7, 435-pound offensive tackle who so richly earned the nickname: "World."
Oddly enough, despite the addition of television coverage, the 1990 edition turned out to be the highest attended Classic since Southern beat Grambling 22-17 in 1982. The announced crowd of 70,600 was then No. 7 all time.
Nicholson, who was recognized with the Bayou Classic Founder's Award two seasons later, passed earlier this year after experiencing a series of health problems. The press box at Robinson Stadium is named in his honor.
g g g
1992 Bayou Classic
November 22, 2006
THREE: Coaching legends Eddie Robinson and Marino Casem - winners between them of 568 college contests - faced off again, producing another remarkable rivalry game.
And another razor-thin margin.
Three times, they roamed the sidelines at the Bayou Classic. The average margin of victory: 6 points.
This time, GSU won 30-27 before a sold-out crowd of 71,283, the year before Casem moved up to become Southern's athletics director. It was the last time these two Southwestern Athletic Conference legends met on the field.
The Classic's most valuable player was Grambling quarterback Alex Perkins, who would then help craft a 45-15 win over Florida A&M in the Heritage Bowl to win the '92 black college national championship - the final under Robinson. (Current GSU running backs coach Darius Matthews was also on that team.)
This would be the only time Robinson got the better of Casem in New Orleans. Southern beat Grambling by a touchdown in both 1987 and '88. (Southern's Daryl Garner and Chris Scott, respectively, were named MVPs.)
In all, 182,516 people saw these titanic struggles, which led to one of the most famous descriptions of this game from Casem - who called it "the biggest and best thing in all of blackdom."
Known as The Godfather of the SWAC, Casem served as coach and athletics director at both Southern, Alcorn and, for one season early in his coaching career, at Alabama State.
That run included seven football titles at Alcorn, where he set a school record for wins. (Though the two played to a virtual draw over Casem's first decade at Alcorn, Rob eventually established a 13-8 advantage). Casem oversaw another four SWAC championships as AD at Southern, then had another brief tenure in the same position at Alcorn before retiring.
Both Robinson and Casem, who finished with a coaching record of 160-91-8, are now members of the College Football Hall of Fame.
g g g
1975 Bayou Classic
November 23, 2006
TWO: It's not just that this game was the first to be played in the Superdome, which is reason enough.
This one boasted more eventual NFL talent from Grambling than any Bayou Classic ever: Eight starters went on to play three or more years in the pros, and at least 15 were eventually invited to NFL camps.
"Grambling's football tradition is second to none," former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue told The News-Star in 1992. "Under Eddie Robinson's leadership, Grambling contributed an unusually large number of players to the NFL."
Wingback Sammy White (Vikings, 1976-86) took handoffs from quarterback Doug Williams (Buccaneers, 1978-83; and Redskins, 1986-89). Now GSU's offensive coordinator, White was named the game's most valuable player.
Williams also had Dwight Scales (Rams, 1976-79; Chargers, 1981-83; and Seahawks, 1984) as a top target. Big Ron Singleton (Chargers, 1976; and Niners, 1977-80) would play both tight end and offensive tackle. The group scored 33 points that year on Charlie Bates' Jaguars, thrilling a crowd of 73,214 at the Dome.
Defensive back James Hunter (Lions, 1976-82) and linebacker Robert Pennywell (Niners, 1976; and Falcons, 1977-80) led a unit that held Southern to 17 points. The defensive line was anchored by Robert Barber (Packers, 1976-80) and Michael St. Claire (Browns, 1976-79; and Bengals, 1980-82).
Others from this amazingly talented Tiger team who appeared on NFL rosters included offensive tackle Larry Favorite (Falcons); defensive end Arthur Gilliam (Broncos); defensive tackle Jessie O'Neal (Oilers, Seahawks and Redskins); offensive lineman Robert Simon (Oilers); defensive backs Eugene Williams (Jets) and Michael Harris (Eagles, Jets and Steelers); and center Billy Manning (Saints) -- who later became an assistant under Robinson.
The Bayou Classic would be played another 29 times at the Superdome before Hurricane Katrina rendered the facility unplayable in 2005. After a one-year hiatus at Houston's Reliant Stadium, the contest returns home this year.
g g g
1997 Bayou Classic
November 24, 2006
ONE: There would be no stopping Southern's Pete Richardson, then in the midst of eight years of domination in New Orleans.
Nevertheless, Eddie Robinson's final game, after 57 seasons at Grambling, provided the proper send off to college football's winningest coach.
The NBC broadcast included several features chronicling his storied career. Tributes flowed in from then President Bill Clinton, fellow coaches like Penn State's Joe Paterno and a bevy of former players.
More than 300 media credentials were issued, and they quickly scattered out to interview the likes of Willie Davis, Charles "Tank" Smith, Elfrid Payton, Henry Dyer, Mike Williams, James Hunter, and others.
The build up threatened to subsume the Bayou Classic itself.
Of course, Robinson took it all in stride: "I'm really not trying to think of this game as my last," he told The News-Star in 1997. "It's there in the back of my mind, but I'm really just trying to take this as just the next game we have to try to win."
That didn't happen, as Southern dispatched GSU, 30-7.
Even so, there were other numbers threading through the four-hour broadcast, staggering numbers - 408 wins in 587 games, 17 SWAC titles and 210 players in the NFL. Hundreds, if not thousands of young men, with a road map to life in the form of a college degree.
In carrying the game, NBC shared the story of Eddie Robinson with the world one final time.
The 1997 Classic was one instance - this year, with the return to New Orleans, is another - when it seemed appropriate that the game turned into a sideshow. Robinson's towering achievements deserved no less.
Also considered: 2004 Bayou Classic, an upset win by Grambling that sent Richardson into a tailspin. Then the reigning SWAC champion, the Jaguars went on to lose in the '04 title match and haven't had a winning season since. ... 1974 Bayou Classic, the first ever held. This game was held at Tulane Stadium while construction of the Superdome continued. ... 2006 Bayou Classic, which is set to include an emotional homecoming in New Orleans, a year after Hurricane Katrina.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Remembering: Grambling's 1980 team
Looking for a little loveUnjustly overlooked, Grambling's Class of 1980 was one for the ages
June 11, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Don't mind Grambling State's Class of 1980 if they feel a bit overlooked.
Forgive them, even in the long shadow of this 2005 football squad's stunning success, if they are defensive.
That includes the guys who played offense.
"This year's team was good," said former quarterback Mike Williams, "but you couldn't mess with the 1980 team."
Their accomplishments, even today, rank amongst the best ever at GSU. Two roster members — linebacker Andre Robinson and lineman Charlie Lewis — also continue that legacy as assistant coaches with the program.
And that season, well, it was one for the ages.
Yet, coming as it did at the end of a decade of dominance for former coach Eddie Robinson, the 1980 campaign tends to be ignored.
The players from that year — quirky, quietly successful and fiercely loyal to one another — say they still don't know why.
EVEN THEN, DISMISSED
The Tigers were coming off a fourth straight Southwestern Athletic Conference championship from the previous fall, yet the 1981 NFL Draft only saw two players taken from Grambling. Running back Robert Parham and defensive tackle Mike Barker were both selected, but as disappointing 10th rounders.
"Look at our team — with Mike Williams, Parham, (flamboyant SWAC offensive player of the year) Trumaine Johnson. Those were great players," said defensive back Everson Walls (pictured above), an eventual free agent signing for Dallas who would become the only player to lead the NFL in picks three times.
"I was successful because of those guys," Walls said. "I heard them in my head whenever I got down."
That NFL snub was, sadly, a sign of things to come. GSU football under Robinson was never quite the same again.
Grambling had 47 players drafted (and five in the first round) between 1970-80, but only 28 over the rest of Robinson's career through 1997 — and none in the first round.
That end-of-an-era draft, held 25 springs back, still stings. Both Walls and Andre Robinson mention it often.
"That was something that got all of us, that more didn't get drafted," said Robinson, the '80 Bayou Classic MVP.
This season was historic in other ways.
The Tigers were finishing a nearly perfect run: Over the 10 years beginning in '71 Grambling had claimed or shared eight league titles.
