True and let me add on that he did it all with the utmost of class. God bless Eddie, we (Football fans and Louisianians in general) will miss you....
I hear a lot of coaches talk about commitment, loyalty and the chance to influence young men, but this man is one of the few that actually walked the walk. This great man changed the lives of so many young men that did not have a positive role model in their life. Coaches now a days chase the dollar and are always looking for the next big job, while this man stayed with little old Grambling and just made young boys into young men. ESPN stated that over 80% of his players graduated college. That is the best stat that Coach Robinson could ever have. Louisana and America lost a great man and heaven is a better place today.
I heard an interview about him yesterday, and they were talking about how he used to have to make sandwiches for his players back in the day, because they couldn't eat at the all white restaurants of the south back then. Asked if he was bitter about it, he said "No". He felt like it was a great honor to be an American, and that ALL Americans, at least back then, had been through struggles. This was just his struggle. Also, during WW2, he took a job as a high school coach, since Grambling cancelled football for a couple of years due to the war. One kid's dad came to Coach Robinson, and informed him that his son couldn't play anymore because he was needed to pick cotton on the family farm. Coach Robinson assembled the team, and they ALL went together and knocked the job out in short order so that the kid could remain with the team. He said that's how a team is supposed to work...together. I enjoyed listening to all of his former players who called in to talk radio yesterday. It was quite obvious that he trained them to be men, not football players. One of them even said "he coached us as if he was training us to marry his daughter...he taught us to be men". Quite a man, he will be missed.
well, those two stories just choked me up. what a man. men with such convictions are few and far between.
I will be the first to admit that I knew who he was but didn't know what he did! The stories that I hear from here make me believe that he was a class act. I am proud of what he stood for and keep the stories coming so we can all enjoy them!!!!
People like him are rare today.......seems like most people are all about "Me". Hopefully, his family can take some comfort by the fact that he touched so many lives with his.
