Carroll's Landers picks Grambling
· Playing for Super Bowl quarterback Doug Williams played an important part in the decision. December 11, 2003
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
Carroll High quarterback Brandon Landers, the area's top local offensive recruit, confirms that he has verbally committed to play for Doug Williams at Grambling State.
"To be coached by the first black quarterback to win the Super Bowl had something to do with it," Landers said. "He knows the game. I'd like to follow in his footsteps and do some of the things he's done at Grambling State University."
Williams has said that any prep signings this off-season would redshirt in 2004 behind senior Bruce Eugene, the top quarterback in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Coach Jesse Smith has installed a similar spread offense at Carroll High.
"Whatever move he made, I'd support," Smith said of Landers' commitment. "But we do a lot of the same things that Grambling does. He will be in a system where he will throw the football. I believe, with the experience that he has gotten over the years, that this is as fine a program as he could be going to."
Landers also recognized the opportunity to quickly integrate into the SWAC's best passing offense the past two seasons.
"I feel like Grambling would treat me better," Landers said. "The offense they run is basically the same offense that we run."
Landers, who led Carroll to a second straight District 2-3A crown this season, finished his prep career with 2,302 yards on 140-for-245 passes, along with 16 TD passes and five interceptions. He was The News-Star/Glenwood SportsCare player of the week for Week 5 this season - after passing for 300 yards and a score against Ferriday, while also returning an interception for a touchdown.
"In my opinion, he had an outstanding year," said Smith. "He pretty much led the team. He was able to run the football and pass it too. He did everything we expected."
In his last high school game, the multi-talented Landers passed for 204 yards and ran for a score in a third-round playoff loss.. He also had 48 career tackles and three interceptions for Carroll.
Landers says he was recruited by McNeese State, Northwestern State, Louisiana-Monroe and Louisiana Tech. Others like Texas A&M were reportedly interested as well.
"But I never really considered anywhere else," Landers said. "I felt like Grambling fit me."
Landers follows in the footsteps of Grambling State legend James "Shack" Harris, who is also a Carroll High alum. Harris was the first black quarterback to be drafted into the NFL, playing for Buffalo, Los Angeles and San Diego.
Cooper's departure could shift QB status
Carroll High quarterback Brandon Landers could immediately move into the No. 2 slot at Grambling State. Coach Doug Williams granted two-year backup quarterback Gary Cooper a release on Monday.
"I'm not a guy who believes in a two-quarterback system," Williams said. "Somebody has to take the bull by the horns. It's unfortunate for Cooper, because he wants to play. But as long as Bruce is healthy, he's our starter."
Cooper had career numbers of 14-for-36 at GSU, with three interceptions and two scores.
Further back in the quarterback rotation are Texas freshmen Brandon Logan from San Antonio and Arnel Rolfe of Dallas. Neither has taken a game-day snap.
"They've got to step it up in the spring," Williams said.
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Landers learns another lesson the hard way
September 12, 2004
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
NORMAL Ala. - The grounds crew at Louis Crews Stadium can thank Grambling State quarterback Brandon Landers for all the work facing them this morning.
I expect there are several freshman-shaped holes out there today.
Perhaps that was expected for Landers, who got his first collegiate start a year early when senior All-American Bruce Eugene was injured last week.
Still, the timing couldn't have been worse, as GSU arrived in Alabama to face one of the Southwestern Athletic Conference's most inventive and aggressive defenses.
Alabama A&M relentlessly harassed Landers. It threw everything at him - linebackers, safeties, the kitchen sink, other appliances. That ensured Landers wouldn't win the game, yet his fiery determination would again win over the coaches.
"We have believed that Brandon Landers could handle the things we do," said interim GSU coach Melvin Spears, who fell to 0-2 with the loss to Alabama A&M. "Brandon and Bruce worked closely together all summer. He has grasped the information at a very fast pace."
There were moments of shimmering promise, followed by thudding despair.
That's a freshman quarterback for you.
For instance, Landers took advantage of a blocked punt by Winnfield junior Donald Alexander on A&M's first possession of the third quarter, firing a brilliant pass to Mangham senior Chad White over the middle for a critical completion at midfield.
But the inevitable sack ended that drive. Landers ran right into the rush on that play, a rookie error.
He kept his head up.
"My athleticism will always help me," Landers said. "As I get more familiar with the offensive scheme, I will only get better."
As soon as Landers got going on Saturday, he would get leveled.
A sack - no surprise, that - by A&M's Cedric Harris killed the first promising drive of Landers' night in Alabama. After starting 0-of-4, Landers had finally completed an underneath pass to junior Henry Tolbert that turned into a 15-yard gain.
GSU didn't score, but Landers kept going. He kept getting hit, but he kept going.
With 6:03 left in the game, Grambling State had used all of its timeouts. This was how this tough night would end, in real time - a slow wait.
Somebody forgot to tell Landers.
With 54 seconds left, he was still flinging it. GSU's first 0-2 start since 1996 - when former coach Eddie Robinson lost his initial three contests on the way to a 3-8 record - would have to wait. Landers hit Tolbert for a 25-yard touchdown pass to bring the score to 21-9.
But, too often, even when Landers could get a throw off, a very young receiving group again dropped it. GSU was also without its top target from last year's A&M game, as Moses Harris joined Eugene with a season-ending injury during Week 1.
"It hasn't been roses for them. They've faced some challenges," said third-year Alabama A&M coach Anthony Jones, who had never before won against GSU - a streak that included the 2002 SWAC title game. "Grambling has enough guys on that team that are used to winning. One thing I know about winning, once you get that taste in your mouth, you don't roll over for anybody."
So A&M kept coming.
Sacks count against a team's rushing yardage on the official stat sheet, so it's no surprise that the Tigers ended up with a staggering minus-two yards in the first half. Junior Ab Kuaan's first-down yardage was leaking out with each defensive play on his quarterback.
Yet, Landers was always out there under center when the whistle blew, lined up again and ready to go. He prides himself on that.
"I lead by action," said Landers, The News-Star/Glenwood SportsCare Offensive Player of the Year as a senior at Carroll. "I've never been a very vocal person. So, I lead by what I do."
A big, tough unit, GSU's offensive line was simply outnumbered by A&M's zone-blitz scheme. It often had seven hats on eight defenders.
That's why Landers could have been confined to bed rest by a doctor and not spent as much time on his back. Adding insult to injury, Grambling State wore white - meaning those grass stains may never come out.
But Spears takes solace in that flickering passion from his first-year signal-caller. You won't find many players still gunning for the end zone with under a minute left in an already-decided game.
"He's very athletic, very versatile, with an outstanding arm," enthused the ever-upbeat Spears. "When the lights come on, he's a different kind of player. He has a flair as a leader. I think we are in good hands."
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Saving the day has been child's play for Grambling freshmen
September 20, 2004
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
CINCINNATI- Remember when they used to make freshmen carry the older players' shoulder pads back in after practice?
Now, they're carrying the team.
Witness Grambling State's first win of the 2004 season. Quarterback Brandon Landers hands off to Landry Carter, who runs it in from four yards in the third quarter on Saturday against Bethune-Cookman, GSU's first points on the day.
Defensive end Jason Banks also notches two sacks for 14 yards in losses.
Landers tosses a 46-yard scoring strike to Clyde Edwards to get GSU to within two points.
Every one of the playmakers mentioned is a freshman. GSU would beat Bethune-Cookman 24-23 on Saturday in the Ohio Classic.
"I couldn't ask for anything better," said Landers, a Carroll High product named offensive player of the year just last spring by The News-Star. The ... high school ... offensive player of the year.
"To be on the Cincinnati Bengals field, being a young player," Landers marvelled from inside Paul Brown Stadium. "I've waited for this my whole life."
His whole life. Landers was born on Groundhog Day, Feb. 2, 1985.
But we've never seen anything like this before: Kid's stuff is now the stuff of legend. Landers has led GSU to 32 fourth-quarter points in three games.
"Leaders," Landers mused, and he couldn't be more right, "are born."
Born in the second Reagan administration.
And not just Brandon Landers, who replaced All-American Bruce Eugene after the senior suffered a season-ending knee injury in the first game of 2004.
First-year Georgia running back Danny Ware exploded for three scores against Georgia Southern. Tennessee's Brent Schaeffer became the first true freshman to start an SEC opener since 1945. A youngster named Darius Walker might have turned Notre Dame's season around with 115 rushing yards and two touchdowns in a second-week win over Michigan.
Landers' first start was somewhat less glamorous. But playing through it made him a better quarterback in Cincinnati.
"They were sending six or seven people at me last week (against Alabama A&M)," said Landers. "So (interim GSU) Coach (Melvin) Spears told me that we were going to the shotgun (against BCC), and that I should be patient and stay with it. He put the ball in my hands."
That Alabama A&M nightmare included just 11 completions on 40 tries. GSU didn't convert a single third-down - putting freshman punter Tim Manuel just one punt away from the school record for attempts in a game.
"Bouncing back from a performance like that," said Eugene, "is all about character."
Alabama A&M was credited with a five sacks, but Landers was hurried and pushed around all night.
"He's taken so many licks," said offensive coordinator Sammy White. "To keep getting up, that says a lot about him."
Landers would flourish Saturday in the shotgun, a scheme that made all the more sense when senior center Lance Wright left the game with an injury.
"What we were trying to do was to take some of the pressure off of Brandon," said Spears. "When you get down a couple of touchdowns, you've got to keep passing. But we wanted to give him a better opportunity. At halftime, we told him: `It's your show. Show us what you've got.' "
But just in case the freshmen get too comfortable, however, note that Landers' first collegiate win came with some veteran help.
Junior Henry Tolbert made a key scoring grab to narrow BCC's lead to two points in the third quarter. And Eugene attended Saturday's game, encouraging the team during warmups and helping out with playcalling upstairs with running backs coach Vyron Brown.
"We're going to keep him around," Spears said of Eugene, laughing. "He'll basically be our cheerleader - and he'll also help us with Brandon."
Saturday's game was Eugene's first since undergoing knee surgery a week ago on Thursday.
"I can help him, because I've been there," said Eugene, who was given wide latitude last season to audible from the line based on what he saw on the field. "That hands-on experience will make a difference."
A Landers scramble for a quick 53 yards seemed to loosen up this offense in the third quarter. The team's biggest second-half adjustment had to do with confidence.
"Those are the intangibles that Brandon brings to the table," said Spears. "He had great poise. In the end, he looked like Bruce Eugene back there - and that's a good comparison."
The move into the booth will also ensure that Eugene can stay for the entirety of the game, without enduring whatever pain comes from standing on the sidelines. Eugene, who moved around on crutches, is applying for another year of eligibility on a medical waiver.
"Everything is progressing very well for Bruce," said Spears, who is also taking a more prominent role in the offense, after concentrating on the defense early in the season. "As he heals, we'd like to give him an opportunity to look at the game from a different perspective. Hopefully, when he gets back, he will have a better understanding - and be a better player."
You could criticize GSU's hard-headed focus on making Landers pass. After all, he had attempted 62 throws in five quarters of play before arriving in Cincinnati. But whether they ran or he threw, there was going to be a learning curve.
"When you lose your trigger guy, it makes you a little stagnated - until you get the new trigger guy in place and working," said Spears. "I knew you would start seeing an outstanding quarterback soon - one who happens to be a freshman - in Brandon Landers."
NICK DERISO, named columnist of the year this summer by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association, is sports editor at The News-Star, 411 N. Fourth St., Monroe, 71201. Contact him at (318) 362-0233 or at nderiso@thenewsstar.com.
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Landers' stellar freshman season may not yield sophomore one
December 14, 2004
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING - Another week brings another freshman of the year honor for Carroll High product Brandon Landers. Yet, he still doesn't know whether he will get to start again next season at Grambling State.
Landers, who was honored Saturday night by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association, took over when senior GSU quarterback Bruce Eugene went down in the third quarter of the 2004 season opener. Landers was also named freshman of the year by the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
"It never ran across my mind to win both awards," said Landers, who broke the school's single-season passing yards record for a freshman - set by Doug Williams in 1974. "You always set goals for a season - you know, once I got the starting job, I decided I wanted to win. But awards like this are a great feeling. I didn't even think I was going to play."
GSU defender Kenneth Pettway and place-kicker Brian Morgan, both seniors, also received first-team All-Louisiana honors from the LSWA, while sophomore offensive tackle Andre' Bennett was given an honorable mention.
The awards come as GSU awaits word on a medical exemption for Eugene. If the NCAA grants Eugene an extra year of eligibility, coaches have said Landers would be redshirted.
"We talked with the NCAA, and it's still under review," said interim GSU coach Melvin Spears. "If Bruce comes back, Landers will redshirt. He will get an opportunity to watch more, and to learn. But if Bruce doesn't come back, then Landers will be the incumbent in camp."
GSU signed LaMarque High product Larry Kerlegan out of Houston last season - who was ranked No. 11 nationally among dual-threat quarterbacks by Rivals.com - but grades kept him off the roster. Kerlegan is expected to be in camp this spring.
"I talked to Bruce the other day, and he still doesn't know whether he will be back or not. We'll wait and see," said Landers, who posted a 6-4 mark as a starter while completing 132-of-316 passes for 2,283 yards, along with 18 touchdowns against 15 interceptions. "In the meantime, I know we're going to start back up in January. I am going to work on getting stronger, on my technique. Redshirting, if that happens, could make me better - just sitting back and watching and learning. I could get more of the experience I need."
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GSU's quarterbacks battle as friends
Camp competition at Grambling is far from combative
August 17, 2005
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING - There's a sure sign that Bruce Eugene is feeling it again.
Grambling State's former All American quarterback is trash talking once more during the team's stretching exercises before practice.
"This offense," Eugene was saying the other day, "has speed for sale."
GSU coach Melvin Spears has consistently hedged on how that return impacts his depth chart. After all, Brandon Landers rocketed to conference freshman of the year honors once Eugene lost his senior season to a knee injury in the 2004.
"Brandon did a wonderful job for us last year down the stretch," Spears said. "But when you talk about experience, Bruce Eugene knows the system. We will let the best guy play."
Landers has a different answer.
"I know what the situation is," he said. "Bruce is getting his old position back."
Even so, the expected creative tension hasn't followed.
In fact, these two remain friends. As they enter the practice field, one will say to the other: "Be perfect today."
"That way," Landers said, "we know we are pushing each other to do better. At the same time, I am trying to learn from him."
Eugene also says that competition hasn't gotten in the way of their relationship: "The whole thing of `let's be perfect' is that we are trying to make each other better. We get along just fine."
