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Football's only half the story(Houston Chronicle (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Sep. 15--Grambling State football is an international brand, a must-see traveling show packed with nonstop entertainment and just the right mix of innovation and tradition. And that's just halftime. Sandwiched around performances by the world-renowned Mighty Tiger Marching Band has been the most celebrated historically black college football program of all time. Both will be in town Saturday when Grambling State plays the University of Houston at Robertson Stadium. Grambling State, which owns a record 12 black college national championships, is off to a 0-2 start this season, but the Tigers have been ahead of the game for years in terms of raising the profile of black college football. Most point to Eddie Robinson and Collie J. Nicholson to explain the phenomenon that is Grambling football. Robinson coached Grambling from 1941 to 1997 and retired with more coaching victories (408) than anyone in the history of college football. Nicholson, a legendary sports information director, helped make Grambling a household name. Nicholson died Wednesday. He was 85. "There's no doubt the two people who made it what it is today are coach Rob and Collie J. Nicholson," said former Tigers quarterback Doug Williams, who succeeded Robinson in 1998. "They developed the legacy of what Grambling is all about." Nicholson wasn't a Hollywood movie producer, but he helped mastermind an entertainment experience that could be described as The Program meets Drumline. While Robinson built a powerhouse program, Nicholson capitalized on the appeal of the football team and the school's R&B-flavored marching band, taking the Tigers' show to major U.S. cities and abroad. In 1976, Grambling and Morgan State became the first two U.S. college teams to play a football game in Japan. "We have fans everywhere we go," said Doug Porter, an assistant coach for nine years during the Robinson era. "People who didn't even attend Grambling have adopted Grambling as their team. They want to see the football team and they want to see the band. ... "(Nicholson) was not afraid to venture into uncharted waters and, because of that, Grambling did things that had never been done before. He would take two teams from the South, put them in New York and draw 60,000 people. Then he'd go to a promoter in Chicago and say, 'We could do the same thing in your city.' He was a great salesman." Lots of NFL alumni Founded more than 100 years ago to create educational opportunities for African-Americans in the segregated South, Grambling also represented hope for blacks who dreamed of playing football at the collegiate level and beyond. Grambling's barrier-breaking legacy includes sending the first black player, Paul "Tank" Younger, to the National Football League, as well as James Harris, the first black player to start a season at quarterback in the NFL. Williams, Grambling's best-known football success, became the first black quarterback to win a Super Bowl and be named the game's most valuable player when he led Washington past Denver in 1988. "Guys didn't have places to go before integration," said Williams, a personnel executive for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. "You're talking about a whole generation of guys that I don't know if they would have been accepted anywhere else. Growing up during the civil rights movement, a lot of places didn't come into play. Grambling was special. I went there as a kid, but I left as a man." Robinson, who is in poor health, wouldn't have had it any other way. Although he sent hundreds of players to the NFL during a time when it was difficult for black colleges to attract the attention of the pros, Robinson's players said he never treated Grambling like a football factory. "First and foremost, he was concerned about each of his players becoming successful in life," said Harris, the Jacksonville Jaguars' vice president of player personnel. "He established a program that was known throughout the country for its ability to recruit and send players to the NFL. We were able to receive a lot of national acclaim for that." A large following UH, which opened the season with two wins at home, is expecting its largest crowd Saturday against Grambling. There no doubt will be a strong following for the visitors. "I don't know if there's a logical explanation," Porter said. "It's like Notre Dame. They have fans all over the world. People pull for them because of mystique and Knute Rockne and those sorts of things. Their fans didn't all go to Notre Dame. They're not all catholic; some may not even know it's a catholic school. That's how it is with Grambling and how people from all over gravitate to the mystique and what coach Robinson was able to do here." [email protected] Copyright (c) 2006, Houston Chronicle Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |