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TOPIC: Coach Eddie G. Robinson named first recipient of the Lifetime Recognition Award in this year's IAAwards

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Date: Dec 16, 2015

Coach Eddie G. Robinson named first recipient of the Lifetime Recognition Award in this year's IAAwards

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The Initiative Achievement On-Line Awards in its second year of existence recognizes the significance and the present achievements of the current HBCU institutions and its students through multiple of categories, who participated as an HBCU Supported Institution with the HBCU Campaign Fund. The nominations are audience based on giving all HBCUs and students a chance to be part of the experience. Categories are split between ONLY HBCU Campaign Fund's 2015 HBCU Supported Institutions and for all HBCUs.

This year, two new categories were added, which is the Lifetime Recognition Award, which honors an individual which is selected by the HBCU of the Month Committee, Board of Directors and upon audience nominations on their commitment, outstanding service, and contributions to historically black colleges and universities, students and the community. The Distinguished HBCU of the Year Award, which honors an HBCU institution, is selected by the HBCU of the Month Committee, Board of Directors and upon audience nominations on recognition of its past and current achievements, success, servings of academic excellence, current year rankings recognition by various sources and contributions as an HBCU and to the community.

Below we present you with the first recipient of HBCU Campaign Fund's Lifetime Recognition Award in the 2015 Initiative Achievement.

Eddie G. Robinson named with HBCU Campaign Fund's 2015 Lifetime Recognition Award

Eddie Gay Robinson, Sr. was the second winning coach in NCAA Division I history. Robinson spent 57 years as the head coach at Grambling State University (a Historically Black College and University located in Grambling, Louisiana) beginning in 1941 when he was hired by college president and head baseball coach Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones.

Under Robinson's leadership, more than 200 of his players went on to play in the American Football League, CFL and NFL including Super Bowl XXII MVP quarterback Doug Williams, who would ultimately succeed Robinson as Grambling's head coach in 1998.

On October 7, 1995, Robinson became the first college football coach to break the 400-win barrier, a mark once thought to be unreachable. The 42-6 triumph over Mississippi Valley State came before a national television audience on ESPN2.

Coach Robinson proved that hard work, dedication, and determination could lead to unimaginable accomplishments. Neither of Coach Robinson's parents graduated from high school, but they encouraged their son's desire to stay in school and earn a college degree. Robinson moved on from high school to become a star quarterback at Leland College under Reuben Turner, a Baptist preacher who inducted Robinson to the concepts of a playbook and coaching clinics.

With no coaching opportunities available following college, Robinson took a job in Baton Rouge feed mill before learning from a relative that there was an opening for a football coach at Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute, later to become Grambling State University. After an interview with school president Dr. Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones, Robinson was chosen as the sixth head football coach of the Tigers.

By 1949, Grambling's football program was receiving national acclaim after former Tigers running back Paul "Tank" Younger signed with the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL, thus becoming the first player from an HBCU (Historically Black College & University) to be taken in the NFL.

In 1955, Grambling claimed the National Black College Championship by going 10-0 (the best record in school history) and outscoring opponents by a 356-61 margin. After picking up his 100th career coaching victory against Bethune-Cookman in 1957, Coach Robinson and his Tigers joined the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) in 1959. The following season he led the Tigers to the first of 17 SWAC titles under his guidance.

Another of Robinson's former Tigers made NFL waves in 1963 as the late Junius "Buck" Buchanan become the first player from an HBCU to be chosen first overall in the NFL Draft.

By 1984, Coach Robinson was poised to become college football's winningest coach. After surpassing Amos Alonzo Stagg's 314 coaching victories that year, he tied legendary Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's 323-win mark with a 23-6 win over Oregon State before becoming the career wins leader the next week with a 27-7 win over Prairie View A&M.

Coach Robinson finally relinquished his reigns to the Tigers following the 1997 season, but his contribution to the game will be remembered forever. Also during the same year, he was officially inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Coach Robinson always remained humble, crediting his players, his family, his loving wife Doris, the media, and football fans from all over the world for making the name Eddie Robinson synonymous with the best college football has to offer.

Robinson graduated from McKinley Senior High School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1937. He went on to earn his Bachelor's Degree from Leland College in Baker, Louisiana, then went on to obtain his Masters Degree from the University of Iowa in 1954.

The Football Writers of America's Coach of the Year award is named after Coach Robinson. Grambling also named its football stadium the Eddie Robinson Stadium and housed a museum on campus named Eddie G. Robinson Museum operated by the Secretary of State, which is free and open to the public.

HBCU Campaign Fund is proud to announce and honor the late Coach Eddie G. Robinson as the first recipient of its Lifetime Recognition Award as part of its Initiative Achievement Awards recognizing HBCU significance!

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