GSU had actually been on probation in 1976, meaning there was only a single campaign over that span where the Tigers competed for a championship and didn't win it. Even then, they finished second in 1975.
Beginning in 1981, this striking period of success ended.
Grambling didn't win consecutive titles again until 2000-02, and that was after Doug Williams — quarterback from 1974-77, and Mike Williams' older brother — returned to coach the Tigers.
In fact, Grambling would claim just four more conference championships in the final 17 seasons with Robinson on the sidelines — and one was in 1983, with a smattering of youngsters (like Robert "Big Bird" Smith) from the 1980 roster.
"When Doug Williams left in 1977, NFL scouts for some reason didn't think we had any talent left," Walls said. "There was no media concentrated on Grambling after Doug left. Nobody knew about us. But we didn't need anybody to; we challenged ourselves."
MAKING THEIR CASE
Grambling's exclamation point season of 1980 was shot through with highlights.
GSU players occupied four of the top five spots for scorers in the Southwestern Athletic Conference that year. The leader was that startling talent Trumaine Johnson with 96 points — 30 more than the Grambling teammate that followed at No. 2, Jerry Gordon.
"The 1980s began with one of our best wingbacks ever leading Grambling's offense," Coach Robinson has said. "Trumaine Johnson was beautiful to watch. He caught 16 touchdown passes in 1980 alone."
That he played with such abandon only added to Johnson's lore.
Cornerbacks Walls, Robert Salter and Mike Haynes combined for 24 picks that season, more than the rest of the SWAC's Top 10 combined in 1980.
There were tough-guy attributes about this team that remained from the old days. But they had a different attitude.
The team pulled together, even shedding some of the traditional hazing rituals for younger players — called, even today, "crabs."
"We wanted to lift them up," Walls said. "We would stay after Coach Rob to work with them, even without asking."
Haynes pushed Walls, and they both got better.
"He believed in himself," Walls said of Haynes, a former walk-on. "But he also believed in me, more than I did. He wanted me to be better, because if we were better, everybody would improve."
Mike Williams was the SWAC's top passer in '80 with 2,716 yards, while Parham was its No. 2 rusher with 1,004. Johnson led all punt returners, while Andre Robinson's 106 tackles was tied for seventh in the league.
The 1980 squad was also the first to participate in the NCAA's fledgling Division I-AA playoffs, though the Tigers were sent to Boise State, despite the fact that the opposing team had a worse overall record. GSU fell 14-9.
STILL A MENTOR, HERO
Even in the first hints of twilight, Grambling's young players still recognized what their coach meant — and just what he had created at this country school.
This being a special group, though, these guys weren't afraid to challenge him.
"How great a man Eddie Robinson was, and with what he had to work with?" Haynes said. "When you take the measure of him, you have to think about his faith in what this place could be, in what we could be. To make all of this out of nothing? You know when you come upon greatness."
If Robinson — entering his fifth decade of coaching — had softened some, he hadn't completely abandoned those familiar, fiery ways.
"Coach Rob challenged us within the system," Walls said. "He knew who his starters were, but challenged the backups, too. He didn't want us to be satisfied. That had a lot to do with our success."
Still, they could do nothing to stop the beginning of the end for his reign.
Grambling scored 415 points in 1980, a figured only topped three more times in the Robinson era. The '80 defense also limited opponents to 166 points, a mark that would be bested just twice in Robinson's final 17 campaigns (in 1983 and '95).
GSU won 11 games twice in the 1970s, but never again under Robinson. The Tigers had a 10-win season in 1980, but only managed that once more under Robinson (in 1992). Seven of GSU's 13 total invites to the Senior Bowl came during the period of 1970-80, with only three more following.
Somehow, the final contributors to that mythical run aren't always part of the conversation. Yet, they'll tell you that they challenged the league, and even their mentor.
This talented but precocious group had been so bold as to go on strike in 1979 — skipping a pair of practices after the school president decided to cut the travel budget by mandating bus rides to away games.
A LASTING MARK
Perhaps, and Eddie Robinson has said this, the pressure of those coaching milestones that loomed in the early 1980s was too much for the youngsters charged with winning the games.
After all, this was the beginning of a period in which Robinson — who ended up with a then-record 408 wins — was stalking Pop Warner's 313 career victories, then Paul "Bear" Bryant's signature 323 mark.
And, maybe, 10 years after the desegregation of Southern football powers like Alabama and LSU, the talent pool was finally beginning to visibly ebb.
Robinson himself was also growing older, becoming perhaps more tolerant.
A player strike? At Grambling? And who could imagine him encouraging the new-wave flash of a Trumaine Johnson in those by-gone eras?
Whatever lay ahead, though, there would be one bright, final blast: The 1980 squad remains in GSU's all-time Top 10 across nearly every statistical standard — even a quarter century later.
The players credit Robinson, of course, but also their buddies.
"I wasn't known for being fast," said Walls, "but I used to run just a little bit faster when I lined up against my teammates in the calisthenics line."
Mike Williams is still No. 6 in the GSU annals for career passing TDs, and is also ranked for single-season passing touchdowns (No. 7); career completion percentage (tied at No. 8, with older brother Doug); and single season completion percentage (tied at No. 6, again with Doug).
"Mike Williams threw a pretty ball," Walls said. "When he was on, even more so than Doug."
Trumaine Johnson is at No. 9 all-time at Grambling in single-season receptions, No. 7 for single-season receiving yards and tied at No. 4 for single-season touchdowns. Parham sits at No. 8 for single-season rushing yards.
The players from back then say facing each other is what spurred them to those numbers.
"We were always challenged," Walls said, "not just by the coaches but by the other players."
Mike Williams remembers practices being tougher sometimes than the games that loomed each weekend.
"We used to beat the heck out of those guys," Williams said, "when we went down the hill to the old stadium. Practice was just like on a Saturday afternoon."
In the end, Walls' 11 interceptions in 1980 remain a school record, as does "Big Bird" Smith's 48½ career sacks — a streak that began in 1980 and continued through '83. Walls is also at No. 4 for single-season interception return yardage.
"With all due respect to Sammy White, we went up against some of the greatest receivers who ever played here — and we played them physically," Walls said. "Coach Rob would never let you leave the practice field until they scored a touchdown. We didn't care. We'd keep them out there all night."
For all the recognition they didn't get, the 1980 team held its own back then.
It does even today.
Mike Williams was still selling their legacy this week, speaking passionately during a reception preceding his older brother's benefit golf tournament with fellow former Grambling quarterback James "Shack" Harris.
"We were a different bunch," he said.
Williams paused then, before adding: "We were different, but we were family. And we believed in each other. We were pigs who could fly."
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GSU greats visiting Spears' camp
Defensive backs Everson Walls and Albert Lewis — members of those overlooked 1980-81 Grambling teams — are scheduled to return to assist with this week's Melvin Spears Football Camp.
"Both of them will bring highlight tapes and a great knowledge of the game to show the kids," said former teammate Andre Robinson, now GSU's linebackers coach. "Those were lock-down corners."
The camp begins today, with registration from 2-6 p.m. at the Robinson Support Facility next to the stadium on campus. Call 274-7416.
Walls, selected to the Kodak Division I-AA All-America team in 1980, went on to a 14-season NFL career that included four Pro Bowls and a Super Bowl title with the New York Giants.
Lewis, a four-time Pro Bowler, played cornerback and safety for 16 seasons with Kansas City and Oakland after being named first-team All-SWAC in 1981-82.
— Nick Deriso
THE 1980 SEASON
Overall: 10-2; SWAC: 5-1
Morgan State W 34-13
Alcorn State L 29-27*
Florida A&M W 27-10
Prairie View W 68-0*
Tennessee State W 52-27
Mississippi Valley W 34-24*
Jackson State W 24-14*
Texas Southern W 43-14*
Alabama State W 28-12
South Carolina State W 26-3
Southern W 43-6
Boise State L 14-9%
* - SWAC game
% - I-AA playoffs
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Bayou Classic 2002
GSU's Williams stays busy in Classic week
November 30, 2002
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
He admits, with some relish, to being a busy man.
Mostly, it seems, Grambling coach Doug Williams has been busy answering the door. He was just starting to warm to his subject - the words tumbling out like a solo, the thoughts connecting underneath like a rhythm.
Then it came, again. The knocking.
This being Bayou Classic week, football can occasionally be the least of his concerns.
"Bruce Eugene," Williams said, trying to start over. Knock, knock.
Williams settled back down into his chair. "Yeah," he yelled.
The door opened, this time bringing someone with something that needed signing. Outside Williams' office, there was a noisy war room of assistant coaches and players.
This uproar seems to be both natural and enjoyable to Williams. It hadn't been any quieter inside. Watching him talk, I had a memory of Keith Jarrett - who sometimes will become so engrossed in a piano solo that he'll actually come up off the piano bench.
Jazz will do that. Football, at least for Williams, does too. (Rarely moreso than this year, I'd guess.) Even before this latest interruption, there were only rare moments of stillness. Talking about his team, Williams leaned forward. He swung around. He looked about in wonder, sometimes.
His body language spoke of an enthused realization: How far they'd come! There would be no laurel resting for the winners of the 2001 Bayou Classic, though. An angry gunmetal sky and the occasional sharp droplet of rain wouldn't stop offensive coordinator Melvin Spears from running the Tigers through their paces.
Earlier he had appeared, determined to get the team up and running in a nearby gym. "We won't be playing outside anyway," Spears said, and chuckled.
The reason for all this furious activity: Grambling's biggest game of the year gets bigger every year. There were SWAC lists to fax over, travel details to iron out, national media arrangements to be made, rosters and conference calls and hotel reservations.
Meaning, sometimes there's very little football. So, it's obviously an enjoyable break for Williams, this simple talk of emerging young stars, and tough contests won, and the stringing together of championships - and, yeah, that time I cautiously picked Jackson State to win.
They didn't, of course. Grambling, we know now, would not lose a game after August. This is all the more surprising when you consider that the Tigers had leaked out most of a starting lineup through graduation.
But Williams (knock, knock) can't get on a good (ring, ring) improvisational run. At one point, the phone behind his desk and the cell phone on his hip had jumped to life at nearly the exact same moment. His trains of thought were jackknifing so badly that the conversation had to be continued after lunch.
"Busy?" he said to one caller, chuckling. "I'm busier than a one-armed wallpaper hanger."
Each of Williams' visitors passes under a single rough-hewn word, fashioned from black electrical tape over the door. "WIN," it shouts.
Williams said he hopes to do that this year, even as he reminisced a little. He played in the first Bayou Classic, a 1974 win earned out in the open of Tulane Stadium. "It was," Williams said, like a low trombone pull, "football, then."
Not anymore. In one half hour, Williams took three, six, 12 calls - an insistent jangle that would have made John Coltrane wince.
The enormity of an event like this might overwhelm someone else. After all, the alumni at Grambling would accept a one-win season every year … if that win was against Southern.
But Doug Williams, it's clear, likes this furious bebop - the never-ebbing flow of a busy Bayou Classic week. His broad smile says: The wallpaper will get hung.
Nick Deriso is sports editor at The News-Star, 411 N. Fourth St., Monroe, La., 71201. You can contact him at 362-0234 or at nderiso@thenewssstar.com.
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SUn again puts the heat on GSU
December 1, 2002
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
NEW ORLEANS - The morning forecast here called for rain. What followed for Grambling State was an afternoon of pain.
Ominous fog hung over the top of the Superdome early Saturday. A light drizzle fell at an angle, pushed by sharply cold winds.
The Tigers would have to weather their own storm inside: Another slow start in a season that has seen several. That proved all the opening a hungry Southern team needed, as the Jaguars got up early and then ran away with the game. The Jaguars moved ahead in the overall Bayou Classic series by one game.
This complacent-looking Tiger team - coming off five straight games where it scored 34 or more points - made it easier by putting up just 3 points in the first half.
Coach Doug Williams stood in the Grambling end zone, an hour before kickoff, watching the Tigers go through their pre-game progressions. He might have seen the clouds building, even then.
"One thing we tried to warn them was that this is a very emotional football game," Williams said. "We had to get the upper hand. But they got it - and they got the momentum on their side. They played a hell of a ballgame."
With a trip to the conference championship game secured, another GSU squad fell into an age-old trap: Overlooking an always well-coached Southern team.
"It seems," said senior defensive lineman Willie Gray, "that we play down to the competition." Grambling simply didn't have the fire and emotion that Southern did, even before the Jaguars' canny on-side kick to start the game. The Jaguars were whooping it up, feeding off a partisan crowd that streamed in early.
That seemed to be the difference - as the Tigers couldn't get anything going. They couldn't even get a break. Kicker Colby Miller's third extra-point try hit the goal post, yet it still tumbled in. Later, Gray could only shake his head at the thought.
This game was an opportunity lost for a team that should have played better. The Jaguars knew it. Southern linebacker Lendrick Francois hugged a visibly emotional Eugene at midfield after the game: "Y'all are just getting started," he said. "Get you a ring."
That clearly was first and foremost on the minds of the Grambling players - and, right or wrong, it cost them this huge in-state game.
Tramon Douglas said as much: "You've got to move on. Our main goal was to get to the championship."
Southern's 6-0 lead at the end of first quarter was particularly deceptive. The score doesn't indicate how decisively the Jaguars were winning, while GSU wandered.
Case in point: The Tigers muffed their first kickoff reception, ending up inside the GSU 10. Next, Eugene had to scramble to recover a fumble on the snap. Five plays later, another mishandled snap gave the ball back the Jaguars.
No points were being added with this furious to-and-fro. But Southern was clearly gathering itself for a late-game run.
"We turned the ball over - and Southern capitalized," Douglas said. "We were a little out of sync."
The Tigers had a brief resurgence, as Eugene came alive with two TD tosses in the third. But each was answered by a Southern countermove.
The final turning point came when Eugene had a tipped pass intercepted, just as the Tigers had pulled to within a touchdown.
"It was big, momentum-wise," Eugene said, of the tip. "But that's the way it goes."
He paused. "That's the way it goes."
He's right: A Bayou Classic series tied at 14 apiece after 29 years vividly illustrates the evenly matched nature of this contest.
Anyone can win, regardless of record. Especially if you spot them the momentum.
That happened on an dark and stormy Saturday, as Southern - a team that reached .500 with the win - handed the three-time SWAC West champs their first loss since opening week.
Before the Tigers could get their umbrellas opened, a Bayou Classic victory was draining away in rivulets.
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GSU's Eugene breaks passing mark
The Tigers' signal-caller has 40 TD passes on the regular season
December 1, 2002
By NICK DERISO
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
NEW ORLEANS - Grambling quarterback Bruce Eugene came into the Bayou Classic needing just one touchdown to tie Doug Williams's 1977 record of 38 scoring throws in a season.
He didn't much care.
"I don't think about the accolades when I am on the field," he said, after Grambling fell 48-24. "All the accolades are good, but when I'm on the field, it's just me and my 11 guys."
While Eugene moved the chains for the Tigers early, more often than not it was on the ground. A memorable first-quarter play had a Southern defender's helmet popping off after he tried to tackle Eugene. The sophomore quarterback then rumbled for the Tigers' initial first down.
That wasn't getting Eugene any records, however. And it wasn't winning the game for Grambling. Eugene was worried about the second part: "Stats don't mean anything," he said. "The only thing that matters is the score."
Near misses in the first half included a key drop by Thyron Anderson with 3:31 left that looked like a sure TD.
Eugene finally hit Tramon Douglas early in the third quarter, a strike that pulled Grambling to within a nine points. He then threw well for several series, but great defensive plays by Southern kept Eugene stuck at 38 TD passes - until deep into the third quarter.
An 18-yard touchdown to senior wide reciever D.J. Clay with 6:12 left finally pushed Eugene past Williams.
"I broke it," a clearly dejected Eugene said, with little joy. "But a record is only good if you come out a winner - and we came out a loser. So I can't enjoy the record."
He tacked on another pass to Gershone Jessie that made it 40 TDs overall.
