RIP Eddie Robinson

Excerpted from Richard Lapchick's tribute of Coach Robinson today: (Lapchick wrote Robinson's autobiography)
Eddie Robinson was a proud American. That night in the Holiday Inn, there was a table filled with six older white men about Coach's age. They kept coming by us, shaking his hand, hugging him, asking how Doris was. I could have believed that these same men were raised in a racist, segregated South which Ruston, La., was surely part of in their younger days. But Robinson had regularly walked that part of the earth and forced them to see a great American who happened to have black skin. He broke big barriers and smashed stereotypes along the way. Coach Robinson told me he had never been called "an American" until he took Grambling State to play in Japan in 1976. He confronted segregation in his life. But Eddie and Doris Robinson would stand still for the national anthem, their eyes fixed on our flag. Often you would see tears in his eyes when the singer hit "the land of the free." This was a great American leader who happened to be a coach and happened to be African-American. He was proud of his country and always tried to make it better.

Coach has proved the power of an individual to make a huge difference in the lives of young people. He tried to prepare a new generation of coaches to help today's youth because he knew life had changed dramatically in America. Coach said to me, "I know life isn't easy for young people now. They face all these challenges that my generation didn't have. When I was growing up in Jackson and Baton Rouge, children weren't killing each other; crack didn't exist; I never heard of steroids; most families had a mother and father. Many of today's student-athletes were raised in poverty and despair. They know that some white people will decide who they are just because of what they look like. Yes, indeed, life is hard today."That is why he assumed the role of mentor, role model, father and counselor to his student-athletes, on and off the field. Grown men who are leaders across our nation are calling each other remembering this man who helped change lives. I am lucky to be one of them, a better man for having known coach Eddie Robinson.Coach ended the book with, "If I had the chance, I would call for an instant replay of my entire life -- in slow motion -- so I could savor every second as I continue to work on the next stage of my life. If I could have created a game plan for my own life, I'd want to be born in America to my same parents, marry Doris, go to work for Grambling and have Eddie and Lillian as our children, their children as our grandchildren, and their children as our great grandchildren. I have a great life."Coach Robinson had a great life. He loved his God and the next stage will be with Him.

May God bless you, Coach.