A final goodbye for Eddie Robinson

GRAMBLING, La. – They began arriving soon after the sun came up over the piney woods: football greats, government figures and everyday people – all of them there to say goodbye to former Grambling football coach Eddie Robinson.

“Most coaches are rated by the players they recruit,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson said as he waited for Robinson’s funeral to start in the school’s new assembly center. “Coach was known for how many players he graduated and sent on to successful lives.”

About 5,000 people attended Wednesday’s funeral – just across the street from the stadium where Robinson and his players made history.

“It’s like coming to your father’s funeral,” said Robert “Big Bird” Smith, who played for Robinson and was an assistant coach during Robinson’s final four years at Grambling. “He was like a father to everyone that ever played for him.”

The funeral wrapped up three days of mourning that stretched across the state from Memorial Hall at the state Capitol in Baton Rouge to Memorial Garden, a cemetery two miles from the college.

A plywood sign hung at the Grambling exit off Interstate 20 read “Eddie Robinson, La.” For the people of this little city and school, it certainly seemed that way.

Robinson died last week at 88. He was widely admired as one of the nation’s winningest college football coaches and as a mentor to the young black men whose lives he influenced for 57 years.

“He was the most influential person in my life,” said Charlie Joiner, now a wide receivers coach with the Kansas City Chiefs. “His first lesson for all of us was to first become a good American, then a good football player.”

The 26 pallbearers included at least 15 former NFL players, some of the more than 200 Robinson sent to that league.