John Robinson died today at the age of 89. The 1954 graduate of San Mateo's Serra High School left a lasting legacy throughout the game of football. He won the 1958 Rose Bowl as a tight end with Oregon and caught the coaching bug soon after.
John Robinson lived and breathed the ethos of "Tailback U". In his first stint at USC, he coached two Heisman Trophy winners while winning a national championship and going to the Rose Bowl on a regular basis. With the Rams, he won on the ground behind the tremendous galloping of Eric Dickerson and the stout blocking of tackle Jackie Slater.
Looking back on it, it makes sense that he would be so devoted to the ground game. His childhood friend, John Madden, was an ardent devotee of great blocking and a bruising ground attack. They even coached together in 1975 with Robinson serving as Madden's running backs coach in Oakland. The next year, the two would both end the year in the Rose Bowl, with Madden winning the Super Bowl with the Raiders just weeks after Robinson won the Rose Bowl with USC in his first year as a head coach at any level.
By the time John Robinson left USC for the Los Angeles Rams in 1983, he had three Pac-8 titles and a national championship under his belt. He never took the Rams to the Super Bowl, twice reaching the NFC Championship Game only to get blown out by the eventual champs. He was the franchise's winningest coach when he was fired in 1991. While he wasn't as successful in his second stint with USC (1993-1997), Robinson did win another conference title and Rose Bowl in 1995.
After a successful six year run with UNLC from 1999-2004, he spent the rest of his working days meandering around the sport, lending his advice to those that would listen. It didn't matter if it was as a defensive coordinator with San Marcos High School (2010) or as a senior consultant with the 2019 national champion LSU Tigers, he just could not get enough of the sport. As his 2009 induction into the College Football Hall of Fame suggests, he only made the game better.
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