The Great Eddie Robinson dies
If you don’t know of Eddie Robinson then you don’t know football. He may be the greatest football coach of all time. If winning is the bench mark then he is the greatest coach of all time. If the percentage of players that graduate is the benchmark then he is the greatest coach of all time. If being a gentleman in middle of an unruly game is the benchmark then Eddie Robinson was the greatest coach of all time.
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From ESPN.com:
The sadness comes not from the news that Eddie Robinson died, but from the fear that not enough coaches, players and college football fans know how he lived.
Robinson suffered from the cruelty of Alzheimer’s disease. He couldn’t remember. His memory committed treason. And late last night, shortly before April 3 became April 4, his body decided it wasn’t worth the effort to keep trying.
Coach Rob — that was the Grambling State shorthand for him — was 88. It was a full life, maybe the equivalent of two. But longevity isn’t his legacy. Instead, it’s what Robinson did during a 57-year run at a place that white America hardly knew existed. Nor, for years, did it care. (more…)
[...] The Great Eddie Robinson dies [...]
I’m sorry to just be getting around to commenting on The Great Eddie Robinson.
I’m from Louisiana and live very near Grambling University. I have had many relatives who have
graduated from Grambling and also a few that actually played for Coach Rob. He was a great Man and a great Coach.
In these times it’s hard to find a person with such great values and still can remain such a humble individual. Someone who has contributed so much of himself to not only just a football program but to the young men he coached. He built a program with dignity and he put a small town university on the map.
We will forever tell our children about the man who was married to one wife, had one job and gave us in Louisiana something to be proud of.