Robinson becomes first Rebel in College Football Hall of Fame

UNLV will finally be represented in the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind.

Former Rebels head coach and athletic director John Robinson was one of two coaches to be selected along with 16 players for the Class of 2009 during an announcement this morning in New York City. The class was picked by the National Football Foundation’s 13-member Honors Court which considers voting results from 12,000 members of the NFF.

Robinson is the first player or head coach associated with UNLV to be voted into the prestigious College Football Hall of Fame. Quarterback/punter Randall Cunningham appeared on the ballot but was not selected.

“I kind of had a clue from an anonymous source that I might get in but I still haven’t heard from anyone from the Hall of Fame,” Robinson said from his home in Carlsbad, Calif., about 45 minutes after the live announcement on ESPNEWS that he said he did not watch. “It’s a great honor.

“You start making a list of people to thank and it could go on forever. It starts with my parents and family members. I also had some really great assistant coaches that played a big part in all of this. Guys like Norv Turner, Hudson Houck, R.C. Slocum, John Jackson, Marv Goux, Gil Haskill to name a few. And of course all the players I got to coach. One of the great rewards of coaching is running into a guy who played for you who maybe was just a third stringer but tells you what an impact you had on him. That along with the interaction with all the players and coaches are more important than the wins.”

Robinson also credited his head coach at Oregon, Len Casanova, as well as legendary USC coach John McKay, who helped groom him as as assistant. Both are also members of the College Football Hall of Fame.

It’s been a good year for Robinson, long regarded as one of the truly “good guys” in the coaching profession. He also will be enshrined in USC’s Hall of Fame during a dinner on May 9.

The College Football Hall of Fame finalist ballot consisted of 76 All-America players and six elite former coaches. The 2009 class will be inducted as part of the NFF’s Annual Awards Dinner scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 8, at New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The class will then be officially enshrined during ceremonies at the Hall of Fame in South Bend in the summer of 2010.

Robinson began his legendary head coaching career at the USC in 1976 stepping into the big shoes left by McKay who departed for the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers after winning four national titles. There was no drop off, however, as Robinson led the Trojans to a share of the 1978 national championship and two No. 2 rankings while also producing a pair of Heisman Trophy winners (Charles White and Marcus Allen) over a seven-year span.

After leaving to coach the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams from 1983 to 1991, he returned to USC in 1993 for five years where he led the Trojans to a Rose Bowl win over Northwestern while also producing the No. 1 pick of the 1996 NFL Draft in wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson. He finished his career at UNLV starting in 1999 when he inherited a team that had gone winless a year earlier. Two years later he coached the Rebels to a 31-14 win over Arkansas in the 2000 Las Vegas Bowl, the team’s last bowl appearance.

Robinson, who also served as UNLV’s athletic director for 17 months beginning in 2002, finished his college coaching record with a 132-77-4 record over 18 seasons. He went 8-1 in bowls, including a perfect 4-0 in the Rose Bowl, for a winning percentage (.889) that is the highest in college history among coaches with at least five appearances.

Here’s the entire list of the 2009 Hall of Fame Class.

PLAYERS
PERVIS ATKINS – HB, New Mexico State (1958-60)
TIM BROWN – WR, Notre Dame (1984-87)
CHUCK CECIL – DB, Arizona (1984-87)
ED DYAS – FB, Auburn (1958-60)
MAJOR HARRIS – QB, West Virginia (1987-89)
GORDON HUDSON – TE, Brigham Young (1980-83)
WILLIAM LEWIS* – C, Harvard (1892-93)
WOODROW LOWE – LB, Alabama (1972-75)
KEN MARGERUM – WR, Stanford (1977-80)
STEVE McMICHAEL – DT, Texas (1976-79)
CHRIS SPIELMAN – LB, Ohio State (1984-87)
LARRY STATION – LB, Iowa (1982-85)
PAT SWILLING – DE, Georgia Tech (1982-85)
GINO TORRETTA – QB, Miami (Fla.) (1989-92)
CURT WARNER – RB, Penn State (1979-82)
GRANT WISTROM – DE, Nebraska (1994-97)

COACHES
DICK MacPHERSON – 111-73-5 (.601) – Massachusetts (1971-77), Syracuse (1981-90)
JOHN ROBINSON – 132-77-4 (.629) – USC (1976-82, 1993-97), UNLV (1999-2004)