Eugene still wears a knee brace - though Spears says that's simply as a precaution.
"He's the only guy I've ever seen go through an ACL injury and not lose any flexibility," said Spears. "Bruce is better than he was before. First off, his rehab was extensive, but also he's a fast healer."
Questions about the knee haven't trumped Eugene's past performances, which likely pushed Grambling to the top of the Southwestern Athletic Conference's Western division in more than one preseason poll so far.
Grambling's career total offense leader with 10,172 yards, he was last seen as a junior in 2003 passing for 3,805 yards and 34 touchdowns. Eugene also ran for 412 yards - second most on the team - and another six touchdowns on the ground.
That makes Eugene, despite the fact that he spent the last season earning his degree, the most productive returning quarterback in Division I-AA.
Yet Landers never stopped working, even as a move to the No. 2 spot became clear.
The Carroll product paid particular attention to his upper-body strength this offseason, focusing on bench pressing on an incline and lifting by shoulder shrug. The result has been a sharper release, and better ball speed.
Spears, wary after an injury-marred 2004, said he won't consider redshirting Landers.
"The nature of the beast is that you never know how the game goes, and how it may fall," said Spears, who lost Eugene in the third quarter of the season opener last year.
Landers isn't interested either.
"A quarterback who redshirted might relax," said Landers, who threw for almost 2,300 yards as a freshman. "It's a mind thing. I'm not thinking about next year. I'm thinking about right now. That will help me stay ready, as always."
The No. 3 quarterback is a celebrated prep prospect, Larry Kerlegan of Houston's LaMarque High.
"You always have to think in terms of two or three years down the road," said Spears. "You've got to be prepared. Bruce Eugene won't be back - one way or another. Those other guys have to be ready to play."
Still, as even Landers admits, it's clear the team belongs to the likeable Eugene right now.
Eugene has always been gregarious, knowledgeable and well regarded, even if he is only just now completely inhabiting the leadership role.
"The kids really rally around Bruce," said GSU offensive line coach Carl Roberts. "He not only knows his own assignment, but also the linemen's assignment. He has that leadership quality."
Eugene earned a lot of credibility when he led Grambling to the 2002 championship, after a season behind Randy Hymes - quarterback on those 2000-01 title teams.
But Eugene gained real authority as a team captain when he wrestled down a more common nemesis: His weight.
"I know within the circle of this team, they believe in me," Eugene said. "That's what I go on."
Spears sent Eugene to the Duke University diet and fitness center over the summer, where he lost 25 pounds in just four weeks on a diet of 1,800 calories a day.
Eugene was just getting started. He's now dropped more than 40 pounds.
"In rehab, and while I'm lifting weights or walking, every time I get ready to eat something I shouldn't be eating, I think about the naysayers," said Eugene, who at one point ballooned up to a startling 308 pounds. "Everybody said I couldn't lose weight. Let them talk. I know in the end I will be standing on top."
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For Grambling State quarterback Brandon Landers ...
Waiting was the hardest part
March 15, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING - Brandon Landers was brought in to be the Next Big Thing at Grambling State.
The Carroll High product expected to apprentice during the 2004 season behind record-smashing quarterback Bruce Eugene, then assume the spotlight.
Something happened on the way to his debut.
Eugene went down with a knee injury, and suddenly Landers - just months after playing Class 4A ball in high school - was under center.
It took time and adjustment for both Landers and the staff, but he eventually claimed conference freshman of the year honors after leading a newly run-oriented GSU to a winning season.
"My freshman year, they wanted give the ball to the veteran backs," Landers said. "Having guys like that, it took some pressure off of me."
Landers then got his belated redshirt, gaining more valuable experience, when Eugene was given a medical exemption before the 2005 campaign.
So, there's little drama in this: Landers is penciled in at starter as GSU's spring sessions get underway today.
The plot thickens, however, when examining how Landers' return could affect the playbook.
"We might put in a few wrinkles here or there to play up to Brandon's strengths," GSU coach Melvin Spears said. "But a year behind Bruce has given Brandon a much better grasp of the offense, both in terms of being able to make all the different adjustments and running the team more efficiently."
Landers, always gritty and confidant, says the days of running the ball to mask immaturity are over. He's ready to fit into a passing system that has established itself as the Southwestern Athletic Conference's most dangerous and entertaining.
"I don't know about any changes (to the scheme); I hope they keep it the same so we can keep rolling," Landers said.
Then, after some thought, he adds: "Playing behind a guy like Bruce, everyone will be expecting a whole lot of things. I'm just going to go out and play the game that I know how to play."
Questions about the offensive focus can be forgiven, even by some of the players, after the way Landers' presence in 2004 so radically altered Grambling's look.
His freshman campaign ended with redemptive win over Southern, but Landers had just 13 passing attempts on the day. (To put that into perspective, Eugene had as many tries by the first GSU possession of the second quarter in the 2005 Bayou Classic.)
Ab "Killer" Kuuan was the tip of the sword in this reworked ground attack, averaging 131 rushing yards a game over the final month of the season. The last time he and Landers shared the field, Kuuan was receiving his Bayou Classic MVP trophy after running for 126 punishing yards against Southern.
"That was my first question: Are we still going to have the same offense? Or are we going to run it?" said senior Henry Tolbert, who just set a new school record for receiving touchdowns in a season.
"The coaches feel like it's on him," Tolbert said. "If Brandon can show this spring that he can run the offense the way Bruce did, everything will be the same."
Spears said he has always known that Landers was physically gifted. He just felt Landers needed more time to adjust to the speed of decision-making in the college game.
He got that chance when Eugene returned for a rare sixth season of eligibility - though the bench wasn't always a comfy spot for a competitor like Landers.
"It was tough; that was my first time ever sitting out an entire season, but I learned a whole lot," said Landers, who earned offensive player of the year honors from The News-Star and Glenwood SportsCare in 2003.
"I paid attention to the game, learning about what was called on the field," he said. "I knew my role. I did what was asked."
In the end, Landers had a front-row seat as Eugene marched through the record books. A capstone came when Eugene smashed a 20-year-old Division I-AA mark for touchdown passes in a season during the SWAC championship win last December.
Landers found that, in the end, he had made a friend.
"We bonded together; we developed a really good friendship," Landers said. "I hope to be a leader and do the same things Bruce did. It was honor playing behind him."
Landers also grew closer to Tolbert, sure to be one of his primary targets in `06, over the past two seasons. That chemistry translates off the field too, where the two are roommates.
"I feel really good about Brandon taking over," Tolbert said. "I don't think I could feel any better about anybody. I was here when he first got here, so I've seen a lot of progress. Sitting behind Bruce was great for him. My expectations are really high coming in."
Look for a strong push for starting time from second-year passer Larry Kerlegan, a celebrated former Texas recruit. Grambling was also still in the market for another quarterback signee as late as last weekend.
But in the end, the stage is set. It's Landers' job to lose.
"Brandon Landers showed a lot of maturity last year in the way he handled things," Spears said. "It allowed him to learn a lot from Bruce Eugene. What we will do this spring is polish that. We're eager to see what he learned from the whole process."
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Landers lays down the law
Grambling QB interned as local marshal this summer
August 7, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — When Grambling State holds its first fall practice this afternoon, quarterback Brandon Landers will be the new sheriff in town.
Well, marshal, actually.
The Carroll product, a criminal justice major, spent the summer interning with Ouachita Parish marshal Wince Highshaw Jr. — a stint that included serving warrants and working court security.
Landers said that real-world experience uniquely prepared him to take over a leadership role as GSU quarterback.
And to continue in that role in his impoverished neighborhood when football is over.
"I'm the first person in my family to go to college," Landers said. "Doing something like this, going to school and working hard, it's a way to show younger people that success is not about drugs. I want to be a role model in the neighborhood."
Landers — friends have already taken to calling him "Officer Landers" — is by far the most experienced returning quarterback at Grambling.
Pushed into duty after an injury to the now-departed Bruce Eugene, a two-time Walter Payton Award finalist, Landers would eventually earn conference freshman of the year honors.
He struggled with the assignment early on, but showed flashes of the talent that only months before helped lead Carroll to a second straight District 2-3A crown.
Landers now stands 309 attempts, 131 completions and 17 touchdowns further along than sophomore Larry Kerlegan, GSU's backup when Eugene returned and Landers redshirted a year later.
In fact, Kerlegan has just one college completion on seven attempts — a touchdown pass late in that blowout win over Concordia, an over-matched NAIA team. Presumptive No. 3 Desmond Brentley is a true freshman out of Pittsburgh's Perry High.
Still, GSU coach Melvin Spears has stressed that this will be a competitive camp for Landers, with Kerlegan and Brentley getting their share of reps.
"Our goal was to bring in enough competition so that we could make certain that Brandon doesn't get complacent," Spears said. "We've got a couple of guys who can do that. We want to be competitive everywhere, at every position."
Later, Spears reiterates one of this off-season's early mantras: "Leadership has no seniority."
A visibly more mature Landers welcomes the challenge.
Time spent in local courtrooms, where he's gotten an up-close examination of how life can turn on a bad decision, along with a year behind Eugene helped reshape this flinty former high school star. Landers is focused, energetic, and a bit humbled.
"Some people from my neighborhood have asked me, how can you be a police officer with where you come from?" Landers said. "I want to show them you can make it out. You don't have to do illegal things to get there."
Landers was already something of a neighborhood hero, finishing his prep career with 2,302 yards and 16 touchdown passes to go with 48 career tackles and three interceptions as a defensive back for Carroll.
His senior season in 2003 included a 300-yard, one-touchdown passing day against Ferriday. He also returned an interception for a touchdown that night, on the way to <I>News-Star</I>/Glenwood SportsCare player of the week honors. Landers' final prep game was a third-round playoff loss, but he passed for 204 yards and ran for a score.
"He was able to run the football and pass it too," said Carroll coach Jesse Smith when Landers committed to Grambling. "He did everything we expected."
That led to offensive player of the year recognition at the All-Northeast banquet — though Landers couldn't attend because he was also a crucial contributor on the Bulldogs' basketball team, which was playing that night.
Recruiters, Landers said, came calling from ULM, Louisiana Tech, McNeese State, Northwestern State and Texas A&M. But he chose to stay close to home, hoping to play one day for former Grambling coach Doug Williams.
Landers figured to have some time to gather himself, since he arrived as Eugene entered what promised to be a heralded senior season. But in short order, Williams left for an executive job in the NFL — turning the reins over to Spears, his former offensive coordinator — and then Eugene blew out his knee in the season opener.
"Brandon did an outstanding job in 2004 when Bruce went down," Spears said. "He has a great feel for the game when the lights come on."
Still, the life lesson was clear: Be prepared.
Landers started contemplating on a longer timeline.
"You gotta think about life after football," he said. "The air might go out of the ball one day."
Landers said Highshaw, a family friend, helped him get the internship — and it's been something that helped Landers frame everything that's important right now, not just football.
"When I got into criminal justice, and found out the type of things that they do, I got really interested," Landers said. "Marshal Highshaw gave me the opportunity to get some hands-on training, and I've learned so much that will help me."
Landers took the summer to get in shape, and not just physically. That's something that will bolster a maturation process his coach thinks is critical for Grambling's success on the field this year.
"He's learned the system; he has the tangibles," Spears said of Landers. "It's just going to be a matter of how quickly he can show that on the field."
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Landers handled it all on and off the field
September 4, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The context surrounding Grambling State quarterback Brandon Landers' numbers on Saturday makes them all the more impressive.
While attempting to mediate an argument, Landers saw his brother murdered and his cousin critically wounded in his hometown of Monroe just two Fridays ago. Yet, he still threw for 273 yards and four touchdowns against Hampton at legendary Legion Field.
"I tried to go on with my everyday life," said Landers, a former Carroll High standout. "I tried to stay close to my team and my coaches, really just to take my mind off of things. Coach kept telling me that everything happens for a reason. I just looked at is as motivation."
Perhaps accordingly, Landers had his struggles, from a one-pass possession stopped on an interception to several attempts that badly overshot receivers.
But in the end, he was efficient enough to put the team in position to win — even if it didn't work out that way — and he did a good job of distributing the ball, hitting four different receivers for touchdown passes.
"He's had some ups and downs the week, certainly," GSU coach Melvin Spears said. "But he worked hard, and he executed for the most part. It's a whole lot for a young man to have on his shoulders. I'm ready proud of him."
The funeral for Frank Landers, 18, of Monroe, is set for Tuesday, Brandon Landers said.
Tallying it up: Hampton got big numbers courtesy of its big stars against Grambling, from NFL prospect Justin Durant — who led the team with eight tackles and 2½ for a loss — to running back Alonzo Coleman.
Coleman, the MEAC's preseason offensive player of the year, amassed 78 yards on 12 carries, despite missing the latter part of the game to injury. Van Morgan took over and added another 83 yards on 14 carries.
Princeton Shepherd left the game as well, but still passed for a team-best 120 yards, along with a touchdown. T.J. Mitchell spelled Shepherd and connected on 6-for-16 attempts for 89 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.
Marquay McDaniels was stellar, with 113 yards and a score at wideout, 48 yards on punt returns, and 8 yards rushing on three tries.
Shepherd (passing), Coleman (rushing), McDaniels (receiving) and Durant (tackles and sacks) were the team leaders last year, as well.
Sweet home, Alabama: Six Grambling teammates played for linebackers coach Andre Robinson during a previous tenure at Birmingham's Parker High School.
They include: linebackers Brandon Arnold and Josh Bester; center Tavarus Cockrell; wide receivers Reginald Jackson; Xavier Jackson and Henry Tolbert; and defensive lineman Donald Williams.
Senior running back Ab Kuuan is also from nearby Sylacauga, Ala.
They'll be headed right back this week, as Grambling returns for a rematch of last December's SWAC Championship Game against Alabama A&M.
"We've got to come out and take care of A&M," said safety Bryan Langford. "We've got to be ready, even if it goes to overtime, to go the distance."
Tolbert had four catches for 78 yards and a touchdown at Legion Field. Kuuan had 37 yards on 17 carries and a special-teams tackle.
Bester had six tackles, including an assist for a loss; Williams had four, with one for a loss.
Kuuan and Tolbert were pregame team captains, as well.
Gave them five: Hampton and Grambling shared the Sheridan Broadcasting Network's black college national title in 2005. But the Pirates have owned Grambling as of late.
GSU actually has a 57-25 overall record against Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, but it has fallen to 2-6 all time against Hampton — including five losses in a row.