"I'm glad for Bruce Eugene," Williams said - though, he added: "I wish he didn't throw any and we had won."
The performance puts the finishing touches on a stunning statistical season, one that saw an avalanche of GSU records tumble.
Douglas passed the school marks for receiving touchdowns, receptions for a junior, and receptions and receiving yards in a season. All of those records were previously held by Scotty Anderson.
Eugene also broke the GSU record for most passing yards as a sophomore, set in 1993 by Kenneth Nord. He passed Williams' 1977 mark for passing yards in a season, too.
Eugene holds the school records for most passes attemped, most passes completed and most passing touchdowns in a season - again, surpassing Williams.
"I think Bruce Eugene deserves everything he's gotten this year - and will get," Williams said.
Time is on their side: A history of lengthy Classics continued Saturday, with the first quarter alone lasting 51 minutes.
The second quarter clocked in at 52 minutes, followed by a 25-minute halftime show. The 63-minute third quarter led to a 50-minute fourth, for a grand total of 4 hours and 8 minutes.
Injury report: A tough season for Southern quarterback Quincy Richard continued. He briefly left the game with 5:15 left in the third after a nasty hit by GSU's Terry Cooper.
The junior had already been knocked out of two previous Southern games - against Tulane and, in the season opener, against Nicholls State.
Ironically, Richard lost his redshirt in 1999's Bayou Classic, when he came in for an injured Terrence Levy.
Tiger tidbits: Grambling appeared in never-before-seen uniforms. The Tigers' jerseys and pants were white; the numbers were black with gold trim. "I like the new threads," said receiver Tramon Douglas, "but I don't like what we did in them today." Stripes on the hips and shoulder pads were similar to the University of Miami's uniform. ... As the home team this year, Southern's band appeared before the game and performed the National Anthem. ... Three scouts from the New Orleans Saints attended the game, looking for prospective young players.
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Williams dominates All-Time Bayou Team
December 1, 2002
By NICK DERISO
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
Grambling State football coach Doug Williams received the most votes for the All-Time Bayou Classic Team from Grambling after polling ended Saturday.
Votes were taken online at thenews-star.com's Bayou Classic page; visitors were allowed to vote multiple times.
Members of the All-Time Tiger Team, along with other selections, are:
· Quarterback: Williams, 75.3 percent; Randy Hymes, 17.3 percent; Clemente Gordon, 6.2 percent; and Mike Williams, 1.2 percent.
· Receivers (two): Scotty Anderson, 60.4 percent; Sammie White, 45.5 percent; Levi Washington, 36.4 percent; Nate Singleton, 20.8 percent; Jake Reed, 16.7 percent; Robert Woods, 13.2 percent; Silas Payne, 5.7 percent; and Ellis Spears, 1.5 percent.
· Running back: Wayne Hill and Brad Hill tied, each with 50 percent of the vote.
· Tight end: Andrew Glover, 72.3 percent; Mike Moore, 27.7 percent.
· Special teams: Trumaine Johnson, 62.2 percent; Kalvin Pearson, 17.8 percent; Ardashir Nobahar, 11.1 percent; Frank Bailey, 6.7 percent; and Lawrence Richmond, 2.2 percent.
· Cornerbacks (two): Calvin Spears, 79.1 percent; Everson Walls, 61.7 percent; Albert Lewis, 38.3 percent; and Thomas Griffin, 20.9 percent.
· Linebackers (two): Robert Taylor, 91.8 percent; Robert Pennywell, 60.5 percent; Terrance Dukes, 39.5 percent; and Valmond Brown, 8.2 percent.
· Also receiving votes: linebacker Fred Collins Jr.; tight end Tracey Green; quarterback Kendrick Nord; cornerbacks James Hunter, Ivan Geralds, Ivan Webb and Shane Oubre; running backs Walter Dean, Eric Gant and Robert Parham; wide recievers Dwight Scales, Fred Jones and Calvin Nicholas; and special teams players Bennie Thompson, Keith Smyre, Gerald Broadway, Jorge Rosales, Brandon Simpson and Dwayne Jupiter.
November 30, 2002
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
He admits, with some relish, to being a busy man.
Mostly, it seems, Grambling coach Doug Williams has been busy answering the door. He was just starting to warm to his subject - the words tumbling out like a solo, the thoughts connecting underneath like a rhythm.
Then it came, again. The knocking.
This being Bayou Classic week, football can occasionally be the least of his concerns.
"Bruce Eugene," Williams said, trying to start over. Knock, knock.
Williams settled back down into his chair. "Yeah," he yelled.
The door opened, this time bringing someone with something that needed signing. Outside Williams' office, there was a noisy war room of assistant coaches and players.
This uproar seems to be both natural and enjoyable to Williams. It hadn't been any quieter inside. Watching him talk, I had a memory of Keith Jarrett - who sometimes will become so engrossed in a piano solo that he'll actually come up off the piano bench.
Jazz will do that. Football, at least for Williams, does too. (Rarely moreso than this year, I'd guess.) Even before this latest interruption, there were only rare moments of stillness. Talking about his team, Williams leaned forward. He swung around. He looked about in wonder, sometimes.
His body language spoke of an enthused realization: How far they'd come! There would be no laurel resting for the winners of the 2001 Bayou Classic, though. An angry gunmetal sky and the occasional sharp droplet of rain wouldn't stop offensive coordinator Melvin Spears from running the Tigers through their paces.
Earlier he had appeared, determined to get the team up and running in a nearby gym. "We won't be playing outside anyway," Spears said, and chuckled.
The reason for all this furious activity: Grambling's biggest game of the year gets bigger every year. There were SWAC lists to fax over, travel details to iron out, national media arrangements to be made, rosters and conference calls and hotel reservations.
Meaning, sometimes there's very little football. So, it's obviously an enjoyable break for Williams, this simple talk of emerging young stars, and tough contests won, and the stringing together of championships - and, yeah, that time I cautiously picked Jackson State to win.
They didn't, of course. Grambling, we know now, would not lose a game after August. This is all the more surprising when you consider that the Tigers had leaked out most of a starting lineup through graduation.
But Williams (knock, knock) can't get on a good (ring, ring) improvisational run. At one point, the phone behind his desk and the cell phone on his hip had jumped to life at nearly the exact same moment. His trains of thought were jackknifing so badly that the conversation had to be continued after lunch.
"Busy?" he said to one caller, chuckling. "I'm busier than a one-armed wallpaper hanger."
Each of Williams' visitors passes under a single rough-hewn word, fashioned from black electrical tape over the door. "WIN," it shouts.
Williams said he hopes to do that this year, even as he reminisced a little. He played in the first Bayou Classic, a 1974 win earned out in the open of Tulane Stadium. "It was," Williams said, like a low trombone pull, "football, then."
Not anymore. In one half hour, Williams took three, six, 12 calls - an insistent jangle that would have made John Coltrane wince.
The enormity of an event like this might overwhelm someone else. After all, the alumni at Grambling would accept a one-win season every year … if that win was against Southern.
But Doug Williams, it's clear, likes this furious bebop - the never-ebbing flow of a busy Bayou Classic week. His broad smile says: The wallpaper will get hung.
Nick Deriso is sports editor at The News-Star, 411 N. Fourth St., Monroe, La., 71201. You can contact him at 362-0234 or at nderiso@thenewssstar.com.
g g g
SUn again puts the heat on GSU
December 1, 2002
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
NEW ORLEANS - The morning forecast here called for rain. What followed for Grambling State was an afternoon of pain.
Ominous fog hung over the top of the Superdome early Saturday. A light drizzle fell at an angle, pushed by sharply cold winds.
The Tigers would have to weather their own storm inside: Another slow start in a season that has seen several. That proved all the opening a hungry Southern team needed, as the Jaguars got up early and then ran away with the game. The Jaguars moved ahead in the overall Bayou Classic series by one game.
This complacent-looking Tiger team - coming off five straight games where it scored 34 or more points - made it easier by putting up just 3 points in the first half.
Coach Doug Williams stood in the Grambling end zone, an hour before kickoff, watching the Tigers go through their pre-game progressions. He might have seen the clouds building, even then.
"One thing we tried to warn them was that this is a very emotional football game," Williams said. "We had to get the upper hand. But they got it - and they got the momentum on their side. They played a hell of a ballgame."
With a trip to the conference championship game secured, another GSU squad fell into an age-old trap: Overlooking an always well-coached Southern team.
"It seems," said senior defensive lineman Willie Gray, "that we play down to the competition." Grambling simply didn't have the fire and emotion that Southern did, even before the Jaguars' canny on-side kick to start the game. The Jaguars were whooping it up, feeding off a partisan crowd that streamed in early.
That seemed to be the difference - as the Tigers couldn't get anything going. They couldn't even get a break. Kicker Colby Miller's third extra-point try hit the goal post, yet it still tumbled in. Later, Gray could only shake his head at the thought.
This game was an opportunity lost for a team that should have played better. The Jaguars knew it. Southern linebacker Lendrick Francois hugged a visibly emotional Eugene at midfield after the game: "Y'all are just getting started," he said. "Get you a ring."
That clearly was first and foremost on the minds of the Grambling players - and, right or wrong, it cost them this huge in-state game.
Tramon Douglas said as much: "You've got to move on. Our main goal was to get to the championship."
Southern's 6-0 lead at the end of first quarter was particularly deceptive. The score doesn't indicate how decisively the Jaguars were winning, while GSU wandered.
Case in point: The Tigers muffed their first kickoff reception, ending up inside the GSU 10. Next, Eugene had to scramble to recover a fumble on the snap. Five plays later, another mishandled snap gave the ball back the Jaguars.
No points were being added with this furious to-and-fro. But Southern was clearly gathering itself for a late-game run.
"We turned the ball over - and Southern capitalized," Douglas said. "We were a little out of sync."
The Tigers had a brief resurgence, as Eugene came alive with two TD tosses in the third. But each was answered by a Southern countermove.
The final turning point came when Eugene had a tipped pass intercepted, just as the Tigers had pulled to within a touchdown.
"It was big, momentum-wise," Eugene said, of the tip. "But that's the way it goes."
He paused. "That's the way it goes."
He's right: A Bayou Classic series tied at 14 apiece after 29 years vividly illustrates the evenly matched nature of this contest.
Anyone can win, regardless of record. Especially if you spot them the momentum.
That happened on an dark and stormy Saturday, as Southern - a team that reached .500 with the win - handed the three-time SWAC West champs their first loss since opening week.
Before the Tigers could get their umbrellas opened, a Bayou Classic victory was draining away in rivulets.
g g g
GSU's Eugene breaks passing mark
The Tigers' signal-caller has 40 TD passes on the regular season
December 1, 2002
By NICK DERISO
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
NEW ORLEANS - Grambling quarterback Bruce Eugene came into the Bayou Classic needing just one touchdown to tie Doug Williams's 1977 record of 38 scoring throws in a season.
He didn't much care.
"I don't think about the accolades when I am on the field," he said, after Grambling fell 48-24. "All the accolades are good, but when I'm on the field, it's just me and my 11 guys."
While Eugene moved the chains for the Tigers early, more often than not it was on the ground. A memorable first-quarter play had a Southern defender's helmet popping off after he tried to tackle Eugene. The sophomore quarterback then rumbled for the Tigers' initial first down.
That wasn't getting Eugene any records, however. And it wasn't winning the game for Grambling. Eugene was worried about the second part: "Stats don't mean anything," he said. "The only thing that matters is the score."
Near misses in the first half included a key drop by Thyron Anderson with 3:31 left that looked like a sure TD.
Eugene finally hit Tramon Douglas early in the third quarter, a strike that pulled Grambling to within a nine points. He then threw well for several series, but great defensive plays by Southern kept Eugene stuck at 38 TD passes - until deep into the third quarter.
An 18-yard touchdown to senior wide reciever D.J. Clay with 6:12 left finally pushed Eugene past Williams.
"I broke it," a clearly dejected Eugene said, with little joy. "But a record is only good if you come out a winner - and we came out a loser. So I can't enjoy the record."
He tacked on another pass to Gershone Jessie that made it 40 TDs overall.
"I'm glad for Bruce Eugene," Williams said - though, he added: "I wish he didn't throw any and we had won."
The performance puts the finishing touches on a stunning statistical season, one that saw an avalanche of GSU records tumble.
Douglas passed the school marks for receiving touchdowns, receptions for a junior, and receptions and receiving yards in a season. All of those records were previously held by Scotty Anderson.
Eugene also broke the GSU record for most passing yards as a sophomore, set in 1993 by Kenneth Nord. He passed Williams' 1977 mark for passing yards in a season, too.
Eugene holds the school records for most passes attemped, most passes completed and most passing touchdowns in a season - again, surpassing Williams.
"I think Bruce Eugene deserves everything he's gotten this year - and will get," Williams said.
Time is on their side: A history of lengthy Classics continued Saturday, with the first quarter alone lasting 51 minutes.
The second quarter clocked in at 52 minutes, followed by a 25-minute halftime show. The 63-minute third quarter led to a 50-minute fourth, for a grand total of 4 hours and 8 minutes.
Injury report: A tough season for Southern quarterback Quincy Richard continued. He briefly left the game with 5:15 left in the third after a nasty hit by GSU's Terry Cooper.
The junior had already been knocked out of two previous Southern games - against Tulane and, in the season opener, against Nicholls State.
Ironically, Richard lost his redshirt in 1999's Bayou Classic, when he came in for an injured Terrence Levy.
Tiger tidbits: Grambling appeared in never-before-seen uniforms. The Tigers' jerseys and pants were white; the numbers were black with gold trim. "I like the new threads," said receiver Tramon Douglas, "but I don't like what we did in them today." Stripes on the hips and shoulder pads were similar to the University of Miami's uniform. ... As the home team this year, Southern's band appeared before the game and performed the National Anthem. ... Three scouts from the New Orleans Saints attended the game, looking for prospective young players.
g g g
Williams dominates All-Time Bayou Team
December 1, 2002
By NICK DERISO
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
Grambling State football coach Doug Williams received the most votes for the All-Time Bayou Classic Team from Grambling after polling ended Saturday.
Votes were taken online at thenews-star.com's Bayou Classic page; visitors were allowed to vote multiple times.
Members of the All-Time Tiger Team, along with other selections, are:
· Quarterback: Williams, 75.3 percent; Randy Hymes, 17.3 percent; Clemente Gordon, 6.2 percent; and Mike Williams, 1.2 percent.
· Receivers (two): Scotty Anderson, 60.4 percent; Sammie White, 45.5 percent; Levi Washington, 36.4 percent; Nate Singleton, 20.8 percent; Jake Reed, 16.7 percent; Robert Woods, 13.2 percent; Silas Payne, 5.7 percent; and Ellis Spears, 1.5 percent.
· Running back: Wayne Hill and Brad Hill tied, each with 50 percent of the vote.
· Tight end: Andrew Glover, 72.3 percent; Mike Moore, 27.7 percent.
· Special teams: Trumaine Johnson, 62.2 percent; Kalvin Pearson, 17.8 percent; Ardashir Nobahar, 11.1 percent; Frank Bailey, 6.7 percent; and Lawrence Richmond, 2.2 percent.
· Cornerbacks (two): Calvin Spears, 79.1 percent; Everson Walls, 61.7 percent; Albert Lewis, 38.3 percent; and Thomas Griffin, 20.9 percent.
· Linebackers (two): Robert Taylor, 91.8 percent; Robert Pennywell, 60.5 percent; Terrance Dukes, 39.5 percent; and Valmond Brown, 8.2 percent.
· Also receiving votes: linebacker Fred Collins Jr.; tight end Tracey Green; quarterback Kendrick Nord; cornerbacks James Hunter, Ivan Geralds, Ivan Webb and Shane Oubre; running backs Walter Dean, Eric Gant and Robert Parham; wide recievers Dwight Scales, Fred Jones and Calvin Nicholas; and special teams players Bennie Thompson, Keith Smyre, Gerald Broadway, Jorge Rosales, Brandon Simpson and Dwayne Jupiter.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Grambling's 80 years of football
G-RIFFIC TALENTWeb poll allows GSU fans to select best of the best
April 17, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Grambling resident Ray Higgins' grandfather, Milton "Twenty" Douglas, was on the local college's first football team, organized 80 years ago.
