EDDIE ROBINSON: 1919--2007

a true loss for us all, football fanatics or no. robinson’s practical approach to achieve one’s ideals, be it in football or race relations, is a lesson that is not taught nearly enough.

“The framers of this Constitution, now they did some things,” Robinson said. “If you aren’t lazy, they fixed it for you. You’ve got to understand the system. It’s just like in football, if you don’t understand the system, you haven’t got a chance.”

A man who embodied class…may coach Robinson rest in peace.

Not enough can be said about Eddie Robinson. He was a role model on and off the field. A great football coach, but an even better man!

It’s because of the class and toughness of men like him that we don’t bear the shame of things like “white-only” restaurants. May he rest in peace.

A lot of people here in Alabama tried to discredit him passing Bear Bryant by saying shit like," It’s not big time college football" or “Of course you’ll win that many if you coach that long”. It was fairly obvious to us non-card carrying Klan members why they didn’t want to see it happen. He was a black man coaching a historically black college. My mother and I were the only people in my family to applaud him for it. I have to thank her for raising me that way. In turn, I will raise my daughter the same way.

I hope and pray that as each generation passes on, their racism will pass on too.

We lost a great man today.

I was lucky enough to meet Coach Robinson when I was young, He taught commitment and responsability for yourself. The Jesse Jacksons of the world could learn a thing or two from a man like that.

I was flipping channels last night and came across the last episode of “Two-a-days.” You know how sometimes you can’t stop yourself from watching a car wreck? That coach apparently thought that blaming players and leading prayers was teaching them something about life, which exemplified what makes me wonder about people who drone on about the life lessons you learn in sport.

But then there’s someone like Eddie Robinson, on the other hand, a good man who did great things for many young men, one at a time, because he led by example and was never afraid to ask people to live up high standards.

Most people can’t or won’t reach a bar set that high, but anyone who thinks that they are a true leader, or that they teach and shape young people through spot, should take a long look at his example and wonder if they are really living up to it.

Or teaching through sport, as the case may be.

Men like this cast a tall shadow. More of him and this world is a better place. RIP

As a hater of all things Hoover High School, DC Trojan, you have no idea how right you are.

Seriously though, Robinson is in a league of his own in coaching history.

I love this line in describing Eddie Robinson:

“Robinson said he tried to coach each player as if he wanted him to marry his daughter. "

RIP

You know how people always like to claim the media spends way too much time presenting the bad in the world and not the good?

Well, along those lines, maybe EDSBS should start a Robinson Cup to counterbalance the Fulmer Cup… it would recognize schools with students like Calvin Johnson, who work and study hard and actually try to contribute to their communities…

Just a thought.

Where is this man’s 9 1/2 foot tall statue in bronze located?

A man like Coach Robinson makes you stop and think about where we are in society.

There is still too much hate and negative labeling in our society because of this or that. Regardless of where you went to school or whom you root for, his common belief of decency and equality should be the guide that we all live by.

When he stepped off of the field we became poorer without his steady example because of his departure from the public eye, now that he is gone forever there is a part of us that is forever impoverished because there is no one who can replace him for what he did for so many. The best we have is his legacy of those he has guided and while they have done well in carrying on his beliefs, its just not the same now that the original is gone.

R.I.P. Coach

I second the motion from PPH in #12.

“…maybe EDSBS should start a Robinson Cup to counterbalance the Fulmer Cup…”

What about the conflict of once Volunteer, then former Volunteer, and now back to present Volunteer, J.T. Mapu, winning the Robinson Cup? Would one of Fulmer’s own be permitted to recieve the RC?

The kid has a wonderful story…even if he is Mormon! (Yes, the article is from last August, but the facts remain the same; other than he’s now a Sr. instead of a Jr.)

I meant for a school, not an individual, just the way the Fulmer Cup is… there would have to be some point system assigned to good deeds, which would be a lot harder, since we don’t break those up into felonies and misdemeanors… but it’s do-able.

RIP, coach. You were a great man, and your legacy should live for a long time. Thank you.

You’re right PPH, my bad. However, the question remains…could a school claim the dual cups? That would seem like tha making of Al Gore’s next propaganda campaign…“Felonious ‘Neutral’ Athletic Programs”. Just doesn’t seem right to me.

1. agreed, there are more calvin johnson’s and (was it “ray ray” from Clemson w/ the little brother he had to adopt from the drug addict mom?) pat tillmans than there are marcus vick’s and pacman jones’s. I think a good CFB citizen award is in order, and we could do it all, without the crap WWL would try to heap on to an award like that.

Way to piss on a fan base while honoring a great man there #5.

Superb bio here:

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tpupdates/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tpupdates/archives/2007_04_04.html#247156

#21, while those people were very much in the minority, you know that they existed then, and probably a few of them are still around.

I still believe they are in the minority, though.

Here is the problem with the Robinson Cup:

Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer: "Eddie Robinson was a great mentor to us all. He was a dynamic coach with a phenomenal record, but he was much more than that as a leader of young men, a great American and an example of character and integrity.

“My greatest off-the-field honor was winning the first Eddie Robinson Coach of Distinction Award and having the opportunity to spend time with him personally at banquets and at my home.”

I think that the universe would explode …