But GSU didn't go easy, fighting until the last play of the game as it went to overtime.
"It's what you expected," Landers said. "It was a hard-fought battle to the end. Hopefully, we gave the people what they came out to see, two great teams trying to be victorious."
You have to go all the way back to former GSU coach Eddie Robinson's 1994 team to find a win — and it was a squeaker, too: Grambling won 32-29.
Spears has lost to HU three times, twice as a offensive coordinator in 1998-99 and then this year as head coach. GSU, under Doug Williams, lost by scores of 28-15 and 27-7.
Grambling is now 2-2 on ESPN affiliates since 2003, beating Alabama State and Alabama A&M last year and falling to San Jose State in '03 and Hampton over the weekend.
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Landers back as GSU's starting QB
October 11, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Three games into Grambling State's two-quarterback experiment, the race is a dead heat.
Larry Kerlegan and Brandon Landers, both redshirt sophomores, have each shown the ability to take charge — and to take a leave of absence.
Kerlegan was the dynamo at Houston, winning a weekly Southwestern Athletic Conference award while Landers posted negligible stats. The roles were reversed at Mississippi Valley State, where the opposing coaches clearly schemed to stop Kerlegan and Kerlegan alone.
The two passers also shared duties, though they had more similar success, in a rout against Prairie View in between.
"I think they are getting there," GSU coach Melvin Spears said. "We're still looking for a little more continuity."
Landers will get the start this week against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, as first reported at www. thenewsstar.com on Tuesday morning. But Spears said that Kerlegan will again spell him at quarterback.
Situations, Spears said, will dictate who plays and when.
"It's a studying process," he said, "and I think Brandon is a little further along. That's why he's getting a few more reps."
Landers, who won SWAC freshman of the year honors while subbing for the injured Bruce Eugene at Grambling in 2004, has played with renewed vigor since Kerlegan hit the field. The competition seems to have emboldened both to work harder.
Still, add in the bye week, and it's been a month since these two began splitting duties and the numbers still don't provide an easy answer as to who should start.
The efficiency ratings are lopsided in Kerlegan's direction, with a 68 percent completion rate compared with 53 percent. But Landers has piled up nearly twice as much passing production. Through this week, he has 882 yards and nine passing touchdowns while Kerlegan has 418 yards and 4 scores.
That means they'll continue to share time, Spears said.
"We're not asking them to win the game, just to manage it and get the ball to our receivers and running backs," Spears said.
Kerlegan got 285 of those passing yards against Houston, while Landers went 0-for-3. Landers then had 213 yards in the air last week at Valley, while Kerlegan had minus-2.
In Dallas against Prairie View, they almost perfectly split 297 total passing yards, as Kerlegan sparked the offense with 172 yards.
Again, no clear frontrunner.
Kerlegan is the team's second-leading rusher with 180 yards, but Landers is the only one of the two with a score on the ground.
And so it goes.
"Larry Kerlegan throws the ball just as well," Spears said, "He just needs to continue to learn the system. Brandon can run too, though he's not as a fast as Kerlegan. They both have things we like. That's why we'll continue to use both."
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AGENT OF CHANGE: Monroe's Landers settles in with new Grambling staff, playbook
August 5, 2007
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Brandon Landers, now a redshirt junior, has seen it all during his time at Grambling State.
He's been the green freshman, unexpectedly inserted in 2004 when GSU's record-smashing passer Bruce Eugene blew out a knee.
He's been the camp underdog, fighting to get that same job back, when Eugene returned.
Once relied upon, in 2005 Landers was eventually redshirted.
He's been the presumptive No. 1 himself, struggling in 2006 to fight off a flinty backup.
Today, the Monroe native is, simply, the starter.
"I always live by the idea of being ready for anything," said Landers, a criminal justice major and volunteer with the Marshal's Office. "Things will come at you. I am making the necessary adjustments, but I don't think of it as a difficult thing. Football is football."
Landers' career has been the definition of things coming right at you. He is, in fact, the first quarterback to start consecutive seasons at Grambling since '04.
Then coming off All-Northeast offensive player of the year honors at Carroll, Landers was recruited in 2003 by Doug Williams, played in 2004 and '06 under Melvin Spears and will finish his career under new Grambling coach Rod Broadway.
"Brandon has something about him that you can't help but like," Broadway said. "He has shown some leadership skills. The guys have taken to him, and he's a nice guy to be around."
The first transition was largely seamless, since Spears had run Williams' offensive for six seasons before succeeding him as head coach.
Broadway, however, is installing a completely new look — one that will test both Landers' decision making and his ability to manage the playcalling in a variety of offensive situations.
Landers, bolstered by the new coaches' confidence in him, remains steadfastly optimistic as he faces perhaps his most rigorous challenge yet.
"We're excited about being back at it," Landers said. "We're bonding as a team, trying to get better. You can sense the change, and the excitement about the coaching staff. I feel a difference already in the team."
Landers was productive last season, averaging 194.4 yards per game. A highpoint was his 350-yard passing performance at home against Jackson State, which earned Landers Southwestern Athletic Conference player of the week honors. He also passed for 17 scores, which ranked second in the league.
The offense's troubles at closing out games contributed to Grambling's disastrous 3-8 record, but it still would finish with a SWAC-best average of 348.3 yards per game.
New offensive coordinator James Spady loses six starters from that group, but can find some solace in the return of Landers and senior receiver Clyde Edwards, his favorite target.
Both have been meeting three to four times a day, Landers said, as a new playbook has been installed. Gone is the flashy go-for-broke style associated with Spears' tenure.
This offense will certainly take its shots, but it's more in keeping with the pro-style offense that Williams always favored.
"It's different from last year, when we were wide open," Landers said. "This is more of a set-up type offense. We won't be stuck on the approach of just getting the big play."
That puts Landers in a place he's never been, having been asked to pass upwards of 50 times in games against Alabama A&M (his first start) and Jackson State in 2004. Landers never stopped competing, and eventually rose to Southwestern Athletic Conference and Louisiana Sports Writers Association freshman of the year honors.
He finished with a school-record 2,283 passing yards, besting a freshman mark that had stood since Williams's debut in 1974 under Eddie Robinson.
A highlight of that initial campaign came during the season-ending Bayou Classic when, in a style that could become familiar under Broadway, Landers attempted fewer than 20 passes as GSU slowly suffocated Southern.
"We're not asking him to win the game for us," Broadway said. "We want him to learn how to manage a game. Once he understands that, along with his continued growth as a player, he should be in pretty good shape — because if you have a triggerman, on all levels of football, then you have a chance to compete."
Landers, matured in a crucible of change, is taking it all in stride.
"I like the new look," Landers said, though he bristles at any suggestion that this offense might lack the implicit danger of GSU's old attack. "If you sleep on us, we'll hit you big."
BEHIND BRANDON
Senior Larry Kerlegan, an athlete of uncommon playmaking ability, is listed as the backup on Grambling State's fall depth chart.
Over seven games last season, Kerlegan passed for 633 yards and seven scores, while running for another 215 yards to rank second on the team in rushing. That led to a move by the staff to work Kerlegan into the wideout rotation.
"He plays the way you want kids to play, and that's fast," first-year Grambling coach Rod Broadway said. "We're going to use him in a variety of offensive situations."
Sophomore Al Hawkins, the former minor-league baseball player, is the only other quarterback on the roster. He didn't attempt a pass in the Black and Gold game.
"The guys who were backups in the spring will have to step up in the fall and get better," Broadway said. "They'll have to perform well or get out of the way for some of the freshmen we're going to give a chance to play."
Grambling's remaining quarterbacks from the 2006 roster included Desmond Brentley, who has apparently transferred; and Zak Latif, who's now listed at tight end. --Nick Deriso, nderiso@thenewsstar.com.
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Academics could sideline Grambling's senior quarterback
July 26, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Monroe product Brandon Landers, a three-year letterman at Grambling State, will likely miss next season over an academic issue.
"I'm trying to see what I can do," the quarterback said. "I didn't get the grade I needed (in a history class), so it's up in the air right now if I will even play."
Landers, a fifth-year senior after redshirting in 2005 at Grambling, most recently posted career highs for completions, yards and touchdowns in the inaugural season under GSU coach Rod Broadway. That helped the Tigers advance to their fifth Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship Game since 2000, before falling to Jackson State last December.
Landers' absence opens the door to a spirited competition at the position just weeks before the year's much-anticipated opening kick. Grambling was again picked to win the SWAC's Western crown in preseason polling at the league's media day.
Greg Dillon, a 6-0, 200-pound sophomore, is listed as Landers' backup in the 2008 season prospectus. The academic status of Larry Kerlegan, the No. 2 Grambling passer in 2005-07, is also unclear.
GSU signed three prep athletes with quarterbacking experience, including Rayville product Justin Higgins. The 6-2, 185-pounder passed for more than 6,000 yards, rushed for nearly 2,000 yards and scored 60 touchdowns in high school.
El Paso, Texas, product Brendon Crawford (2,207 passing yards and 20 scores as a senior) and South Boston, Va., product Rodale Pippen (who split time at wideout, recording nearly 5,000 yards of total offense last year) were announced in GSU's most recent signing day.
The most intriguing option might be J.P. Tillman, a redshirt freshman transfer from the University of Missouri who has been participating during informal summer 7-on-7 drills at Grambling. The 6-3, 250-pound prospect was a three-sport high school athlete, and ranked No. 22 in the nation among dual-threat quarterbacks by Rivals.com as a senior.
Landers said it was unclear if an appeal could be made on his behalf. He is pursuing a degree in criminal justice.
"They are trying to do all they can do," Landers said. "I hope to know more by Tuesday (when Grambling football players report for fall practice sessions)."
Grambling coaches were unavailable for comment on Friday afternoon. The team opens this season Aug. 30 in Reno at the University of Nevada.
Landers, who was named prep offensive player of the year by The News-Star after his senior season at Carroll High in 2003, ranks third all-time among Grambling passers with 7,024. He needs 1,388 to pass Doug Williams for second place.
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Final narrative for Grambling's Landers hasn't been written
August 1, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
Brandon Landers' time at Grambling, as impressive as it is statistically, will always be one of lost promise. But his narrative is far from finished.
Landers initially signed as a prep quarterback with Doug Williams, only to see his would-be mentor leave for an NFL job. Then he was pushed too early, and with too little instruction, into the starting position as a true freshman in 2004 when Bruce Eugene went down. Then pushed back into a redshirt, and largely ignored, a season later when Eugene returned. Then pushed around as a redshirt sophomore in 2006, having belatedly retaken the starting position without ever having been properly prepared for it.
He remained erratic, able to gut out terrific wins (Bethune-Cookman in Cincinnati, Bayou Classic XXXI) on the one-hand but still subject to deflating breakdowns (memorable OT losses to Alabama A&M and Hampton, last year's Southwestern Athletic Conference title match).
Landers finally caught a decent break with the hiring of yet another new staff before his junior season. He was on his third head coach, but seemed to finally connect.
That's when the interior of his line fell apart. Landers withstood the kind of blows that would bring down buildings, and occasionally fell into old habits.
Grambling ended up one win shy of a championship. But Landers had become a vastly improved passer, a stronger locker room presence and, most importantly, an emerging leader off the field: He planned a successful offseason mentoring camp, volunteered as a marshal at the courthouse.
"He wants to become an inspiration for kids in this area by becoming a mentor," said Esther Gallow, who has done so much important outreach work in the economically depressed Booker T. community that Landers was raised in. "He's saying, even if I don't go pro, I still want to show young people that they can get out of the neighborhood, get a college education and do something great with their lives."
Sports fans don't like to hear it, but that's the important stuff.
Just like that, though, and just 1,400 yards shy of Doug Williams' No. 2 all-time passing marks at Grambling, Landers came up short on a summer course — and a football career that never reached its full potential is apparently over.
Yet what Landers accomplished, despite so much adversity (both the crushing poverty of his childhood environment and then at GSU), shouldn't be defined in total by the number of Bayou Classics or SWAC titles won or lost.
Landers is one credit away from doing something more notable than winning that last game on the gridiron. He has dreams of becoming a law enforcement officer, and then a community leader of enduring substance — and that's more urgently needed than another shiny item for the program's trophy case.
When he does all of that, and I think he will, football will perhaps finally be put in perspective as just one part of Brandon Landers' still-evolving story.
Monday, October 06, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Continuing coverage of the Robinson Museum efforts
Time (finally) to mark calendars on long-delayed Robinson Museum project
August 18, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Key dates for the long-delayed Eddie Robinson Museum are being talked about in terms of months, instead of years.
For a project now nearly a decade in the making, that's a remarkable achievement in itself.
"We're hoping to have a groundbreaking some time in the fall, and we'll get the ball rolling," said Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne, whose office would oversee the project. "We're making great progress."
At Grambling State from 1941-97, Robinson retired as the winningest football coach in college history with 408 wins — leading the Tigers to 17 Southwestern Athletic Conference titles over the years. He passed away in April 2007 at age 88, as the state moved to approve a plan to house a museum in his honor in the former women's gym on the Grambling campus.
Over the intervening year, the museum began to build a belated head of steam.
Organizers are now hailing the opening of bids on the long-delayed project, which are being accepted through Sept. 11 through the state's Office of Facility Planning and Control. A pre-bid conference is slated for Thursday at the former women's gym on the GSU campus.
"The time frame from there goes like this: six weeks to award the bid to the contractor and then a start date is set — and then construction begins," Robinson Museum board chairman John Belton said. "I think the end of October looks good for that date."
Belton, a governor-appointed board member since the project's inception, adds: "God is good."
The bidding follows quick approval by the Louisiana Bond Commission of $1.3 million — $300,000 in cash and a $1 million line of credit — to be used for renovating exhibit space in the women's gym and hiring an exhibit designer.
Those were the first state funds ever specifically earmarked for the effort.
"We are on our way," local museum fundraiser and Robinson family friend Wilbert Ellis enthused. "I'm tickled to death."
This project was first proposed nearly a decade ago in 1999 — two years after Robinson's retirement at Grambling and several before the onset of the Alzheimer's-related symptoms that ultimately led to his death.
But a series of setbacks followed, including budget cuts and a since-resolved argument over where the museum would be located.
"You know it's often very difficult to get in line for capital outlay projects," Dardenne admitted.
Robinson's passing spurred renewed interest in the concept.
"It has taken off," said Eddie Robinson Jr., the coach's only son and a former player and assistant under his father.
"That's so great for the family. It's an inspiration to all of us. We're all so very happy about that."