Originally known as the Colored Industrial and Agricultural School, Grambling fielded this initial squad under the leadership of R.W.E. Jones, the school's second president.
No, Eddie Robinson wasn't Grambling's first head football coach — a common mistake, Higgins notes, chuckling. It might seem that way since Robinson coached nearly 60 of those years.
Higgins is celebrating that long history of football at Grambling — both by highlighting its storied accomplishments and adjusting a few misconceptions — on a fan-operated Web site called www.GramblingStateUniversity.com. There, he's informally polling fans across the nation to assemble a list of the program's Top 80 all-time players.
"The great thing has been talking with people from different eras about Grambling's history," said Higgins, a booster who graduated from Grambling Lab and then GSU. "If you weren't around, you might have heard the legends, but you may not have seen these particular players. It's been fun."
Jones would coach the football team until 1932, a period that saw the creation of the school marching band, a signature element in the Grambling myth. (Higgins himself became a part of that tradition during his years at GSU.)
There followed a trio of two-year tenures for Ira Smith, Joe Williams and Osiah Johnson. Emory Hines then took over as coach for a six-year period before the long and celebrated "Eddie Rob" era began.
Jones hired the 21-year-old Robinson in 1940 after a standout playing career at the now-defunct Leland College. The rest, as they say, is history.
Robinson coached countless student athletes over what would eventually become a 57-year career, with more than 300 going on to play in the NFL. In the 1971 preseason alone, 43 former GSU players were in pro camps.
Robinson, in fact, began re-writing the record books in his second season.
Fred Hobdy and Dan Washington, who both later worked for Robinson, were members of the 1942 squad now known as the "un" team — having established an undefeated, untied and even unscored upon record that year.
Hobdy then coached the ends on Robinson's historic 1955 crew, which went 10-0 on its way to Grambling's first national black college championship. The team also produced the first of Robinson's four Pro Football Hall of Famers, Willie "Thumper" Davis.
Grambling, then a member of the Midwestern Conference, would join the Southwestern Athletic Conference in 1959 where Robinson won 17 titles (to go with eight more national black college championships) before retiring in 1997. His final tally was 408 wins, best in college football.
Robinson would be inducted into the College Hall of Fame, along with former players Paul "Tank" Younger, Gary "Big Hands" Johnson and Doug Williams — who succeeded him as coach at Grambling.
Williams, a quarterback on SWAC title teams in 1974 and '77, then established a 52-18 mark — winning three more conference championships — during his subsequent six-year stint. Current GSU coach Melvin Spears has added another 17 wins, including the most recent SWAC football title, and six losses.
Besides Robinson's undefeated 1942 and '55 squads, GSU has posted a staggering eight one-loss seasons — in 1956, 1960, 1967, 1974, 1977 and 1992 under Robinson, before Williams' Tigers did it in 2001 and Spears followed last season.
GSU's .699 all-time winning percentage is behind only Yale's .709 historically in all of Division I-AA.
So how to decide who among these towering giants to include in a Top 80 from Grambling's eight decades of football?
Is the starting quarterback Williams or James "Shack" Harris — who was a conference champion in every year he started in the late 1960s? What about the recently departed Bruce Eugene, who now holds every significant Grambling passing record?
"I tried to set it up based initially on names I knew," Higgins said. "There are presented 10 names at a time, starting with the most obvious. People have now begun talking about names that were omitted and giving reasons why others should be on. So, the lists have been growing."
There are embarrassments of riches everywhere.
Over the years, Grambling defensive lines have boasted Davis, Johnson, Junious "Buck" Buchanan and Ernie "The Big Cat" Ladd. Former defensive backs Willie Brown, Albert "Snow" Lewis and Everson "Cubby" Walls join them as members of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
Wingbacks Frank Lewis and Sammy White played in three Super Bowls, while Charlie Joiner's bust can be found in Canton.
"There is such a rich history in this 80 years of Grambling football that it's a subject where you can continually go back and look at different names," said Higgins, whose site is not officially affiliated with GSU.
Higgins typically asks that visitors register to view GramblingStateUniversity.com's message boards, but has made the Top 80 poll open to anyone.
"Alumni, friends and family can gather and discuss this player or that one and the things they did," he said. "Hopefully, in the end, we'll have given people a chance to remember some of these accomplishments. They make me proud to be a Gramblinite."
**
GRAMBLING80: Top 80 Players
As Grambling gears up for a celebration of its first 80 years of football, I’ve compiled my own Top 80 all-time GSU players - with help from Ray Higgins, whose fan-operated http://www.gramblingstateuniversity.com/ Web site is polling fans on the subject.
Considered with a careful focus on a player’s collegiate career, these are my suggestions for the best of the best over Grambling’s first eight decades on the gridiron.
* *- My Elite 8 are given fuller biographical sketches; this list is presented in alphabetical order.
1. Aldrich Allen: Two-time All-SWAC first-team linebacker in 1978-79, as Grambling won consecutive conference titles. Was also named to the American Football Coaches Association I-AA Coaches’ All-America Team in 1979.
2. Scotty Anderson: Holds school record for receptions and touchdowns in a career and catches by a senior. The last GSU player of 17 total to receive a Senior Bowl invite, Anderson led all scorers in 1999-2000 and helped the Tigers to two titles in 2000-01.
3. Herman Arvie: A first-team All-SWAC offensive tackle in 1992, Arvie was part of an offensive line that eventually helped Eric Gant to a trio of 1,000-yard rushing seasons. He was also named second-team All-America by the Sports Network in 1992.
4. Willie Armstrong: A three-time All-Southwestern Athletic Conference running back, from 1968-70, a period that saw Grambling win the third of three SWAC titles with quarterback James “Shack” Harris in 1968.
5. Garland Boyette: He earned first-team All-SWAC and Little All-America honors in 1961. Named to the All-time HBCU team at middle linebacker by Pop Culture, he’s the uncle of Ernie Ladd, another of the Top 80.
6. Willie Brown: So deep was Grambling’s roster in 1959-62, the only NFL player to intercept a least one pass in 16 consecutive seasons never played cornerback. Still he lettered all four years at split end and outside linebacker, and GSU won a title.
7. JUNIOUS ‘BUCK’ BUCHANAN: From his sophomore season onward, this tackle was given a trio of both All-America and all-conference honors while helping Grambling to a 23-5-2 record and its first SWAC title in 1960. Former coach Eddie Robinson would recall Buchanan’s dominance, even in practice.
“If we went to the right,” Robinson once recalled, “he would tackle us. If we went to the left, he would tackle us. If we went right at him, he would tackle us. Boy, he was really tough.”
Buchanan passing away in 1992 after a long bout with lung cancer, and was posthumously inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1996.
8. Frank Cornish: An All-America and first-team All-SWAC tackle in 1965, as Grambling won the first of four consecutive conference crowns.
9. WILLIE DAVIS: A two-time black college All-America defensive tackle in 1954-55, Davis anchored Grambling’s first national black college championship team — the 10-0 squad from 1955.
“Willie had hitting power,” former coach Eddie Robinson once recalled. “He was our captain, an outstanding leader.”
Davis, who worked his way to legendary status for Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers and then in the business world, would become GSU’s second SWAC Hall of Famer in 1977.
10. Walter Dean: The first SWAC player to win the Walter Payton Award, Dean was also the conference’s offensive player of the year in 1990. No senior has ever run for more than his 1,401 yards. He was also first-team all-conference in 1989, when GSU won the SWAC.
11. Steve Dennis: Still holds the school record for picks in a career, with 27 between 1969-72. A first-team All-SWAC DB in 1971-72, as GSU won the first and second of four consecutive conference titles, Dennis earned All-America honors in 1972.
12. Alphonse Dotson: Said to be Grambling’s first All-America first-teamer, Dotson received the honor from the Consensus All American-Newspaper Enterprise Association. He was a first team All-SWAC tackle in 1964, and honorable mention in ’63.
