Legendary Football Coach Seeks 400th Triumph Robinson Builds On Remarkable Record After Distinguished Career At Grambling

Saturday nights at Grambling have prompted lots of celebrations over the years - 399 to be exact. The biggest party yet is planned Saturday night when fans are hoping Grambling will whip Mississippi Valley and coach Eddie Robinson will make history.

Robinson, 76, has already won more games than any other college coach, passing Amos Alonzo Stagg’s 314 back in 1984 and Bear Bryant’s 323 in 1985. He will notch 400 with his next victory.

“It will never happen again,” New Orleans Saints coach Jim Mora said. “Never from now to the end of time. Coaches don’t last that long anymore, especially at one school.”

Actually, Grambling was the Colored Industrial and Agricultural Institute of Lincoln Parish when Robinson started work in 1941.

“When I got this job, it was my dream come true,” Robinson said. “I wanted to be a coach since I was in elementary school.”

In 1942, Robinson got 33 of the 67 men enrolled at school to play football. They not only posted a 9-0 record, but held every opponent scoreless - something no school has done since.

These days, Grambling’s campus on the rolling, low hills of north Louisiana has 8,500 students from all over the nation. The gracious brick buildings are quickly being surrounded by new construction.

“This little school is one of the best known in the country, and we have Eddie Robinson to thank for that,” said John Williams, 67. “When he started it was just a little place out in the middle of nowhere. Now just about everybody knows it.”

Although Robinson Stadium, built in 1983, seats only 19,600, the school plays in front of several hundred thousand people each year, thanks to games in places like the Meadowlands, the Cotton Bowl and the Superdome.

It is a far cry from the early days when Robinson lined the field, managed the refreshment stands and organized bake sales to pay for equipment for his players.

“I loved every minute of it,” Robinson said. “I felt like I was building something worthwhile.”

There was no football at Grambling during the World War II years of 1943 and 1944. When it resumed in 1945 the players not only played football but also picked cotton.

“A daddy pulled his sons, who were our best running backs, off the team and said they couldn’t play because they had to pick cotton,” Robinson said. “So I got the rest of the boys and we went out there and picked the cotton.”

Then they came back to the football field and won their championship.

In 54 years at Grambling, Robinson has won nine black college national championships. He has sent more than 200 players to the NFL, including Hall of Famers Willie Brown, Buck Buchanan and Willie Davis, and seven were first-round draft picks. His list of NFL stars also includes Super Bowl MVP Doug Williams, Nate Singleton, Ernie Ladd, and Everson Walls.

“I don’t really think it’s football,” Minnesota Vikings receiver Jake Reed said. “I think it’s just a love for the game and the drive that he has for seeing the young kids who come through there prosper. I think that’s what gives him most of his drive. I don’t think he’s driven by the record, I think more just to see the young guys turn into men, and to see them be successful once they get out of college. He’s very big on that.”

In fact, Robinson will be happy to get No. 400 behind him so he can concentrate on football without all the interruptions. That’s what he cares about. That, and seeing his players do well off the field.

“The thing I feel best about is that almost all my boys have gone on to get their degrees,” Robinson said. “If they don’t have it when they leave here, I stay after them until they get it.”