The Secretary of State's office has also been consistent in its support for a proposed Robinson Museum.
"I had just been elected right before he died and had already been committed to try and move that project along," Dardenne said, "because I was very interested in it, personally. And I think the combination of those two events helped kick start it to get to the point where we're now going to have it as a reality in the next year or so."
Word came last week that a groundbreaking ceremony has been scheduled for 2 p.m. Sept. 20 at the proposed museum site. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Dardenne and other state and local officials are scheduled to attend, said Ray Higgins, museum curator.
Higgins recently reviewed the state's extensive collection of Robinson-related material, including a priceless briefcase containing materials from the coach's final season at Grambling.
That's part of a months-long project he's undertaking to collect and catalogue items for inclusion in the exhibit space — yet another tangible sign the museum, though it's taken a while to get here, is no longer a faraway point on the horizon.
"We've had Coach with us that whole time," Ellis said. "I think he's working right along with us on this. I feel Coach's hand in all of it."
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Organizers praised for ushering long-delayed Robinson Museum forward
August 29, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Members of the Eddie Robinson Museum Commission are hailing the opening of bids on their long-delayed project.
They met on Thursday for the first time in a location dedicated to the museum, the former women's gymnasium on the Grambling State University campus where Robinson coached for nearly 60 years.
"A long time coming," marveled John Belton, a governor-appointment board member since the project's 1999 inception. "We're almost there."
After the commission met, prospective contractors then toured the facility, used more recently as university office space and for practice by GSU cheer groups, as part of a pre-bid question-and-answer session.
Bids will be taken beginning Sept. 11 to underwrite a retrofit of the gym and a sweeping plan — on display during the meeting — to showcase Robinson through memorabilia and interactive exhibits.
"You should all be very proud of your tenacity," said Cliff Deal, coordinator of museums with the Louisiana Secretary of State's office, which will oversee the project. "Your energy got it where it is today. Your desire and your hope got us here — no other reason."
A museum in Robinson's honor was first approved by the Louisiana Legislature nine years ago, just after Robinson's retirement from a career that ended with a Division I record of 408 career football victories. But a series of disagreements over where the exhibits would be housed slowed the project to a near standstill until more recently.
Robinson died in April 2007 from complications related to Alzheimer's at age 88, and that too gave an emotional charge to the efforts. The museum received its first state funding earlier in the year, and has now begun setting projected dates for groundbreaking and opening ceremonies.
"It's a terrific feeling," said Eddie Robinson Jr., who played for and coached with his father. "The hay is almost in the barn."
Deal was joined by Sailor Jackson of the Louisiana State Archives, who helped set an agenda for the coming months. The museum, for instance, still has to work out a loan agreement for memorabilia with the Robinson family.
"This is not the end; it's just the beginning," Jackson said. "Next, we'll open bids, then we're on a fast track. We're talking mid-October when hammers start swinging."
Exhibit designer Jules Babineaux outlined his plans for the space, which include a special exhibit for former players called "Tigers in the Pros," an interactive database, a large bronze statue of Robinson and a re-creation of his office.
"We're trying to make it like the man was, bigger than life," said Babineaux, of Exhibits Etc.
Organizers hope to hold a groundbreaking on the weekend of Grambling's first home football game this season, and open the doors on the weekend it returns to play at Robinson Stadium in 2009.
The museum would include free admission, Deal said. "Our interest is in celebrating the memory of Coach," he said, "and to let everyone who can enjoy it."
Former Grambling coach and athletic administrator Wilbert Ellis, a family friend and principal local fundraiser for the museum effort, praised a number of major donors — including the Dallas alumni chapter and the Shack Harris-Doug Williams Foundation.
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Eddie Rob Museum groundbreaking gets emotional
September 21, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — A groundbreaking ceremony for the proposed Eddie Robinson Museum, nearly a decade in the making, moved many to tears.
"Coach used to say: 'Nobody can outwork me, if God gives me the strength,'" said former Grambling State University baseball coach and athletic administrator Wilbert Ellis. "And God gave him the strength. He gave us that strength, too."
Ellis was one of a handful of locals who worked tirelessly toward this goal of honoring Robinson, who died in 2007 at age 88 after setting a still-standing Division I mark for college football victories.
They gathered Saturday to unveil plans for the exhibit space, to be housed at the former women's basketball gymnasium on the Grambling State campus where Robinson coached for most of six decades.
But a largely ceremonial moment took on a deeper emotion after so many years of struggle.
"It's a great day, an unbelievable day," Eddie Robinson Jr. said, smiling even as he cried. "We are so blessed as a family."
Recent dental work limited comments from Doris Robinson, the former GSU coach's widow. But she was in great spirits, presenting the state's renovation plans and then — after donning a hardhat affixed with the familiar Grambling "G" logo — turning over the initial mounds of dirt with a golden shovel.
As many as a half a dozen people were dabbing tears by then.
Robinson's legend, established over a career that spanned 1941-97, still holds that kind of startling power. Grambling President Horace Judson on Saturday called his school "the house that Eddie Robinson built," to widespread applause.
But plans to honor him with a museum, first mentioned in 1999, hit a series of roadblocks involving funding, arguments over location, then shifting commission dynamics.
That changed over the last few years as a rejuvenated board — helmed by John Belton, a governor-appointed member, with help from former Robinson assistant coach Doug Porter — began to pick up key support from Louisiana officials.
Robinson's passing, after years of battling complications related to Alzheimer's, gave the efforts a final push.
In a matter of months, the University of Louisiana System, which oversees Grambling, worked out a deal to house the exhibits on campus. The Louisiana Legislature then funded the museum for the first time since its inception.
Throughout the long journey, the Secretary of State's Office — through the administrations of Fox McKeithen, Al Ater and now Jay Dardenne — has remained a strong advocate.
"I appreciate the work that has gone on for the past 10 years," Dardenne said. "Their sweat and tears made this possible."
Choudrant businessman James Davison, a longtime family friend of the Robinsons, was one of several in attendance wearing specially made shirts inscribed with the motto: "Coach Rob — we kept the faith."
Like many, he paused several times during his remarks to compose himself.
"This is a collective achievement, a historic occasion," Belton said. "Many asked: Will it ever happen? The answer is yes, and praise God for it."
He specifically mentioned others besides Robinson who had not lived to see this belated ceremony, including original board chair Lottie Green; former Grambling professor David Lewis; and McKeithen, an early advocate.
A surprise guest was former state Sen. Randy Ewing — who in 1999 introduced Senate Bill No. 919, which created the Robinson Museum commission.
"We come here to honor Coach Robinson, but also his wife," Ewing said, gesturing to Robinson's partner of 64 years. "That was a winning team, too."
Familiar faces from Grambling lore dotted the audience, including NBA Hall of Famer Willis Reed.
"I am proud to have gone to a university where such a great man coached," Reed said.
Respected school architects were represented by Mary Hobdy, widow of Reed's former basketball coach Fred Hobdy and secretary to the school's second president, R.W.E. Jones; along with Ophelia Nicholson, widow of the school's renowned former sports information director, Collie J. Nicholson.
Several ex-players were in attendance, including Albert Dennis III and Eddie Scott, who has formed an alumni group called Eddie Robinson's Boys.
Grambling Mayor Martha Andrus ruminated on the emotional reunion of so many faces from the area's storied past.
"History is born again today, as we break ground for this museum," she said. "We are humble, fortunate and oh-so-very proud to see this come to fruition."
State Sen. Bob Kostelka (R-Monroe) and state Rep. Rick Gallot (D-Ruston) both spoke as part of the official program, as well.
"How sweet it is," Gallot said, "that this day has finally come."
Other officials on hand included Ruston mayor Dan Hollingsworth, University of Louisiana System president Randy Moffett, District Attorney Bob Levy and Ruston-Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau president Kyle Edmiston.
The Rev. Julius R. Sumler, pastor at Grambling's New Rocky Valley Baptist — Robinson was a member there — gave the invocation: "We thank you, Lord, for a dream that you wouldn't allow to die."
Grambling's Tiger Marching Band performed, both before and after the ceremony — playing Bill Wither's classic soul favorite "Lovely Day" as the program got under way and then the school's alma mater and fight song to conclude the event.
"I'm pleased to be a part of history," Ellis said, as more tears welled up again. "This is a day I will always remember. I can see Coach now — and he's smiling."
August 18, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Key dates for the long-delayed Eddie Robinson Museum are being talked about in terms of months, instead of years.
For a project now nearly a decade in the making, that's a remarkable achievement in itself.
"We're hoping to have a groundbreaking some time in the fall, and we'll get the ball rolling," said Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne, whose office would oversee the project. "We're making great progress."
At Grambling State from 1941-97, Robinson retired as the winningest football coach in college history with 408 wins — leading the Tigers to 17 Southwestern Athletic Conference titles over the years. He passed away in April 2007 at age 88, as the state moved to approve a plan to house a museum in his honor in the former women's gym on the Grambling campus.
Over the intervening year, the museum began to build a belated head of steam.
Organizers are now hailing the opening of bids on the long-delayed project, which are being accepted through Sept. 11 through the state's Office of Facility Planning and Control. A pre-bid conference is slated for Thursday at the former women's gym on the GSU campus.
"The time frame from there goes like this: six weeks to award the bid to the contractor and then a start date is set — and then construction begins," Robinson Museum board chairman John Belton said. "I think the end of October looks good for that date."
Belton, a governor-appointed board member since the project's inception, adds: "God is good."
The bidding follows quick approval by the Louisiana Bond Commission of $1.3 million — $300,000 in cash and a $1 million line of credit — to be used for renovating exhibit space in the women's gym and hiring an exhibit designer.
Those were the first state funds ever specifically earmarked for the effort.
"We are on our way," local museum fundraiser and Robinson family friend Wilbert Ellis enthused. "I'm tickled to death."
This project was first proposed nearly a decade ago in 1999 — two years after Robinson's retirement at Grambling and several before the onset of the Alzheimer's-related symptoms that ultimately led to his death.
But a series of setbacks followed, including budget cuts and a since-resolved argument over where the museum would be located.
"You know it's often very difficult to get in line for capital outlay projects," Dardenne admitted.
Robinson's passing spurred renewed interest in the concept.
"It has taken off," said Eddie Robinson Jr., the coach's only son and a former player and assistant under his father.
"That's so great for the family. It's an inspiration to all of us. We're all so very happy about that."
The Secretary of State's office has also been consistent in its support for a proposed Robinson Museum.
"I had just been elected right before he died and had already been committed to try and move that project along," Dardenne said, "because I was very interested in it, personally. And I think the combination of those two events helped kick start it to get to the point where we're now going to have it as a reality in the next year or so."
Word came last week that a groundbreaking ceremony has been scheduled for 2 p.m. Sept. 20 at the proposed museum site. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Dardenne and other state and local officials are scheduled to attend, said Ray Higgins, museum curator.
Higgins recently reviewed the state's extensive collection of Robinson-related material, including a priceless briefcase containing materials from the coach's final season at Grambling.
That's part of a months-long project he's undertaking to collect and catalogue items for inclusion in the exhibit space — yet another tangible sign the museum, though it's taken a while to get here, is no longer a faraway point on the horizon.
"We've had Coach with us that whole time," Ellis said. "I think he's working right along with us on this. I feel Coach's hand in all of it."
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Organizers praised for ushering long-delayed Robinson Museum forward
August 29, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Members of the Eddie Robinson Museum Commission are hailing the opening of bids on their long-delayed project.
They met on Thursday for the first time in a location dedicated to the museum, the former women's gymnasium on the Grambling State University campus where Robinson coached for nearly 60 years.
"A long time coming," marveled John Belton, a governor-appointment board member since the project's 1999 inception. "We're almost there."
After the commission met, prospective contractors then toured the facility, used more recently as university office space and for practice by GSU cheer groups, as part of a pre-bid question-and-answer session.
Bids will be taken beginning Sept. 11 to underwrite a retrofit of the gym and a sweeping plan — on display during the meeting — to showcase Robinson through memorabilia and interactive exhibits.
"You should all be very proud of your tenacity," said Cliff Deal, coordinator of museums with the Louisiana Secretary of State's office, which will oversee the project. "Your energy got it where it is today. Your desire and your hope got us here — no other reason."
A museum in Robinson's honor was first approved by the Louisiana Legislature nine years ago, just after Robinson's retirement from a career that ended with a Division I record of 408 career football victories. But a series of disagreements over where the exhibits would be housed slowed the project to a near standstill until more recently.
Robinson died in April 2007 from complications related to Alzheimer's at age 88, and that too gave an emotional charge to the efforts. The museum received its first state funding earlier in the year, and has now begun setting projected dates for groundbreaking and opening ceremonies.
"It's a terrific feeling," said Eddie Robinson Jr., who played for and coached with his father. "The hay is almost in the barn."
Deal was joined by Sailor Jackson of the Louisiana State Archives, who helped set an agenda for the coming months. The museum, for instance, still has to work out a loan agreement for memorabilia with the Robinson family.
"This is not the end; it's just the beginning," Jackson said. "Next, we'll open bids, then we're on a fast track. We're talking mid-October when hammers start swinging."
Exhibit designer Jules Babineaux outlined his plans for the space, which include a special exhibit for former players called "Tigers in the Pros," an interactive database, a large bronze statue of Robinson and a re-creation of his office.
"We're trying to make it like the man was, bigger than life," said Babineaux, of Exhibits Etc.
Organizers hope to hold a groundbreaking on the weekend of Grambling's first home football game this season, and open the doors on the weekend it returns to play at Robinson Stadium in 2009.
The museum would include free admission, Deal said. "Our interest is in celebrating the memory of Coach," he said, "and to let everyone who can enjoy it."
Former Grambling coach and athletic administrator Wilbert Ellis, a family friend and principal local fundraiser for the museum effort, praised a number of major donors — including the Dallas alumni chapter and the Shack Harris-Doug Williams Foundation.
g g g
Eddie Rob Museum groundbreaking gets emotional
September 21, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — A groundbreaking ceremony for the proposed Eddie Robinson Museum, nearly a decade in the making, moved many to tears.
"Coach used to say: 'Nobody can outwork me, if God gives me the strength,'" said former Grambling State University baseball coach and athletic administrator Wilbert Ellis. "And God gave him the strength. He gave us that strength, too."
Ellis was one of a handful of locals who worked tirelessly toward this goal of honoring Robinson, who died in 2007 at age 88 after setting a still-standing Division I mark for college football victories.