13. Tramon Douglas: Broke Scotty Anderson’s once-thought unassailable receiving numbers over two all-conference seasons beginning with 2002’s SWAC championship campaign. Still holds records for receptions and receiving yards in a season.
14. Henry Dyer, pictured at right: Grambling’s leading runner in both 1963 and the SWAC title season of ’65, Dyer was the school’s first documented 1,000-yard rusher. He was named first-team All-SWAC at fullback from ’63-65, and scored 30 times in his final two years.15. Bruce Eugene: Eugene left Grambling with school records for career and season yards, scores and completions, two conference championships and the Division I-AA mark for touchdowns in a year - a record that had stood for since 1984.
16. Lee Fobbs: Playing from 1968-72, Fobbs rose to All-SWAC status at fullback during his junior and senior seasons, adding All-America honors in 1972, as Grambling won the second and third of four consecutive SWAC championships between 1971-74.
17. Solomon Freelon: Freelon was a first-team All-SWAC guard in 1971, a year after being named second-team as a junior. He would become one of just 12 Grambling players invited to the Blue-Gray All-Star Classic after GSU’s 1971 SWAC title.
18. Eric Gant: A two-time All-SWAC first teamer beginning in 1991, Gant is one of only 17 Grambling players ever invited to the Senior Bowl. Still holds school records for yards in season (1,417 in 1992) and yards in a career (3,795).
19. John “J.D.” Garrett: Led Grambling in rushing in 1962, and in scoring for the 1962 and ’63 seasons as both a runner and a kicker - scoring 130 total points over those two campaigns. Was first-team all-conference every season from 1961-63.
20. Clemente Gordon: SWAC offensive player of the year in 1989, as Grambling won the SWAC, Gordon was also first team in 1988. He passed for more than 5,000 yards during those two seasons, for 50 touchdowns and just 17 picks.
21. Jerry Gordon: After averaging 15 yards per catch on a 711 yard season, Gordon earned first-team SWAC honors in 1981. That followed second-team recognition in 1980 - as Grambling won a conference title.
22. Joe Gordon: The SWAC’s defensive player of the year in 1979, Gordon was also named to the AFCA I-AA Coaches’ All-America Team that year.
23. Leonard Griffin: Earned a valuable invite to the Blue-Gray All-Star Classic in 1985 after GSU won the conference title. An honorable-mention All-SWAC end, Griffin later served as a strength and conditioning assistant in the program.
24. JAMES ‘SHACK’ HARRIS: Harris passed for 4,128 yards and 43 touchdowns as Grambling went 24-5-1 between 1965-68, winning three straight SWAC titles.
Former “Coach (Eddie) Robinson had the utmost confidence in me that I could play, and that meant a lot, knowing how he felt,” Harris said. “Eddie Robinson is perhaps the greatest person that I’ve ever been around.”
In his senior season alone, Harris passed for 1,972 yards and 21 touchdowns on only 225 attempts. He was first-team All-SWAC in 1967-68, and also earned SWAC Hall of Fame honors.
25. Mike Harris: Led team in interceptions both in 1975 and ’76; his 10 picks in ’75 are second all time for one season. One of three members of the 1977 squad to be invited to the East-West Shrine Game – including Carlos Pennywell and Doug Williams.
26. Wayne Hill: Led Grambling in rushing for three seasons beginning in 1984, winning one SWAC title and gaining more than 2,000 yards. He was named second-team All-SWAC in 1985 and honorable mention in 1986.
27. Fred Hobdy: A guard on Grambling’s renowned “un” team in 1942, which went unbeaten, untied and unscored upon, Hobdy returned from the war to coach the ends - he was an assistant on 1955’s undefeated squad - before becoming Louisiana’s most successful college hoops coach ever.
28. Autry Lane Howell: A two-way lineman for Robinson, was the first of three brothers to star for Eddie Robinson, beginning in 1960. Grambling won its first Southwestern Athletic Conference title with Lane up front, establishing a 23-5-2 mark between 1960-62.
29: Michael Howell: A cornerback nicknamed “Trackdown,” Michael followed brother Lane two seasons later. His 1964 squad went 9-3, winning the Sugar Cup over Bishop before falling in the Orange Blossom Classic.
30. James “Hound” Hunter: A first-team All-SWAC honoree in 1974-75, he helped Grambling to the ’74 SWAC title. Hunter was the team leader in picks for two years, pulling down 16 passes in 1973-74. His 8 in 1974 still ranks fourth all time at GSU.
31. Randy Hymes: Led Grambling to its first two Southwestern Athletic Conference titles in six seasons, beginning in 2000. He would pass for more than 4,400 yards and 33 touchdowns, seventh all time at Grambling.
32. GARY ‘BIG HANDS’ JOHNSON: He still holds the school record for most tackles in a career, with 367 between 1971-74 as GSU won four straight SWAC titles.
In his senior season of 1974 alone, Johnson had 134 tackles, 89 unassisted, and was named the team’s Most Valuable Player. That led to coveted invites to both the East-West Shrine Game and the Senior Bowl — and Johnson was named Most Valuable Player in both.
Johnson earned first-team All-SWAC in 1972-74 and then 1997 induction into the College Football and SWAC halls of fame.
33. Stone Johnson: So fast he won the 1960 NAIA national 200-meter title, Johnson was a wingback and punter (averaging 36 yards per kick) on Grambling’s first SWAC title team. He also competed as a sprinter in the Olympics, before suffering a neck fracture during an NFL preseason game. He died 10 days later.
34. Trumaine Johnson: The 1980 and '82 SWAC offensive player of the year (when he had 1,000 yards and averaged 14 yards a catch), Johnson was also first-team All-SWAC in 1981. Grambling won the conference championship in '80. His 16 scores that season is still tied for fifth-best in school history.
35. CHARLIE JOINER: Led all Grambling receivers from 1966-68, gaining 2,066 yards, on the way to a trio of conference titles. An amazing 78 of quarterback James “Shack” Harris 289 career completions at Grambling were made by the steady Joiner, who led the team in touchdowns in 1966-67.
“Charlie goes all out,” former coach Eddie Robinson once noted. “Beating the man, that’s where he excelled.”He was named first-team All-SWAC three times and given Outstanding Offensive Player awards in the 1968 Little Rose Bowl.
Induction to the SWAC Hall of Fame followed in 1996.
36. Fred Jones: GSU’s best receiver during the 1987-89 seasons, collecting a total of 2,000 yards as well as a SWAC title in his senior campaign. He also led Grambling in scoring in ’88 with 10 touchdowns, and earned first-team All-SWAC honors in ’88-89.
37. Ernie “Big Cat” Ladd: At 6'9" and 315 pounds, arguably the biggest GSU star ever. A first-team all-league defensive lineman in 1960, as Grambling won its first-ever Southwestern Athletic Conference championship.
38. Gilad Landau: His 188 career-total in PATs was a state record. An All-SWAC first-team kicker in 1992-93, Landau earned All-America honors in 1993 from the Sports Network.
39. Melvin Lee: As quarterback of the offensive line at center on Grambling’s undefeated 1955 championship squad, Lee must have impressed former coach Eddie Robinson. He then worked for the next 40 seasons as an assistant, tinkering and perfecting Robinson’s fabled Wing-T offense.
40. Albert “Snow” Lewis: Was first-team All-SWAC at cornerback in 1981-82, after leading the team in interceptions in 1981 with seven. A stellar performance earned him a starting position by popular vote in 2002 on the 50th anniversary All-Time Senior Bowl team.
41. FRANK LEWIS: A do-anything player who led Grambling in receiving in 1969-70 and in rushing in 1969, as well. He scored 28 touchdowns in his junior and senior seasons, averaging 18.65 yards per catch.
“I played with Frank and I don’t know if I have ever seen a better athlete than Frank,” former GSU quarterback James “Shack” Harris said. “I don’t know of anything that Frank couldn’t do.”
Lewis was named first-team all-conference as a junior and senior, and was second-team as a sophomore when Grambling won the SWAC in 1968.
