By Billy Burton
Grambling University football coach Eddie Robinson, whose football team has become the best known primarily-black school in the nation, has dared to dream a very American dream—that of his Tigers being offered a spot in one of the nation’s post-season bowl games.
The Grambling coach knows what he’s talking about—last year the Louisiana school played Southern University in the old Sugar Bowl Stadium in New Orleans and drew a crowd of 76,753—more than the crowd at the New Year’s Eve Sugar Bowl which featured Nebraska and Florida.
The Grambling team certainly deserves a bowl spot, sporting an 8-1 record this year, when many of the teams being considered for bowl spots have already had 2 or more defeats. And Robinson is only five games back of Alabama’s Bear Bryant in games won by an active coach.
“We can bring people into a stadium and we’ve proved it,” the black mentor said recently in New York and announced that Grambling “is available for the Astro-Bluebonnet, Liberty, Peach, Sun, Fiesta, Gator or Sugar Bowl.”
The attendance figures acquired by Grambling this year speak for themselves. Through eight games this season Grambling has attracted 251,906 fans in six states and the District of Columbia. That’s an average of 31,485—rivaling many of the top schools in the nation.
The Grambling-Texas Southern game played in the Astrodome this season outdrew all college games played in Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Among the games played that weekend included LSU versus Mississippi; ‘Bama vs. Mississippi State; Texas-SMU; TCU-Baylor; and Texas Tech-Rice.
The veteran Robinson already has received one laurel recently, that of being named the first black president of the American Football Coaches Association.
And, as many people know, Grambling has turned out more players for the National Football League than any other college in the nation, black or white. Grambling should not be considered because it is a black school, but because of its winning tradition, its outstanding football team this year, and the fact it has proven it can draw crowds.
And if it doesn’t make it this time, they’ll be around next year.