The iconic legendary Grambling State University football coach, Edward G. Robinson, better known as Eddie Robinson was born April 13, 1919 in Jackson Louisiana. Like many rural Black Louisianans, Robinson faced acute poverty. In response to their economic situation, his parents instilled the values of hard work, religious faith, and independence. Around 1925 Robinson’s parents divorced, and both parents moved to Baton Rouge. The city increased Robinson’s educational opportunities and introduced him to football. Robinson graduated from McKinley Colored Senior High School in Baton Rouge in 1937. He played quarterback and running back on a football team that went 27-0 in 3 years.
He then attended Leland College, and quarterbacked the football team for all four seasons, while working as the campus barber and operating a coal truck for 20 cents an hour to pay tuition. Robinson, an English major, graduated from Leland in 1941 and eventually earned his masters from the University of Iowa in 1954. In the summer of 1941, Robinson married Doris Mott after graduation. The couple would be married for sixty-five years. Robinson always had a desire to coach. With no coaching opportunities available following college, Robinson took a job in a Baton Rouge feed mill. He then learned from a relative that there was an opening for a football coach at Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute, later to become Grambling State University.
After an interview with school president Dr. Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones, Robinson was chosen as the sixth head football coach of the Tigers. He began coaching at Grambling in 1941 with a 3-5 record. At twenty-two Robinson began his only coaching job. Grambling was founded in 1904 and modeled on Booker T. Washington’s philosophy of vocational education. When Robinson arrived the school had a small enrollment. There were only 175 students and forty men in Robinson’s first season. In 1942 there were 67 men in the college, and 33 were on the football squad. The Tigers had a 9-0 record; they were unbeaten, untied, and unscored upon. Eddie Robinson started coaching before coaches were CEOs, when they were still educators and they held multiple position.
While at Grambling, Eddie Robinson held several jobs other than the football coach. The university had no team in the war years 1943-44. Robinson coached those years at Grambling High School, including teaching at Grambling High School, and coaching the girls' basketball team during World War II. His girls team lost the state championship by only a point. He returned to his college job in 1945, and took full command of his team. He had a hands on approach to coaching, interacting with all players at every position. Plus, Robinson did everything else at the small school in Louisiana.
Robinson recalled that he mowed and lined the field, sewed torn uniforms, taped ankles, coached the cheerleaders squad, directed the band, and wrote game accounts for the Louisiana newspapers. Of course, Robinson did not have much of a choice, because he had to work from a budget of $46. By his third season as head coach Coach Rob, as he was lovingly called took full command of his team. He had brought Grambling football back to their winning ways as they were in 1942. The Tigers went undefeated at 8-0. In that remarkable season the Tigers didn’t allow any of their opponents to score a single point. They were only the second collegiate team to have shut out every opponent.
Key to Robinson’s post-war success was fullback Paul “Tank” Younger. The six-foot-three-inch and 225-pound back was nearly impossible to tackle. In Younger’s senior season, the Pittsburgh Courier named him the best player in Black college football. The running back was recommended to the Los Angels Rams of the National Football League by Robinson, who knew coach Joe Stydahar. The Los Angeles Rams signed Younger as a free agent in 1949. He became the first player from a Black college to play in the NFL. Professional football was segregated from 1933 to 1946, and the Black players that integrated the league, such as Kenny Washington, had played college at predominately White colleges and universities.
A critical part of Robinson’s career was bound by segregation and the fight for integration. Travel to games meant sleeping on a cramped bus and stops at segregated diners. Being on the road was an enduring reminder of the humiliation of segregation. As the civil rights movement emerged, Robinson’s activism was limited by his position as a state employee. He advised players to become the best version of themselves and to take advantage of the coming opportunities. Robinson steered his players from civil rights protests to protect them from violence or expulsion and to protect his football program from controversy. He tried to “transcend race.” Robinson’s civil rights work was to demonstrate athletic excellence.
In 1955, Grambling had it's best record in school history. At 10-0 they claimed the National Black College Championship, outscoring opponents by a 356-61 margin. After picking up his 100th career coaching victory against Bethune-Cookman in 1957, Coach Robinson and his Tigers joined the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) in 1959. The following season he led the Tigers to the first of 17 SWAC titles under his guidance. In the 1960s, after several decades when football at historically Black colleges went largely unnoticed by most football fans, Robinson’s Grambling teams gained fame for sending more players into professional football than any school except Notre Dame. He coached over 200 players that went on to the American Football League, National Football League, and Canadian Football League during his career. Four of the players he coached have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame – Buck Buchanan (KC Chiefs), Willie Brown (Oakland Raiders), Charlie Joiner (Houston Oilers), and five-time World Champion, Willie Davis (Green Bay Packers).
A significant date in his career was Sept. 28, 1985. The Grambling Tigers beat Oregon State 23-6 for his 323d victory, tying Bear Bryant for the all-time coaching record. Then on Oct. 5, 1985, the Tigers beat Prairie View A&M 27-7. This was No. 324, putting him on top, surpassing Paul “Bear” Bryant of the University of Alabama. A decade later Grambling defeated Mississippi Valley State to achieve Robinson’s four-hundredth victory. With 408 career victories at Grambling State University, Eddie Robinson is the most successful football coach in Division I history. Under Robinson, Grambling played games in New Orleans Superdome, drawing 76,000 spectators; the Los Angeles Coliseum, Houston Astrodome, and Chicago's Soldier Field. Robinson was a the developer of the most important Black College football program in American history.
Over his career Robinson won numerous honors including the Walter Camp Foundation’s Distinguished American Award, and the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award. In addition, he won the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award. With the numerous awards he has won, he has always emphasized academics. Robinson reminded audiences that among his proudest accomplishments was that more than 80 percent of his players received their college degrees. He believed that higher education could transform young Black men’s lives regardless of their playing success. He recalled, “My mission was to produce good people and to make certain our boys took full advantage of their educational opportunities.”
The National Football Foundation inducted him into the College Football Hall of Fame upon his retirement in 1997. Robinson epitomized the HBCU athletic coaches who thrived in the three and a half decades after World War II during what some historians have described as the “golden age” of Black college sports. Never complaining, he possessed a smile and a determination that few could rival. Though the numbers tell an impressive story, they only scratch the surface of Robinson’s impact and commitment to equality on and off the field. Coach Robinson retired with 9 Black College and University national championships, 19 Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) titles and a streak of 27 consecutive winning seasons 1960-86. Between 1941 and 1989, his teams had only four losing seasons.
He has an overall record of 408-165-15 during 57 seasons. The Football Writers Association of America’s Coach of the Year Award is named in his honor. Robinson served as president of the American Football Coaches Association and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. Grambling also named its football facility, Eddie Robinson Stadium, after him. Robinson, of course, was not only a fine coach, but also a wonderful mentor that reached young men across several generations, thereby making him one of the most beloved figures in college football history. He talked about his career: "I'm proud that most of our players graduate. We begin each meeting with a talk about the importance of education. The most important thing in football is the boy who plays the game. You can't coach 'em unless you love 'em."