42. Clifton McNeil: Led all Grambling receivers in 1961 and again in 1963, averaging 16 yards per catch.
43. John Mendenhall: A first-team All-Southwestern Athletic Conference defensive end in 1971, he helped GSU to a SWAC title that year. He was then one of just 17 Grambling players ever invited to the Senior Bowl.
44. Larry Metevia Sr.: A first-team All-Southwestern Athletic Conference center in 1966, as Grambling won the second of four consecutive SWAC titles, and the first with quarterback James “Shack” Harris.
45: Michael Moore: Led all Grambling receivers in 1976-77, winning a SWAC title as a senior. His 60 receptions in 1977 still ranks in GSU’s top 10 all time and his 1,112 that year is in the top 5.
46. Brian Morgan: Holds most of GSU’s significant kicking records, including field goals in a career and most points scored by kicking at Grambling. Named first-team All-SWAC in 2001 and ’03, winning three conference titles.
47. Edward “Bo” Murray: A critical piece of Grambling’s 1955 undefeated team, the then-redshirt sophomore won the Orange Blossom Classic on scoring runs of 75 and 8 yards. He also kicked the extra point on his winning TD, beating Florida A&M 28-21.
48. Kendrick Nord: Nord passed for 6,600 yards in 1993-95, beating Alcorn in an epic Robinson Stadium battle and also winning a SWAC title as a senior. His .523 completion percentage has only been bested twice in 25 seasons.
49. Robert Parham: Grambling’s leading rusher from 1978-80, he amassed 2,700 yards over that span as GSU won three consecutive SWAC titles. He was a first-team all-conference running back in each of those seasons.
50. Elfrid Payton: Perhaps Grambling’s hardest hitter ever, this linebacker led the school as a senior in 1989 with 20 tackles for a loss, 13 quarterback sacks and two fumble returns. He was named the team's Most Outstanding Player in both 1988-89.
51. Carlos Pennywell: A first-team All-Southwestern Athletic Conference receiver during Doug Williams’ final season at the helm, Pennywell helped Grambling to the 1977 SWAC title. He was named first-team all-conference that year as a senior and led Grambling in scoring in 1976.
52. Robert Pennywell: This Pennywell was a first-team All-SWAC linebacker in 1974-75, as Grambling won its ninth Southwestern Athletic Conference title in ’74.
53. Woody Peoples: A first-team All-Southwestern Athletic Conference offensive guard in 1964, as the tandem of Henry Dyer and Leroy Carter led the rushing attack.
54. Jake Reed: A first-team All-SWAC honoree in 1990, and second-team in 1989, Reed led all Grambling receivers as a senior with 954 yards and a 20-yard average per catch. He was invited to the Senior Bowl in 1990, one of just 17 from Grambling to receive that honor.
55. Andre Robinson: Helped GSU to three straight SWAC championships from 1977-80; was named the Bayou Classic’s MVP in 1980. As a senior, was a consensus All-America selection by AP, Kodak, The Sporting News and Sheridan; was also the SWAC’s Defensive Player of the Year.
56. Jerry “Gray Ghost” Robinson: A two-time first-team All-Southwestern Athletic Conference halfback from 1960-61, a stint that included Grambling’s first-ever SWAC title in 1960. Led all Grambling rushers over those two seasons, running for 1,300 yards.57. Virgil Robinson: A first-team All-Southwestern Athletic Conference running back in 1970, Robinson led all Grambling rushers that season with 884 yards.
58. Robert Salters: Named to American Football Coaches Association Division I-AA Coaches’ All-America Team in 1979. His eight interceptions that season still ranks fourth all time at Grambling.
59. Mike Saint Clair: Named All-SWAC in 1975 and honorable mention in 1974, as Grambling won a conference title.
60. Goldie “Spider” Sellers: Earned All-Southwestern Athletic Conference honors in 1965 as Grambling won its second SWAC title ever.
61. Dwight Scales: Grambling’s top receiver in 1973-74, with more than 800 yards and a 22-yard average per catch. Grambling won SWAC titles both seasons.
62. Charles “Tank” Smith: Grambling’s leading receiver in 1972, as the Tigers won the second of four consecutive Southwestern Athletic Conference championships.
63: Raymond “World” Smith: A two-time first-team All-SWAC offensive tackle in 1989-90 as running back Walter Dean builds his resume for an eventual Walter Payton Award, recognizing Division I-AA’s best offensive threat.
64. Robert “Big Bird” Smith: A three-time first-team all-conference defensive end, beginning in his sophomore season of 1981. Grambling would win the 1983 SWAC title.
65. Keith Smyre: Still holds school records for longest punt (89 yards in 1974), as well as most punts in a game, most punts in a season and most yards punted in a career.
66: Richard Stebbins: A running back speedster who excelled in track events, he competed with “Bullet” Bob Hayes in U.S. Olympic events in the 1960s.
67. Ernest “Monster” Sterling: A lineman on multiple SWAC title teams, Sterling would then put in more than two decades as an assistant at Grambling. He is also one of just two coaches who stayed on when Doug Williams succeeded Robinson.
68. Robert Taylor: A two-time All-Southwestern Athletic Conference first-team linebacker in 2000-01, Taylor was also given first team I-AA All-American honors by the American Football Coaches Association in 2001.
69. Roosevelt Taylor: One of 13 Grambling players taken in the 1963 NFL draft, and one of four future All-Pros. He played safety at Grambling during the period before integration when most GSU second-teamers were potential starters.
70. Bennie Thompson: A first-team All-Southwestern Athletic Conference defensive back in 1984, and second team in 1983 as GSU won the SWAC title.
71. Rodney Tureaud: Led all Grambling rushers in 1972 with 1,137 yards, the first GSU 1,000 rusher in seven seasons. He was named SWAC offensive player of the year.
72. Everson “Cubby” Walls: Still holds the school record for most interceptions in a season, 11 set in 1980. Was All-SWAC that season.
73. Dan H. Washington: A member of Eddie Robinson’s first squad, as well as its subsequent “un” team in 1941 – which went unbeaten, untied and unscored upon. Washington then served as team trainer for 45 years before his death in 1996 at age 74.
74. Sammy White: Inducted into the SWAC Hall of Fame in 2005 in recognition of a collegiate career that included two school-leading years for receptions in 1973 and 1975 - and a co-offensive player of the year award as a senior. White was also first-team All-SWAC in ’73.
75. DOUG WILLIAMS: Williams, who established school passing marks that stood for nearly 25 years, started quickly — winning a SWAC title as a redshirt freshman in 1974.
“I was blessed to have some veterans around me and Coach Robinson ran a conservative offense that didn’t put too much pressure on me,” Williams said.
He would win another SWAC championship as a senior in 1977, earning second-team All-SWAC honors in 1975 and then offensive player of the year honors in his final collegiate campaign. A Heisman Trophy finalist, Williams would be inducted into the SWAC and College halls in 2001.
76. Mike Williams: Williams, brother and successor at quarterback to Doug, won SWAC titles in 1978-80 and was named first-team all-conference as both a junior and senior. He threw for 3,700 yards and 46 touchdowns at Grambling.
77. Willie Williams: Punted for 4,200 yards over three seasons beginning in 1962, averaging 36 yards per attempt. He also played defensive back, where he was named first-team All-Southwestern Athletic Conference in 1964.
78. Robert Woods: A first-team All-SWAC receiver in 1977, he led all Grambling scorers with 14 touchdowns as GSU won its final conference title with Doug Williams at quarterback.
79. PAUL ‘TANK’ YOUNGER: Despite playing from 1945-48, still holds GSU record for career points with 369. His 86-yard blast against Morgan State in 1946 also remains the school’s longest non-scoring run.
In all, Younger scored 60 touchdowns — at the time a collegiate record, and still tops at Grambling — during his storied career under Eddie Robinson. Named black college player of the year in 1949, he was the first Grambling player inducted into the SWAC Hall of Fame, in 1973.
Younger — who died just days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — had entered the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000.
80. Willie Young: A two-time All-Southwestern Athletic Conference first-team offensive guard in 1964-65, as Grambling won its second SWAC title.
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