Robinson was master in his field -- teaching

The memory is 10 years old, but it has lingered. It was Eddie Robinson's final practice at Grambling State University. Darkness was descending on the field and Robinson, who had been doing pretty much the same thing for 55 years, was still coaching, still teaching another generation of Tiger football players.

It was that ability to get his message across in the quietest of ways that was remembered yesterday after hearing that Robinson had died Tuesday night at the age of 88, succumbing to the relentless ravages of Alzheimer's Disease, which had taken away many things but not his dignity.

It is easy to recount the football qualifications of the man who was as much a pioneer off the field as on it. He compiled a record of 408-165-15, a career that spanned the terms of 11 presidents, the birth and growth of the civil rights movement, and the sometimes painful integration of college football in the South.

But it was more than football with Eddie Robinson. Always had been since he first arrived at the tiny school in Grambling, La., with nothing more than a dream to coach football.

It was there in 1997 where he gathered his final team in front of him. "I don't think you are giving me what you have," Robinson told his players after the final whistle had been blown. "You're losing a little bit of what Grambling was."

He continued. "I wish I could say something that would move you. I wish I could say something that could change you," he said, looking at the young faces of a team that would finish with a losing record, something that always bothered Robinson. "Winning is all I've done in my life. But I want to tell you, what you do here matters."

And with that, Robinson asked his team to close ranks around him, and the players started to sing "Old Grambling, dear Grambling."

It was about football and winning with "Coach Rob," but it was about so much more. In the height of the move to integration in the '50s in the South, Robinson introduced a course to Grambling called "Everyday Living," in which he taught young black men how to live with discipline and passion.

Doug Williams, the MVP of Super Bowl XXII and one of more than 200 of Robinson's former players to make it to the NFL, said yesterday the sadness was mixed with gratitude for what Robinson provided so many people.

"For the Grambling family this is a very emotional time," said Williams. "But I'm thinking about Eddie Robinson the man, not in today-time, but in the day and what he meant to me and so many people."

Yesterday, the tributes came with the steadiness of all those victories over the years. "Coach Robinson elevated a small-town program to national prominence and tore down barriers to achieve an equal playing field of all races," said Kathleen Blanco, Louisiana's governor, in a statement. "Generations of Louisianans will forever benefit from Coach Robinson's fight for equality."

Oh, there were problems, especially at the end of Robinson's tenure, with losing seasons and even an NCAA investigation for recruiting violations, and Robinson probably stayed at Grambling a bit longer than he should have.

But he had a lifetime pass at Grambling, as Joe Paterno does at Penn State and Bobby Bowden does at Florida State.

Robinson was a coach, a pioneer, and his perspective on life was always clear. "The best way to enjoy life in America is first to be an American, and I don't think you have to be white to do so," Robinson once said. "Blacks have had a hard time, but not many Americans haven't."

Robinson could have been speaking about his own life, but he was speaking of the generations of players he guided from childhood to adulthood over a half-century that was as turbulent as any in American history.

And he enjoyed it as much as anyone.

Material from wire services was used in this report; Mark Blaudschun can be reached at blaudschun@globe.com.