They gathered Saturday to unveil plans for the exhibit space, to be housed at the former women's basketball gymnasium on the Grambling State campus where Robinson coached for most of six decades.
But a largely ceremonial moment took on a deeper emotion after so many years of struggle.
"It's a great day, an unbelievable day," Eddie Robinson Jr. said, smiling even as he cried. "We are so blessed as a family."
Recent dental work limited comments from Doris Robinson, the former GSU coach's widow. But she was in great spirits, presenting the state's renovation plans and then — after donning a hardhat affixed with the familiar Grambling "G" logo — turning over the initial mounds of dirt with a golden shovel.
As many as a half a dozen people were dabbing tears by then.
Robinson's legend, established over a career that spanned 1941-97, still holds that kind of startling power. Grambling President Horace Judson on Saturday called his school "the house that Eddie Robinson built," to widespread applause.
But plans to honor him with a museum, first mentioned in 1999, hit a series of roadblocks involving funding, arguments over location, then shifting commission dynamics.
That changed over the last few years as a rejuvenated board — helmed by John Belton, a governor-appointed member, with help from former Robinson assistant coach Doug Porter — began to pick up key support from Louisiana officials.
Robinson's passing, after years of battling complications related to Alzheimer's, gave the efforts a final push.
In a matter of months, the University of Louisiana System, which oversees Grambling, worked out a deal to house the exhibits on campus. The Louisiana Legislature then funded the museum for the first time since its inception.
Throughout the long journey, the Secretary of State's Office — through the administrations of Fox McKeithen, Al Ater and now Jay Dardenne — has remained a strong advocate.
"I appreciate the work that has gone on for the past 10 years," Dardenne said. "Their sweat and tears made this possible."
Choudrant businessman James Davison, a longtime family friend of the Robinsons, was one of several in attendance wearing specially made shirts inscribed with the motto: "Coach Rob — we kept the faith."
Like many, he paused several times during his remarks to compose himself.
"This is a collective achievement, a historic occasion," Belton said. "Many asked: Will it ever happen? The answer is yes, and praise God for it."
He specifically mentioned others besides Robinson who had not lived to see this belated ceremony, including original board chair Lottie Green; former Grambling professor David Lewis; and McKeithen, an early advocate.
A surprise guest was former state Sen. Randy Ewing — who in 1999 introduced Senate Bill No. 919, which created the Robinson Museum commission.
"We come here to honor Coach Robinson, but also his wife," Ewing said, gesturing to Robinson's partner of 64 years. "That was a winning team, too."
Familiar faces from Grambling lore dotted the audience, including NBA Hall of Famer Willis Reed.
"I am proud to have gone to a university where such a great man coached," Reed said.
Respected school architects were represented by Mary Hobdy, widow of Reed's former basketball coach Fred Hobdy and secretary to the school's second president, R.W.E. Jones; along with Ophelia Nicholson, widow of the school's renowned former sports information director, Collie J. Nicholson.
Several ex-players were in attendance, including Albert Dennis III and Eddie Scott, who has formed an alumni group called Eddie Robinson's Boys.
Grambling Mayor Martha Andrus ruminated on the emotional reunion of so many faces from the area's storied past.
"History is born again today, as we break ground for this museum," she said. "We are humble, fortunate and oh-so-very proud to see this come to fruition."
State Sen. Bob Kostelka (R-Monroe) and state Rep. Rick Gallot (D-Ruston) both spoke as part of the official program, as well.
"How sweet it is," Gallot said, "that this day has finally come."
Other officials on hand included Ruston mayor Dan Hollingsworth, University of Louisiana System president Randy Moffett, District Attorney Bob Levy and Ruston-Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau president Kyle Edmiston.
The Rev. Julius R. Sumler, pastor at Grambling's New Rocky Valley Baptist — Robinson was a member there — gave the invocation: "We thank you, Lord, for a dream that you wouldn't allow to die."
Grambling's Tiger Marching Band performed, both before and after the ceremony — playing Bill Wither's classic soul favorite "Lovely Day" as the program got under way and then the school's alma mater and fight song to conclude the event.
"I'm pleased to be a part of history," Ellis said, as more tears welled up again. "This is a day I will always remember. I can see Coach now — and he's smiling."
Friday, September 12, 2008
Remembering: Grambling's first game at Northwestern State
Historic first meeting between Grambling, Northwestern was defensive slugfest
September 11, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
The stands, that night, were separated by color.
Fans sporting black and gold filled one set of bleachers, while purple and white populated the other.
But there was something else that divided them, as Grambling played its first-ever game against Northwestern State on Sept. 14, 1974.
"What was unique was not just the color of the shirts; you had all white people on one side and all black on the other," said Jack Brittain, an NSU special teams player in '74. "That was not something I was used to seeing. It was a different point of view."
The newly expanded State Fair Stadium — now Shreveport's Independence Stadium — was packed to the lid, as 30,000 fans joined together despite their differences for a night of stirring football action.
"We knew it was big, especially playing a school of different race from Louisiana," said Sammy White, then a junior wingback for the historically black Grambling college. "We knew the level of competition would be a step up for our program, and we wanted to give it everything we had to pull it out."
At the time, the late legendary GSU sports information director Collie J. Nicholson said this "could become a regular series for the two clubs."
But the Tigers wouldn't play another Southland Conference-affiliated program until falling to Arkansas State in the 1985 lower-division playoffs. Grambling, despite more recent efforts going back at least five seasons, hasn't played Northwestern since.
That changes Saturday at GSU travels to Natchitoches for a long-awaited Louisiana rivalry game that's stirred powerful memories of their first meeting more than 30 years back.
"It was actually a barrier breaker, as far as those things go," said Brittain, now Northwestern's sideline reporter. "As a freshman, it was my first football game, so my knees were shaking before we went out for the kickoff. Then, we were facing Grambling, who had such a great reputation for sending players to the professional leagues. We figured it was going to be an epic battle."
Was it ever.
'TIGHT, TIGHT, TIGHT'
Senior Grambling quarterback Joe Comeaux, a Westlake native, opened the scoring with a four-yard TD scramble. He'd hit Dwight Scales on a 43-yard pass to the NSU 7 on the second play from scrimmage.
Rodney Zeno, a senior GSU defensive back, added the extra point, but the 7-0 lead wouldn't stand for long.
A White fumble on the Grambling 13 gave the ball back to Northwestern's Butch Ballard, who answered with his lone touchdown pass of the night — hitting Gene Knecht on an eight-yard strike.
That followed a series of stuffs on off-tackle runs by Mario Cage, who couldn't get past Grambling seniors Gary "Big Hands" Johnson and Robert Barber.
In a harbinger of kicking problems to come, NSU's extra-point attempt then failed.
NSU's Cage — coming off a 1,000-yard, all-Gulf South season in 1973 — then made a dramatic second-quarter touchdown run on a pitch back from Ballard. (There are lingering discrepancies on the exact length of his run: Monroe's Morning World had it at 57 yards, The Times of Shreveport reported 61 and NSU's yearbook said 52.) Danny Foret's point-after attempt was true this time, giving Northwestern a 13-7 lead at the half.
Neither team, however, could gather itself for a knock out on offense. It was all body blows.
"That game," said White, "was tight, tight, tight."
Nicholson once marveled over NSU's 1974 defense, saying "they make up for a lack of size with speed, aggressiveness and a desire to hit."
Grambling's unit, meanwhile, featured James "Hound" Hunter as a secondary anchor along with the All-American Johnson, who late Grambling coaching legend Eddie Robinson had taken to calling "the best lineman in college football."
Both teams would punt seven times over the course of the contest, with Grambling earning just four first downs and outgaining NSU by a total of only 74 yards. Northwestern fumbled seven times, losing three — while picking off GSU a total of four stunning times.
"I was deep protection on the punts," Brittain said, laughing, "and we punted a lot. I just remember 'Big Hands' running past our center, right behind the snap as it was coming back. He would come in low, about one foot off the ground. All I could do is dive at his shoelaces. He would just shove me to the ground and trample right over me."
Grambling returned to the field after halftime with a new quarterback, and Shreveport sophomore Terry Brown reeled off a dramatic 82-yard pass to White.
"They were blitzing us a lot, so we had a one-on-one match up," said White, now an assistant coach at Grambling. "Terry threw a nice long ball on that one."
Zeno's kick gave the Tigers their final margin of victory, 14-13.
But not before a memorable NSU field goal attempt, blocked by Hunter, as time expired.
Hunter's playmaking through that junior season had already drawn raves from Robinson, who called the Texan "Mr. Clutch." A canny pass defender and zippy returner, Hunter was "generally spoken of with a reverence reserved exclusively for legendary Saturday heroes," the late Nicholson once said.
That legend was built on plays like the final one against Northwestern State.
NSU got the ball back after an interception by linebacker Dan Boddie, who dashed back to the Grambling 34 with 4:03 left in the game. Ballard then drove down to the GSU 3 as time grew short, setting up a 20-yard attempt by Foret. Demons coach George Doherty, in a gutsy move, had ordered the try on third down with just 39 seconds remaining.
Hunter got a finger on it, as perhaps did Johnson, and the attempt missed.
'WAY BEYOND FOOTBALL'
Cage, who went down to injury during that final push, rushed for 97 yards — though much of that was given back in the final team stats because of lost yardage by other players.
Ballard finished the day 11-of-16 for just 88 yards and a score for NSU. Comeaux and Brown, meanwhile, combined for a 7-of-21 performance — a lack of efficiency under center that eventually led to the now-famous insertion of a redshirt freshman named Doug Williams three games later against Prairie View A&M.
"We had our opportunities," Williams said. "We scored 14 points, but we were still largely ineffective. It wasn't one of those good old Grambling offensive days. You could give some of that to Northwestern, too. They had a good team."
Doherty, entering his last season in Natchitoches after winning the Gulf South in 1972, had brought A.L. Williams in as offensive coordinator — and installed his new assistant's more pass-oriented offense in anticipation of handing over the reigns.
NSU, which had already dropped its second straight game in 1974, was in the midst of consecutive 1-10 campaigns. Williams would coach at Northwestern for eight seasons, boasting ranked teams in 1980 and '82 when his teams finished 8-3 and 7-4 respectively.
Williams went on to pass for 1,150 yards (nearly 400 more yards than Comeaux and Brown combined) over the remainder of the 1974 season. Grambling finished 11-1, claiming the ninth of 17 total Southwestern Athletic Conference championships under Robinson. (Williams later returned to coach at his alma mater, and played host to the first Southland foe ever at Grambling's Robinson Stadium — McNeese State in 2003.)
Grambling's lone '74 stumble was a 19-14 loss to Alcorn, and they shared the SWAC crown. Robinson would finish the season at 236 career wins on the way to 408 total, a still-standing Division I record.
The Northwestern victory, thrilling in its playing and encouraging in its social significance, holds a special place among them.
"The perspective of this game is way beyond the football field," Brittain said. "In our lives, both at Grambling and at Northwestern, it had a big effect. What a great time to try something like that, to break through some of those unknowns."
September 11, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
The stands, that night, were separated by color.
Fans sporting black and gold filled one set of bleachers, while purple and white populated the other.
But there was something else that divided them, as Grambling played its first-ever game against Northwestern State on Sept. 14, 1974.
"What was unique was not just the color of the shirts; you had all white people on one side and all black on the other," said Jack Brittain, an NSU special teams player in '74. "That was not something I was used to seeing. It was a different point of view."
The newly expanded State Fair Stadium — now Shreveport's Independence Stadium — was packed to the lid, as 30,000 fans joined together despite their differences for a night of stirring football action.
"We knew it was big, especially playing a school of different race from Louisiana," said Sammy White, then a junior wingback for the historically black Grambling college. "We knew the level of competition would be a step up for our program, and we wanted to give it everything we had to pull it out."
At the time, the late legendary GSU sports information director Collie J. Nicholson said this "could become a regular series for the two clubs."
But the Tigers wouldn't play another Southland Conference-affiliated program until falling to Arkansas State in the 1985 lower-division playoffs. Grambling, despite more recent efforts going back at least five seasons, hasn't played Northwestern since.
That changes Saturday at GSU travels to Natchitoches for a long-awaited Louisiana rivalry game that's stirred powerful memories of their first meeting more than 30 years back.
"It was actually a barrier breaker, as far as those things go," said Brittain, now Northwestern's sideline reporter. "As a freshman, it was my first football game, so my knees were shaking before we went out for the kickoff. Then, we were facing Grambling, who had such a great reputation for sending players to the professional leagues. We figured it was going to be an epic battle."
Was it ever.
'TIGHT, TIGHT, TIGHT'
Senior Grambling quarterback Joe Comeaux, a Westlake native, opened the scoring with a four-yard TD scramble. He'd hit Dwight Scales on a 43-yard pass to the NSU 7 on the second play from scrimmage.
Rodney Zeno, a senior GSU defensive back, added the extra point, but the 7-0 lead wouldn't stand for long.
A White fumble on the Grambling 13 gave the ball back to Northwestern's Butch Ballard, who answered with his lone touchdown pass of the night — hitting Gene Knecht on an eight-yard strike.
That followed a series of stuffs on off-tackle runs by Mario Cage, who couldn't get past Grambling seniors Gary "Big Hands" Johnson and Robert Barber.
In a harbinger of kicking problems to come, NSU's extra-point attempt then failed.
NSU's Cage — coming off a 1,000-yard, all-Gulf South season in 1973 — then made a dramatic second-quarter touchdown run on a pitch back from Ballard. (There are lingering discrepancies on the exact length of his run: Monroe's Morning World had it at 57 yards, The Times of Shreveport reported 61 and NSU's yearbook said 52.) Danny Foret's point-after attempt was true this time, giving Northwestern a 13-7 lead at the half.
Neither team, however, could gather itself for a knock out on offense. It was all body blows.
"That game," said White, "was tight, tight, tight."
Nicholson once marveled over NSU's 1974 defense, saying "they make up for a lack of size with speed, aggressiveness and a desire to hit."
Grambling's unit, meanwhile, featured James "Hound" Hunter as a secondary anchor along with the All-American Johnson, who late Grambling coaching legend Eddie Robinson had taken to calling "the best lineman in college football."
Both teams would punt seven times over the course of the contest, with Grambling earning just four first downs and outgaining NSU by a total of only 74 yards. Northwestern fumbled seven times, losing three — while picking off GSU a total of four stunning times.
"I was deep protection on the punts," Brittain said, laughing, "and we punted a lot. I just remember 'Big Hands' running past our center, right behind the snap as it was coming back. He would come in low, about one foot off the ground. All I could do is dive at his shoelaces. He would just shove me to the ground and trample right over me."
