Wednesday, April 04, 2007

We'll miss you, Eddie


Wow.
Can't believe Eddie Robinson died last night. Mr. Robinson was the greatest African American character in the 100-year history of college football. Me being from Southern University, you'd think we'd have bad blood about ole Eddie. But naw, that's not how it was. When it came to Eddie Robinson we all had an enthusiastic respect for the man, the legend. He taught at Grambling University for more than 60 years and he was the epitome of black class. When it came to finding out who was the best, and who was toughest team in the SWAC there was never a need for a measuring stick when it came to Mr. Robinson's boys. Didn't matter that he suffered three straight losing seasons to end his career before being gingerly pushed out at Grambling. His teams historically whipped everybody. Period.
Southern University had Jaguars that would get fierce every few years but Grambling had that reliable Tiger and boy could he bite. Even when our teams were basically a match in talent, the pendulum swung in Grambling's favor because of the gravity of their coach. The relationship between S.U. and Grambling was always amicable, but underneath we pretty much always knew who was the man: Eddie Robinson was the man. Southern was a new, glossy mall full of technological advances and In-the-Now mentalities, but Grambling was a dusty museum that had a real, live T-Rex. Eddie Robinson was that T-Rex and he chewed through every single SWAC football program. Period. He was the best. Plain and simple. We'll miss you Eddie.

1 comment:

jelli said...

Yep, a Legend has gone home. RIP Coach Eddie Robinson. You will be missed.

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