By Karl E. McDonald
Coach Eddie Robinson, the trailblazing former college football coach from Grambling State University helped redefine the games of college and pro football and is most likely the greatest American football coach of all-time. Robinson’s pioneering efforts as the head football coach at Grambling for 57 years blazed uncharted territory in both college and pro football.
Robinson’s College Football Greatness
Eddie Robinson’s greatness as a college football coach cannot be denied. Robinson retired at top of his profession as the winningest coach in college football history with 408 total wins and became the first college football coach to reach and exceed the 400 coaching-wins mark. Robinson additionally earned 45 winning seasons and had no back-to-back losing seasons for his first 53 years of coaching.
Robinson also made history when he became the first college football coach to reach the 500 games-coached mark. Between 1960 and 1986, Coach Robinson had 27 consecutive winning seasons and from 1965 to 1985 had a nearly 80% winning record with 172 wins, 49 losses and 3 ties. During a 30-year stretch between 1960 and 1990, Robinson had only 1 losing season.
Coach Eddie Robinson earned 9 Black College National Championships and 17 SWAC Conference Championships during more than 5 decades of coaching in college football. And Robinson won these National Championships in 5 different decades in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s and the 90s.
Robinson coached many great college football players with 4 of them being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. These players include Junious “Buck” Buchanan, Gary “Big Hands” Johnson, Paul “Tank” Younger and eventual Super Bowl MVP, Doug Williams.
Robinson himself has also been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. When Robinson retired in 1997, for the first time ever, the College
Football Hall of Fame waived its mandatory 3-year retirement requirement for coaches to become eligible for induction into the Hall and immediately inducted Coach Robinson.
Robinson’s college football colleagues recognized his contributions to the game of college football when they elected him to become the president of the American Football Coaches Association in 1975. And, in 1997, the Football Writers Association of America named its National Coach of the Year Award after the great Coach from Grambling which further solidified Coach Robinson’s rightful place among College Football’s all-time greats.
Robinson’s Pro Football Impact
Coach Robinson’s impact on the game of pro football is singular and profound. Robinson is a pro football pioneer with many pro football 1sts to his credit. In 1949, Robinson helped place the 1st African American football player from a historically black college into the NFL, Paul “Tank” Younger. Robinson also trained Junious “Buck” Buchanan who would go on to become the 1st African American football player to be chosen number #1 overall in a pro football draft when the Kansas City Chiefs selected him in 1963.
Robinson also broke important pro football barriers when he trained James “Shack” Harris who would later become the 1st African American player to become a regular NFL starter at the quarterback position and to start a season as QB1. Harris was also the 1st African American quarterback to start and win a playoff game and to play in an NFL Pro Bowl. Harris earned the MVP Award in that Pro Bowl game.
Robinson also trained the great Doug Williams would later become the 1st African American player and quarterback to win an NFL Super Bowl MVP Award.
Coach Robinson trained and produced other pro football greats who were among the more than 200 players he helped usher into pro football. Four of Robinson’s players have been enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame; namely, Willie Brown, Willie Davis, Junious “Buck” Buchanan, and Charlie
Joiner. Two of those four, Brown and Davis, were included in NFL’s list of its 100 greatest players of all-time.
Incredibly, it has been reported that in 1971, Robinson had 43 of his former Grambling Tigers in NFL training camps. Further, perhaps even more incredible is that Robinson’s former Tigers logged nearly 500 pro football playing years!
Robinson’s contributions to pro football have been recognized by the NFL when it dedicated Super Bowl XXXII to him, by the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) when, in 1998, it presented Robinson with its Lifetime Achievement Award and by the Pro Football Hall of Fame when its Blue Ribbon Panel named Robinson as 1 of 25 candidates who were eligible to be inducted into the Hall’s 2025 Class in the contributor category.
There is more, much more to add to the claim that Coach Eddie Robinson is likely the greatest coach in American football history. Coach Robinson’s college football greatness and his profound impact on the game of pro football strongly support this claim.
In the eyes of many observers and admirers, Coach Robinson is the greatest coach in American football history and one who not only currently resides in the College Football Hall of Fame but also deserves a place in its professional football counterpart.