Grambling returned to the field after halftime with a new quarterback, and Shreveport sophomore Terry Brown reeled off a dramatic 82-yard pass to White.
"They were blitzing us a lot, so we had a one-on-one match up," said White, now an assistant coach at Grambling. "Terry threw a nice long ball on that one."
Zeno's kick gave the Tigers their final margin of victory, 14-13.
But not before a memorable NSU field goal attempt, blocked by Hunter, as time expired.
Hunter's playmaking through that junior season had already drawn raves from Robinson, who called the Texan "Mr. Clutch." A canny pass defender and zippy returner, Hunter was "generally spoken of with a reverence reserved exclusively for legendary Saturday heroes," the late Nicholson once said.
That legend was built on plays like the final one against Northwestern State.
NSU got the ball back after an interception by linebacker Dan Boddie, who dashed back to the Grambling 34 with 4:03 left in the game. Ballard then drove down to the GSU 3 as time grew short, setting up a 20-yard attempt by Foret. Demons coach George Doherty, in a gutsy move, had ordered the try on third down with just 39 seconds remaining.
Hunter got a finger on it, as perhaps did Johnson, and the attempt missed.
'WAY BEYOND FOOTBALL'
Cage, who went down to injury during that final push, rushed for 97 yards — though much of that was given back in the final team stats because of lost yardage by other players.
Ballard finished the day 11-of-16 for just 88 yards and a score for NSU. Comeaux and Brown, meanwhile, combined for a 7-of-21 performance — a lack of efficiency under center that eventually led to the now-famous insertion of a redshirt freshman named Doug Williams three games later against Prairie View A&M.
"We had our opportunities," Williams said. "We scored 14 points, but we were still largely ineffective. It wasn't one of those good old Grambling offensive days. You could give some of that to Northwestern, too. They had a good team."
Doherty, entering his last season in Natchitoches after winning the Gulf South in 1972, had brought A.L. Williams in as offensive coordinator — and installed his new assistant's more pass-oriented offense in anticipation of handing over the reigns.
NSU, which had already dropped its second straight game in 1974, was in the midst of consecutive 1-10 campaigns. Williams would coach at Northwestern for eight seasons, boasting ranked teams in 1980 and '82 when his teams finished 8-3 and 7-4 respectively.
Williams went on to pass for 1,150 yards (nearly 400 more yards than Comeaux and Brown combined) over the remainder of the 1974 season. Grambling finished 11-1, claiming the ninth of 17 total Southwestern Athletic Conference championships under Robinson. (Williams later returned to coach at his alma mater, and played host to the first Southland foe ever at Grambling's Robinson Stadium — McNeese State in 2003.)
Grambling's lone '74 stumble was a 19-14 loss to Alcorn, and they shared the SWAC crown. Robinson would finish the season at 236 career wins on the way to 408 total, a still-standing Division I record.
The Northwestern victory, thrilling in its playing and encouraging in its social significance, holds a special place among them.
"The perspective of this game is way beyond the football field," Brittain said. "In our lives, both at Grambling and at Northwestern, it had a big effect. What a great time to try something like that, to break through some of those unknowns."
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Q&A with SWAC commissioner Duer Sharp
SWAC Q&A: First-year commissioner Duer Sharp talks league's future
July 22, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
As the Southwestern Athletic Conference holds football media day, we check in with first-year commissioner Duer Sharp. A former interim athletic director at Grambling, Sharp previously served as the SWAC's assistant commissioner and had a previous tenure in the Big Ten Conference. He replaced Robert Vowels in January:
Question: Any surprises so far?
Answer: Coming from the Big Ten to the SWAC, you see that we have a long way to go. You are in here early, and you work late. But we feel like we've made a lot of advances. It took some time, but we're partnered with corporate sponsors now like Russell and State Farm. If we continue to work with member institutions as a team, and the conference office stays ahead of the curve, we can continue to have a voice.
Question: One of the more significant moves during your first months in office involved scrapping the old nine-game mandate for football.
Answer: The schools were saying: 'We need a seven-game conference schedule.' In the past, there was an issue of finding those additional games. There was a need then. Now, the schools are asking for relief. More and more, non-conference programs want to play SWAC schools, and this allows them to schedule more of those type games. We're still fine-tuning for the long term, but I think it's a good thing.
Question: Do you credit the improved play of programs that have more recently struggled — like, say, Prairie View?
Answer: People looked at SWAC football and thought it wasn't where it used to be. I don't think people say that anymore. We have gotten better and better. You can't take any weeks off in the SWAC anymore. We are starting to catch up with other conferences.
Question: The SWAC, meanwhile, continues to struggle for respect in basketball. What's the solution?
Answer: I think the way you have a higher profile is to schedule better non-conference opponents.
Question: By that, you mean more competitive opponents?
Answer: Right now, we are caught with our revenue being based on non-conference schedules. It's tough when you are at Memphis, at Illinois. You're not going to come out of there with a very good record. To me, this is what the SWAC needs to do to compete: Schedule more mid-majors. That will strengthen the conference's RPI. I'm looking for a way to attack this. Everyone should be included in that conversation.
Question: You followed Robert Vowels from the Big Ten in 2004. Did you ever consider succeeding him atop the SWAC so quickly?
Answer: You come into here to assist Robert with his vision, and to help out the member institutions. In the beginning, I came here because Robert gave me a call. He said, 'I need some help with the structure of the conference.' Over the years, we were able to do that.
Queston: The nationally televised MEAC/SWAC Challenge was an early success.
Answer: If you would ask anybody who has been to or played in that game, it's a like a bowl atmosphere — on the field and from all the different ancillary events associated with the day. SWAC football and MEAC football don't get a lot of chances to play in front of 90 million people. It's a chance to showcase what our conference is about to the nation.
Queston: The league's championship football game — held outdoors in Birmingham each December — has traditionally struggled with attendance. Does a domed-stadium initiative there provide some hope for a long-term solution?
Answer: The first thing to look at is this: On game day, look outside. We were fortunate that it was sunny last year; it was warm. That's the difference between getting 43,000 fans and 23,000. When you put the dome in the equation, that takes weather out of the equation. Hopefully, from an attendance standpoint, we can all benefit.
Queston: Over the years, there have been bids from cities like Shreveport and Houston to lure away the SWAC offices. What is the league's future in Alabama?
Answer: We enjoy Birmingham. We have a great relationship with the people and companies here. We're here until 2011; that's our agreement and we are planning on remaining here. I give credit to all of those cities, but it will be hard for any city to come in here and provide a better deal. Until that becomes reality, we will be here.
Queston: Big picture, what are your goals as commissioner of the SWAC?
Answer: I just want to continue to enhance the experience of the SWAC student athlete and the fan. That's our main goal. You want people to leave our member institutions saying: 'I had a great time competing and learning.' We want fans to come to our events and say: 'We had a great time.' I think we've already left our footprint on the SWAC, Robert and I. We've come a million miles. But we've got a million miles to go.
July 22, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
As the Southwestern Athletic Conference holds football media day, we check in with first-year commissioner Duer Sharp. A former interim athletic director at Grambling, Sharp previously served as the SWAC's assistant commissioner and had a previous tenure in the Big Ten Conference. He replaced Robert Vowels in January:
Question: Any surprises so far?
Answer: Coming from the Big Ten to the SWAC, you see that we have a long way to go. You are in here early, and you work late. But we feel like we've made a lot of advances. It took some time, but we're partnered with corporate sponsors now like Russell and State Farm. If we continue to work with member institutions as a team, and the conference office stays ahead of the curve, we can continue to have a voice.
Question: One of the more significant moves during your first months in office involved scrapping the old nine-game mandate for football.
Answer: The schools were saying: 'We need a seven-game conference schedule.' In the past, there was an issue of finding those additional games. There was a need then. Now, the schools are asking for relief. More and more, non-conference programs want to play SWAC schools, and this allows them to schedule more of those type games. We're still fine-tuning for the long term, but I think it's a good thing.
Question: Do you credit the improved play of programs that have more recently struggled — like, say, Prairie View?
Answer: People looked at SWAC football and thought it wasn't where it used to be. I don't think people say that anymore. We have gotten better and better. You can't take any weeks off in the SWAC anymore. We are starting to catch up with other conferences.
Question: The SWAC, meanwhile, continues to struggle for respect in basketball. What's the solution?
Answer: I think the way you have a higher profile is to schedule better non-conference opponents.
Question: By that, you mean more competitive opponents?
Answer: Right now, we are caught with our revenue being based on non-conference schedules. It's tough when you are at Memphis, at Illinois. You're not going to come out of there with a very good record. To me, this is what the SWAC needs to do to compete: Schedule more mid-majors. That will strengthen the conference's RPI. I'm looking for a way to attack this. Everyone should be included in that conversation.
Question: You followed Robert Vowels from the Big Ten in 2004. Did you ever consider succeeding him atop the SWAC so quickly?
Answer: You come into here to assist Robert with his vision, and to help out the member institutions. In the beginning, I came here because Robert gave me a call. He said, 'I need some help with the structure of the conference.' Over the years, we were able to do that.
Queston: The nationally televised MEAC/SWAC Challenge was an early success.
Answer: If you would ask anybody who has been to or played in that game, it's a like a bowl atmosphere — on the field and from all the different ancillary events associated with the day. SWAC football and MEAC football don't get a lot of chances to play in front of 90 million people. It's a chance to showcase what our conference is about to the nation.
Queston: The league's championship football game — held outdoors in Birmingham each December — has traditionally struggled with attendance. Does a domed-stadium initiative there provide some hope for a long-term solution?
Answer: The first thing to look at is this: On game day, look outside. We were fortunate that it was sunny last year; it was warm. That's the difference between getting 43,000 fans and 23,000. When you put the dome in the equation, that takes weather out of the equation. Hopefully, from an attendance standpoint, we can all benefit.
Queston: Over the years, there have been bids from cities like Shreveport and Houston to lure away the SWAC offices. What is the league's future in Alabama?
Answer: We enjoy Birmingham. We have a great relationship with the people and companies here. We're here until 2011; that's our agreement and we are planning on remaining here. I give credit to all of those cities, but it will be hard for any city to come in here and provide a better deal. Until that becomes reality, we will be here.
Queston: Big picture, what are your goals as commissioner of the SWAC?
Answer: I just want to continue to enhance the experience of the SWAC student athlete and the fan. That's our main goal. You want people to leave our member institutions saying: 'I had a great time competing and learning.' We want fans to come to our events and say: 'We had a great time.' I think we've already left our footprint on the SWAC, Robert and I. We've come a million miles. But we've got a million miles to go.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Grambling greats: College Hall of Famer Doug Porter
College Hall of Fame beckons Grambling resident Douglas Porter
May 7, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
Grambling resident Douglas Porter, who had a five-decade long career in coaching and athletic administration, will be inducted into the College Hall of Fame.
The National Football Foundation is expected to announce the 2008 class today. Porter appeared on the lower-classification ballot.
A former assistant at Grambling State under Eddie Robinson, Porter was a head coach at former Division I-AA programs Mississippi Valley (from 1961-65) and Howard University (from 1974-78) and finally at Division II Fort Valley State (from 1979-94). He was a longtime administrator at Fort Valley, as well.
Porter’s helped establish a Valley program that had not had a winning season in five years before his first in 1963, and has only matched his three in a row (through 1965) two other times — once in the 1950s, and another under Archie Cooley beginning in 1983. His .550 winning percentage has only been bested once among MVSU coaches who stayed five or more years.
He then coached for nine seasons under Robinson, running an offense that featured future Pro Football Hall of Famer Charlie Joiner and quarterbacks James “Shack” Harris and Doug Williams, later a Super Bowl MVP.
Every Grambling senior was drafted by the NFL in 1969. In 1971, 43 GSU players were in pro football camps.
“Even when I got to Fort Valley, the lead story was always that I was formerly an assistant under Coach Eddie Robinson,” Porter said recently. “That’s what they would start with. That gave you credibility, the fact that you had worked with Coach Rob.”
Porter, who won 61 percent of the games he coached, was 30-21-2 in five seasons at Howard — part of a career record of 166 victories.
At Fort Valley, a Division II program in Georgia, Porter won six conference championships and made two NCAA playoff appearances on his way to seven league coach of the year honors.
Porter retired back to Grambling in 1997, where he became a trusted advisor to both former GSU coaches Doug Williams and Melvin Spears and current coach Rod Broadway. He has also been a steady presence in the efforts to establish a museum in Robinson’s honor.
Porter has already been inducted into the Mississippi Valley State Hall of Fame.
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OUT OF THE SHADOWS: Legendary Grambling assistant built Hall of Fame resume as a head coach too
May 12, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Until this week, Douglas Porter was most often referred to as a former assistant under Grambling State’s mythical Eddie Robinson.
Porter stood, without complaint, inside the dark outline of that coaching legend’s shadow — despite having assembled a terrific, if seldom decorated, career of his own.
“That couldn’t have been easy with a person of his skill,” said James “Shack” Harris, Porter’s first quarterbacking protégé at GSU. “He was able to do it without ego, and to do it well.”
Porter, in fact, had been a part of a larger storyline in shaping successful programs, even in the most trying of situations. He had won nearly 170 games during a trio of head coaching stints at Mississippi Valley State, Howard and Fort Valley State — a resume built far from the red clay hills of Grambling.
Recognition for those efforts came on Wednesday when Porter was announced as part of the College Hall of Fame’s 2008 divisional class for lower-classification coaches and players.
“He has never been in the limelight,” said Doug Williams, who later received mentoring from Porter at Grambling as a redshirt freshman passer. “This is one time when he gets his 15 minutes. He deserves it.”
Nothing could stop Porter’s Hall of Fame journey: Not the crushing disparities found at rural black schools like Mississippi Valley State and Grambling, the benign neglect rampant even at metropolitan institutions like Howard, the forgotten backwaters of Division II ball at Fort Valley, or even a shocking moment when his body betrayed him.
BUILDING A FOUNDATION
Porter, so happy to be taking over a program, didn’t ask too many questions upon assuming his first head coaching job at Valley.
Once he got to Itta Bena, though, the gravity of the situation became apparent.
“Hadn’t beaten Jackson, hadn’t beaten Alcorn — in ages,” Porter said, sizing up Mississippi Valley State’s performance against key league foes. “Two years before, Grambling had beaten us 93 to nothing.”
He set about building a foundation of pride. That would require more than scoring 94 points on a Saturday afternoon.
“It took us a couple of years,” Porter said. “We played a lot of freshmen, played a lot of young people. But then, it began to pay off for us.”
Though Valley had not had a winning season in five years before Porter’s first in 1963, he reeled off three in a row through 1965 — something that has only been matched in Itta Bena on two other occasions.
Grambling, it’s no surprise, was a measuring stick. That time when Robinson’s squad had nearly hung a Benjamin on the Delta Devils stuck with Porter.
He finally began to gain on Valley’s cross-conference rivals and, in the process, to earn Eddie Robinson’s respect.
Porter had gotten blown out by Grambling during their first trio of meetings — and by a combined score of 149-12. But Porter was gaining, losing by an average of about two touchdowns over the last three games
“We came down in 1965, we played in Grambling —- and we led at halftime,” Porter said. “We lost 34-20, but we had been ahead 14-7. That was a measure of where we had come. We had gotten to the point where we could play anybody on our schedule. That was what I had hoped to do when I came there.”
A year later, he was running Robinson’s offense.
Porter said the chance to work alongside an American legend at Grambling — and to mentor future Louisiana Sports Hall of Famers like Harris and Frank Lewis — made what amounted to a demotion to offensive coordinator an attractive offer.
“He was very effective in a variety of situations,” Harris said. “He was someone who really knew the game. Coach Porter was a leader in his own right. You respected him.”
Grambling won six SWAC titles in the eight years Porter served under Robinson — three of them with Harris, who compiled a 31-9-1 record at Grambling.
That period of profound success, however, was leavened by the emerging reality that Robinson was becoming professionally and personally entwined in Grambling.
This relationship, already nearly 35 seasons old, was set for life.
Porter would have to move on in order to get an opportunity to run a program. After considering an offer from Florida A&M, he left in 1974 for the Washington, D.C.-based historically black college program Howard.
“I wanted to be a head coach,” he said. “I saw that, after a few years here, there was not going to be a chance for that.
“Change,” Porter added, laughing now, “wasn’t coming.”
Porter and Robinson, in fact, both would work for another 24 seasons, but while Porter moved from Howard to Fort Valley in coaching and administrative positions, his old boss never left the helm at GSU.
UPS AND DOWNS
Porter said he soon learned that the administration at Howard didn’t have the same commitment to athletics that he had become used to at Grambling under Robinson and then-president R.W.E. Jones.
Porter would finish with a winning record, but he’s always been left with the sense that he could have done better than his 30-21-2 mark over five seasons in D.C.
“I thought at that time that the best move for me and my future in football was Howard,” Porter said. “It didn’t turn out to be that way.”
Just over the horizon, however, was Fort Valley, where Porter would coach — save for one year — from 1979-97, and serve as athletics director from 1981-97.
“In all things that I have been involved with — people might think this is a little sanctimonious — I felt that the Lord has a way of directing you to go certain places and do certain things,” Porter said. “I was glad to get out of that situation.”
The then-current athletics director at Fort Valley was one of Porter’s college coaches. The school president had a child who attended Grambling during Porter’s tenure there.
And middle Georgia residents, like those in rural north Louisiana, boast a deep-seated love affair with football.
“There weren’t the same resources they had at Grambling, but the commitment to support the program was just as great,” Porter said.
He’d capture seven Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships between 1980-92, including four in a row from 1982-85.
“It definitely didn’t surprise me that he was able to leave and do well,” said Harris, now a top front-office executive in the NFL. “Some people are destined for success; he was one of those kinds of people.”
Five years after taking over, Fort Valley was winning its league title with both the offensive and defensive players of the year.
But Porter, after so long on the sidelines, was beginning to fray. An in-season heart attack during his seventh campaign at Fort Valley sent him into spiraling introspection.
'A GREAT FOOTBALL MIND'
Fort Valley has begun that impressive string of championships in the 1980s running an offense that bore little resemblance to the attack associated with Robinson’s Grambling teams.
Recruiting into a Division II program had something to do with it.
“I didn’t have the offensive linemen that it would take to run the Wing T,” Porter said. “You need guys who have a lot of athletic ability to be successful. It was easier for us to find kids we could teach to pass block and drive block.”
By ‘85, Fort Valley had developed a powerful defense to match that offensive power, too, leading the lower classification in several categories. Opponents were often held under a touchdown, and to minus-yards rushing.
But these low-scoring matches — coupled with newly founded, Grambling-like expectations of winning — took their toll, creating a pressure-cooker environment.
Fort Valley, ranked No. 2, came into a game against No. 1 Central State and fell 14-7.
A coach known for his easy-going nature — in fact, some at Fort Valley had once criticized him for not being emotional enough — was taking all of this personally.
Too personally.
“It was a hard, hard loss,” Porter said. “We were going into our last two games with just one loss. To maintain that puts you under a tremendous amount of pressure that you don’t really realize.”
He ended up flat on his back in a hospital room, with doctors trying to get his heart fixed.
Porter kept asking about the scores, tried to keep his head in the game.
But the doctors recommended a year off.
The time away refocused Porter on what was important. He still loved football, but in a different way. He learned to let things go.
“At the end of that, I was in the best shape I have been in, other than when I was in the Army,” Porter said. “But I wanted to coach. Coaching is all I have ever really wanted to do.”
He would win more titles at Fort Valley, would serve as chairman of the Division II Football Committee and as president of the National Athletic Steering Committee and, after retiring, would play a key advisory role in smoothing the transition for Robinson successor Doug Williams at Grambling.
“Fort Valley was a good fit for me,” Porter said. “We found that they had a strong group of followers, and they had established a good winning tradition. As with Grambling, I was happy to be a part of that.”
Even if it always seemed to come second on his resume. Until Wednesday, when the College Hall of Fame called.
“It’s one of the greatest honors that can be bestowed,” said Williams, himself a 2001 inductee. “Nobody deserves to be rewarded more than Coach Porter.”
Porter attended the Hall of Fame ceremonies honoring Williams seven years ago, and Williams will join a burgeoning list of former students who will return the favor this summer. Porter said several Fort Valley players are organizing a group trip to South Bend, as well.
“Most people don’t know how special a coach he is,” said Harris, a Monroe native. “He coached at small schools, and that sometime means you get overlooked, but he did an outstanding job with those programs. He’s well deserving. What a great football mind.”
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For Grambling’s Porter, Hall of Fame career was about the kids
July 19, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
For Doug Porter, today will be the capstone on a career spent working with young people.
Of course, the new College Football Hall of Famer won some games along the way, too.
But that was never the point for Porter, a Grambling resident.
"To be able to touch young people," Porter said, "to get them to believe in something, that always meant so much."
The 79-year old earned membership in the College Hall’s 2008 divisional class after a 42-year career, which included 26 seasons as head coach at three small colleges. Porter also served eight seasons as an offensive coach during the legendary tenure of Grambling’s Eddie Robinson, and was athletics director at Fort Valley from 1981-97.
"He was a top football mind, someone who really knew the game," said one of Grambling’s passers at the time, James "Shack" Harris —- now a general manager with the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars. "Coach Porter is a leader in his right."
The National Football Foundation considers players and coaches from the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA), Divisions II, III, and the NAIA National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for induction in the College Hall of Fame’s divisional classes.
Porter is joined in 2008 by W.C. Gorden, who coached at Grambling’s conference foe Jackson State from 1976-91.
Four players are also to be inducted in ceremonies held today at South Bend, Ill.: Quarterback Jim Ballard (Mount Union, 1991-93); linebacker Ronald McKinnon (North Alabama, 1992-95), defensive end John Randle (Texas A&M-Kingsville, 1988-89) and halfback Brad Rowland (McMurry College, 1947-50).
Porter, who won 61 percent of the games he coached, recorded 166 career victories —- the bulk of them at Fort Valley.
There, Porter earned seven Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships between 1980-92, including four consecutive crowns from 1982-85. He advanced to the NCAA Division II semifinals in 1983 — when his team boasted the league’s offensive and defensive players of the year in Kelvin Parker and Taqwan Taylor, respectively — and to the quarterfinals in ‘85.
"I have as much respect for Coach Porter as any one I have been around," said Harris, a Monroe native who later played for the NFL’s Bills, Rams and Chargers. "As good a coach as he was, he always played his role in shadows. That couldn’t have been easy for a person of his skill."
Even working at that tiny Georgia Division II program, Porter coached three future NFL Draft picks, including first-rounder Tyrone Poole and Pro Bowl linebacker Greg Lloyd. (He also mentored some Grambling’s top quarterbacks in Harris, Matthew Reed and then Doug Williams, the future Super Bowl MVP.)
"Coach Porter is a special coach in that he would always tell you the honest truth, about football and about life," Harris said. "It sounds simple, but it’s rare. So often a coach will tell you what you want to hear. When you get a chance to work with people like Coach Porter, you become a better person yourself."
Named SIAC coach of the year seven times, Porter earned a lifetime achievement award from the All-American Football Foundation in 1998 and induction in the Mississippi Valley State Hall of Fame in 2006.
"The recognition is overwhelming," Porter said. "But the most important thing to me was to affect the lives of young people. That was satisfying."
COACH DOUG PORTER
Born: Aug. 15, 1929 in Memphis
Personal: Lives in Grambling, with wife Jean
Head coaching career: Mississippi Valley State (1961-65), Howard (1974-78), Fort Valley State (1979-85, 1987-96); also served as an offensive assistant at Grambling (1966-73) under Eddie Robinson, and has been a key advisor to each of his successors.
Career record: 166-107-5, only five losing seasons out of 26
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A SHARED EXPERIENCE: Grambling's duo of Dougs — Porter and Williams — boasts Hall of Fame friendship
July 20, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
A familiar face could be found among the crowd.
Doug Porter was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame on Saturday, with former player and protégé Doug Williams in attendance.
The roles had been reversed in 2001, when Williams was named to the hall's divisional class as a player. Seven years later, Porter was recognized in South Bend, Ill., for head coaching work at a trio of lower classification programs.
Porter also served from 1966-73 as an offensive assistant during the career of Grambling State's Eddie Robinson.
There, he met Doug Williams, then a young quarterback. Later, after retirement, Porter returned to become a key mentor when Williams succeeded Robinson as head coach at Grambling.
"It was big for me when Coach Porter showed up for my induction," Williams said. "When I found out that he was going in, I thought that was one of the greatest things. I got a chance to repay Coach by being there for him."
Porter won 61 percent of the games he coached, recording 166 career victories at former Division I-AA programs Mississippi Valley State (1961-65) and Howard (1974-78), then at Division II Fort Valley State (1979-97). He also served as athletics director at Fort Valley from 1981-97.
He might have won more still, had Williams followed Porter to Howard.
Williams certainly wanted to, back then.
"He was frustrated as a red shirt," Porter said. "He was running the scout team, but he felt he was better. He wasn't playing."
Porter, then as now a wise and fair man, knew the steep coaching climb ahead at Howard. But he wasn't willing to pluck Williams out of a more favorable situation.
"It wasn't in Doug's best interest to come," Porter said. "He wouldn't have been surrounded with the kind of people he had with Eddie: He wouldn't have had Dwight Scales; he wouldn't have had Sammy White — and those people were big contributors to his success. Had Williams come to us, he would have been a great quarterback, but throwing it to a group of receivers who made a lot of drops. That wouldn't have helped him."
Williams would win a pair of league championships under Robinson, success that launched him into the race for the Heisman Trophy. Williams then became a first-round NFL draft pick, and eventually earned Super Bowl MVP honors in 1988.
A lasting relationship, built as much on trust as on gridiron concepts, was forged.
Fate brought them back together in 1997, when Porter returned to Grambling upon retirement. Williams was in the midst of launching the difficult post-Robinson era — something nearly unthinkable after his stirring 57-season tenure — and Porter's guiding hand again played a key role Williams' success.
"It was Doug Porter who helped me though the whole transition," Williams said. "He wasn't looking for publicity for what he did. It wasn't hard for me to see that I needed Doug Porter close by me."
Long after retirement, Porter — the son of a coach, Memphis prep legend W.P. Porter — still possessed a keen passion for football.
"We'd sit down every day after practice and I would tell him what I felt," Porter said. "He was very amenable, though sometimes we would disagree. I could accept that, because it was his football team. The only thing I wanted to do was help him be successful."
He was: Williams, with Porter on the sidelines in an advisory role, would win a trio of Southwestern Athletic Conference titles in 2000-02, and was one game away from the championship match in both 1999 and 2003.
They now boast another bond, another shared memory in a lifetime filled with them.
"He had such an impact on my life," Williams said. "He had a lot to do with the success that I had. In my life, Coach Porter has been a Hall of Famer for a long time."
May 7, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
Grambling resident Douglas Porter, who had a five-decade long career in coaching and athletic administration, will be inducted into the College Hall of Fame.
The National Football Foundation is expected to announce the 2008 class today. Porter appeared on the lower-classification ballot.
A former assistant at Grambling State under Eddie Robinson, Porter was a head coach at former Division I-AA programs Mississippi Valley (from 1961-65) and Howard University (from 1974-78) and finally at Division II Fort Valley State (from 1979-94). He was a longtime administrator at Fort Valley, as well.
Porter’s helped establish a Valley program that had not had a winning season in five years before his first in 1963, and has only matched his three in a row (through 1965) two other times — once in the 1950s, and another under Archie Cooley beginning in 1983. His .550 winning percentage has only been bested once among MVSU coaches who stayed five or more years.
He then coached for nine seasons under Robinson, running an offense that featured future Pro Football Hall of Famer Charlie Joiner and quarterbacks James “Shack” Harris and Doug Williams, later a Super Bowl MVP.
Every Grambling senior was drafted by the NFL in 1969. In 1971, 43 GSU players were in pro football camps.
“Even when I got to Fort Valley, the lead story was always that I was formerly an assistant under Coach Eddie Robinson,” Porter said recently. “That’s what they would start with. That gave you credibility, the fact that you had worked with Coach Rob.”
Porter, who won 61 percent of the games he coached, was 30-21-2 in five seasons at Howard — part of a career record of 166 victories.
At Fort Valley, a Division II program in Georgia, Porter won six conference championships and made two NCAA playoff appearances on his way to seven league coach of the year honors.
Porter retired back to Grambling in 1997, where he became a trusted advisor to both former GSU coaches Doug Williams and Melvin Spears and current coach Rod Broadway. He has also been a steady presence in the efforts to establish a museum in Robinson’s honor.
Porter has already been inducted into the Mississippi Valley State Hall of Fame.
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OUT OF THE SHADOWS: Legendary Grambling assistant built Hall of Fame resume as a head coach too
May 12, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Until this week, Douglas Porter was most often referred to as a former assistant under Grambling State’s mythical Eddie Robinson.
Porter stood, without complaint, inside the dark outline of that coaching legend’s shadow — despite having assembled a terrific, if seldom decorated, career of his own.
“That couldn’t have been easy with a person of his skill,” said James “Shack” Harris, Porter’s first quarterbacking protégé at GSU. “He was able to do it without ego, and to do it well.”
Porter, in fact, had been a part of a larger storyline in shaping successful programs, even in the most trying of situations. He had won nearly 170 games during a trio of head coaching stints at Mississippi Valley State, Howard and Fort Valley State — a resume built far from the red clay hills of Grambling.
Recognition for those efforts came on Wednesday when Porter was announced as part of the College Hall of Fame’s 2008 divisional class for lower-classification coaches and players.
“He has never been in the limelight,” said Doug Williams, who later received mentoring from Porter at Grambling as a redshirt freshman passer. “This is one time when he gets his 15 minutes. He deserves it.”
Nothing could stop Porter’s Hall of Fame journey: Not the crushing disparities found at rural black schools like Mississippi Valley State and Grambling, the benign neglect rampant even at metropolitan institutions like Howard, the forgotten backwaters of Division II ball at Fort Valley, or even a shocking moment when his body betrayed him.
BUILDING A FOUNDATION
Porter, so happy to be taking over a program, didn’t ask too many questions upon assuming his first head coaching job at Valley.
Once he got to Itta Bena, though, the gravity of the situation became apparent.
“Hadn’t beaten Jackson, hadn’t beaten Alcorn — in ages,” Porter said, sizing up Mississippi Valley State’s performance against key league foes. “Two years before, Grambling had beaten us 93 to nothing.”
He set about building a foundation of pride. That would require more than scoring 94 points on a Saturday afternoon.
“It took us a couple of years,” Porter said. “We played a lot of freshmen, played a lot of young people. But then, it began to pay off for us.”
Though Valley had not had a winning season in five years before Porter’s first in 1963, he reeled off three in a row through 1965 — something that has only been matched in Itta Bena on two other occasions.
Grambling, it’s no surprise, was a measuring stick. That time when Robinson’s squad had nearly hung a Benjamin on the Delta Devils stuck with Porter.
He finally began to gain on Valley’s cross-conference rivals and, in the process, to earn Eddie Robinson’s respect.
Porter had gotten blown out by Grambling during their first trio of meetings — and by a combined score of 149-12. But Porter was gaining, losing by an average of about two touchdowns over the last three games
“We came down in 1965, we played in Grambling —- and we led at halftime,” Porter said. “We lost 34-20, but we had been ahead 14-7. That was a measure of where we had come. We had gotten to the point where we could play anybody on our schedule. That was what I had hoped to do when I came there.”
A year later, he was running Robinson’s offense.
Porter said the chance to work alongside an American legend at Grambling — and to mentor future Louisiana Sports Hall of Famers like Harris and Frank Lewis — made what amounted to a demotion to offensive coordinator an attractive offer.
“He was very effective in a variety of situations,” Harris said. “He was someone who really knew the game. Coach Porter was a leader in his own right. You respected him.”
Grambling won six SWAC titles in the eight years Porter served under Robinson — three of them with Harris, who compiled a 31-9-1 record at Grambling.
That period of profound success, however, was leavened by the emerging reality that Robinson was becoming professionally and personally entwined in Grambling.
This relationship, already nearly 35 seasons old, was set for life.
Porter would have to move on in order to get an opportunity to run a program. After considering an offer from Florida A&M, he left in 1974 for the Washington, D.C.-based historically black college program Howard.
“I wanted to be a head coach,” he said. “I saw that, after a few years here, there was not going to be a chance for that.
“Change,” Porter added, laughing now, “wasn’t coming.”
Porter and Robinson, in fact, both would work for another 24 seasons, but while Porter moved from Howard to Fort Valley in coaching and administrative positions, his old boss never left the helm at GSU.
UPS AND DOWNS
Porter said he soon learned that the administration at Howard didn’t have the same commitment to athletics that he had become used to at Grambling under Robinson and then-president R.W.E. Jones.
Porter would finish with a winning record, but he’s always been left with the sense that he could have done better than his 30-21-2 mark over five seasons in D.C.
“I thought at that time that the best move for me and my future in football was Howard,” Porter said. “It didn’t turn out to be that way.”
Just over the horizon, however, was Fort Valley, where Porter would coach — save for one year — from 1979-97, and serve as athletics director from 1981-97.
“In all things that I have been involved with — people might think this is a little sanctimonious — I felt that the Lord has a way of directing you to go certain places and do certain things,” Porter said. “I was glad to get out of that situation.”
The then-current athletics director at Fort Valley was one of Porter’s college coaches. The school president had a child who attended Grambling during Porter’s tenure there.
And middle Georgia residents, like those in rural north Louisiana, boast a deep-seated love affair with football.
“There weren’t the same resources they had at Grambling, but the commitment to support the program was just as great,” Porter said.
He’d capture seven Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships between 1980-92, including four in a row from 1982-85.
“It definitely didn’t surprise me that he was able to leave and do well,” said Harris, now a top front-office executive in the NFL. “Some people are destined for success; he was one of those kinds of people.”
Five years after taking over, Fort Valley was winning its league title with both the offensive and defensive players of the year.
But Porter, after so long on the sidelines, was beginning to fray. An in-season heart attack during his seventh campaign at Fort Valley sent him into spiraling introspection.
'A GREAT FOOTBALL MIND'
Fort Valley has begun that impressive string of championships in the 1980s running an offense that bore little resemblance to the attack associated with Robinson’s Grambling teams.
Recruiting into a Division II program had something to do with it.
“I didn’t have the offensive linemen that it would take to run the Wing T,” Porter said. “You need guys who have a lot of athletic ability to be successful. It was easier for us to find kids we could teach to pass block and drive block.”
By ‘85, Fort Valley had developed a powerful defense to match that offensive power, too, leading the lower classification in several categories. Opponents were often held under a touchdown, and to minus-yards rushing.
But these low-scoring matches — coupled with newly founded, Grambling-like expectations of winning — took their toll, creating a pressure-cooker environment.
Fort Valley, ranked No. 2, came into a game against No. 1 Central State and fell 14-7.
A coach known for his easy-going nature — in fact, some at Fort Valley had once criticized him for not being emotional enough — was taking all of this personally.
Too personally.
“It was a hard, hard loss,” Porter said. “We were going into our last two games with just one loss. To maintain that puts you under a tremendous amount of pressure that you don’t really realize.”
He ended up flat on his back in a hospital room, with doctors trying to get his heart fixed.
Porter kept asking about the scores, tried to keep his head in the game.
But the doctors recommended a year off.
The time away refocused Porter on what was important. He still loved football, but in a different way. He learned to let things go.
“At the end of that, I was in the best shape I have been in, other than when I was in the Army,” Porter said. “But I wanted to coach. Coaching is all I have ever really wanted to do.”
He would win more titles at Fort Valley, would serve as chairman of the Division II Football Committee and as president of the National Athletic Steering Committee and, after retiring, would play a key advisory role in smoothing the transition for Robinson successor Doug Williams at Grambling.
“Fort Valley was a good fit for me,” Porter said. “We found that they had a strong group of followers, and they had established a good winning tradition. As with Grambling, I was happy to be a part of that.”
Even if it always seemed to come second on his resume. Until Wednesday, when the College Hall of Fame called.
“It’s one of the greatest honors that can be bestowed,” said Williams, himself a 2001 inductee. “Nobody deserves to be rewarded more than Coach Porter.”
Porter attended the Hall of Fame ceremonies honoring Williams seven years ago, and Williams will join a burgeoning list of former students who will return the favor this summer. Porter said several Fort Valley players are organizing a group trip to South Bend, as well.
“Most people don’t know how special a coach he is,” said Harris, a Monroe native. “He coached at small schools, and that sometime means you get overlooked, but he did an outstanding job with those programs. He’s well deserving. What a great football mind.”
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For Grambling’s Porter, Hall of Fame career was about the kids
July 19, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
For Doug Porter, today will be the capstone on a career spent working with young people.
Of course, the new College Football Hall of Famer won some games along the way, too.
But that was never the point for Porter, a Grambling resident.
"To be able to touch young people," Porter said, "to get them to believe in something, that always meant so much."
The 79-year old earned membership in the College Hall’s 2008 divisional class after a 42-year career, which included 26 seasons as head coach at three small colleges. Porter also served eight seasons as an offensive coach during the legendary tenure of Grambling’s Eddie Robinson, and was athletics director at Fort Valley from 1981-97.
"He was a top football mind, someone who really knew the game," said one of Grambling’s passers at the time, James "Shack" Harris —- now a general manager with the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars. "Coach Porter is a leader in his right."
The National Football Foundation considers players and coaches from the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA), Divisions II, III, and the NAIA National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for induction in the College Hall of Fame’s divisional classes.
Porter is joined in 2008 by W.C. Gorden, who coached at Grambling’s conference foe Jackson State from 1976-91.
Four players are also to be inducted in ceremonies held today at South Bend, Ill.: Quarterback Jim Ballard (Mount Union, 1991-93); linebacker Ronald McKinnon (North Alabama, 1992-95), defensive end John Randle (Texas A&M-Kingsville, 1988-89) and halfback Brad Rowland (McMurry College, 1947-50).
Porter, who won 61 percent of the games he coached, recorded 166 career victories —- the bulk of them at Fort Valley.
There, Porter earned seven Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships between 1980-92, including four consecutive crowns from 1982-85. He advanced to the NCAA Division II semifinals in 1983 — when his team boasted the league’s offensive and defensive players of the year in Kelvin Parker and Taqwan Taylor, respectively — and to the quarterfinals in ‘85.
"I have as much respect for Coach Porter as any one I have been around," said Harris, a Monroe native who later played for the NFL’s Bills, Rams and Chargers. "As good a coach as he was, he always played his role in shadows. That couldn’t have been easy for a person of his skill."
Even working at that tiny Georgia Division II program, Porter coached three future NFL Draft picks, including first-rounder Tyrone Poole and Pro Bowl linebacker Greg Lloyd. (He also mentored some Grambling’s top quarterbacks in Harris, Matthew Reed and then Doug Williams, the future Super Bowl MVP.)
"Coach Porter is a special coach in that he would always tell you the honest truth, about football and about life," Harris said. "It sounds simple, but it’s rare. So often a coach will tell you what you want to hear. When you get a chance to work with people like Coach Porter, you become a better person yourself."
Named SIAC coach of the year seven times, Porter earned a lifetime achievement award from the All-American Football Foundation in 1998 and induction in the Mississippi Valley State Hall of Fame in 2006.
"The recognition is overwhelming," Porter said. "But the most important thing to me was to affect the lives of young people. That was satisfying."
COACH DOUG PORTER
Born: Aug. 15, 1929 in Memphis
Personal: Lives in Grambling, with wife Jean
Head coaching career: Mississippi Valley State (1961-65), Howard (1974-78), Fort Valley State (1979-85, 1987-96); also served as an offensive assistant at Grambling (1966-73) under Eddie Robinson, and has been a key advisor to each of his successors.
Career record: 166-107-5, only five losing seasons out of 26
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A SHARED EXPERIENCE: Grambling's duo of Dougs — Porter and Williams — boasts Hall of Fame friendship
July 20, 2008
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
A familiar face could be found among the crowd.
Doug Porter was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame on Saturday, with former player and protégé Doug Williams in attendance.
The roles had been reversed in 2001, when Williams was named to the hall's divisional class as a player. Seven years later, Porter was recognized in South Bend, Ill., for head coaching work at a trio of lower classification programs.
Porter also served from 1966-73 as an offensive assistant during the career of Grambling State's Eddie Robinson.
There, he met Doug Williams, then a young quarterback. Later, after retirement, Porter returned to become a key mentor when Williams succeeded Robinson as head coach at Grambling.
"It was big for me when Coach Porter showed up for my induction," Williams said. "When I found out that he was going in, I thought that was one of the greatest things. I got a chance to repay Coach by being there for him."
Porter won 61 percent of the games he coached, recording 166 career victories at former Division I-AA programs Mississippi Valley State (1961-65) and Howard (1974-78), then at Division II Fort Valley State (1979-97). He also served as athletics director at Fort Valley from 1981-97.
He might have won more still, had Williams followed Porter to Howard.
Williams certainly wanted to, back then.
"He was frustrated as a red shirt," Porter said. "He was running the scout team, but he felt he was better. He wasn't playing."
Porter, then as now a wise and fair man, knew the steep coaching climb ahead at Howard. But he wasn't willing to pluck Williams out of a more favorable situation.
"It wasn't in Doug's best interest to come," Porter said. "He wouldn't have been surrounded with the kind of people he had with Eddie: He wouldn't have had Dwight Scales; he wouldn't have had Sammy White — and those people were big contributors to his success. Had Williams come to us, he would have been a great quarterback, but throwing it to a group of receivers who made a lot of drops. That wouldn't have helped him."
Williams would win a pair of league championships under Robinson, success that launched him into the race for the Heisman Trophy. Williams then became a first-round NFL draft pick, and eventually earned Super Bowl MVP honors in 1988.
A lasting relationship, built as much on trust as on gridiron concepts, was forged.
Fate brought them back together in 1997, when Porter returned to Grambling upon retirement. Williams was in the midst of launching the difficult post-Robinson era — something nearly unthinkable after his stirring 57-season tenure — and Porter's guiding hand again played a key role Williams' success.
"It was Doug Porter who helped me though the whole transition," Williams said. "He wasn't looking for publicity for what he did. It wasn't hard for me to see that I needed Doug Porter close by me."
Long after retirement, Porter — the son of a coach, Memphis prep legend W.P. Porter — still possessed a keen passion for football.
"We'd sit down every day after practice and I would tell him what I felt," Porter said. "He was very amenable, though sometimes we would disagree. I could accept that, because it was his football team. The only thing I wanted to do was help him be successful."
He was: Williams, with Porter on the sidelines in an advisory role, would win a trio of Southwestern Athletic Conference titles in 2000-02, and was one game away from the championship match in both 1999 and 2003.
They now boast another bond, another shared memory in a lifetime filled with them.
"He had such an impact on my life," Williams said. "He had a lot to do with the success that I had. In my life, Coach Porter has been a Hall of Famer for a long time."
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