The Football Family Robinson

Passion for the pigskin is a Robinson family heirloom. The love of the game passes from generation to generation, growing stronger with each. Greg Robinson’s grandfather planted the seed. It blossomed in Greg’s father. After a successful high school football career, Robinson’s father had intentions of playing in college. He enlisted in the Air Force when World War II started. After returning home, he enrolled in law school to provide for his family, although coaching was his dream. Today the passion shared by the entire family is in full bloom in Syracuse University’s head coach.

“In my house it was three things – religion, law and football – and, as I like to mention, not necessarily in that order,” Robinson said smiling. “Those things ran through us in everything that we did.”

The oldest boy in the family, Mark Robinson vividly recalls football as a way of life during his childhood.

“My father just had passion for football. It started with his dad and his passion for and love of Knute Rockne,” Mark said. “All my dad wanted to be was a football coach, but there were a bunch of kids in the family so he had to be a lawyer instead. I remember our dad taking us out one at a time, developing us. Then I worked with Greg, and then Greg with Jeoff. We all helped each other.”

Robinson’s sister, Corky Johansing, said there were no gender boundaries when it game to the gridiron. The priorities in the house were crystal clear.

“Religion, law, football – definitely not in that order,” said Corky, who is two years older than Greg. “I grew up not reading the sports page because every morning at breakfast my dad talked about sports. Nobody could believe that all the Robinson girls knew so much about football, but when you had that as a diet, it was like osmosis. Football was almost the religion.”

Although football was the religion, Mark and Jeoff chose to follow in their father’s footsteps navigating the judicial system rather than the gridiron.

“In our family you had two choices,” Jeoff said. “Greg chose the more adventurous one. We chose the more lucrative field.”

According to his sister, the path Greg chose was not a surprise based on his childhood. When asked if there is a story that epitomized Greg, Corky laughed.

“Which story. There are so many,” she said. “He and Jeoff were quite active growing up. Greg was very spirited and pretty wild. Nobody could ever figure out that the two of us were brother and sister. I was kind of the goody-goody and he was the opposite. I always wish I had his nerve. He always went after things. I was afraid to do the things he did.”

While Mark and Jeoff plodded their course through law school and the bar exam to their current post as law partners, Greg began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Pacific which led to his first full-time job at UCLA. After spending 30 years as an assistant at the collegiate level and in the National Football League, Robinson is in the position he has dreamed about.

“I was so happy for him that he found it,” said Greg’s oldest sister, Sandra Walsh of his first career head coaching position. “I knew he always wanted to be a head coach and that he would find the right place to do it. He has worked so hard to get to where he is. Things have not come easy. The thing that I appreciate is how hard he has worked to get where he is.”

As a person familiar with the landscape of college football, Mark believes Greg is in a good place.

“I am really happy for Greg for this opportunity after 30 years of being a good assistant,” said Mark, who played wide receiver at Stanford. “Most coaches want to be a head coach and Greg was no exception. It is interesting with the history of Syracuse – Jim Brown, Ernie Davis, and today with Donovan McNabb – there is a real football base there. I think that it is a great opportunity. Given our family love of football, we definitely appreciate a program like Syracuse.”

As the 27th head football coach in the history of Syracuse University, Robinson is ready to apply all he has learned to continue the tradition of the Orange program.

“I know why I got into coaching,” Greg said. “It was through football that I really achieved to a level that I really felt like I was able to learn about myself and gain an inner confidence about who I am and what I am. From the day I started coaching I wanted to be a head football coach – a successful head football coach. I have had such good fortune of working with so many good people and have been part of so much success.”

Robinson’s mentor circle includes the likes of Terry Donahue (UCLA), Mike Shanahan (Denver Broncos), Pete Carroll (New York Jets), Dick Vermeil (Kansas City Chiefs) and Mack Brown (Texas).

“Greg has paid his dues,” said Jeoff, who played quarterback at Pacific when Greg was on the coaching staff. “My reaction when he got the SU job was one of relief. I knew that he was destined to do this. He is the type who dutifully takes the job he is given, boroughs along without making waves. When it (the Syracuse appointment) happened, it was relief and then, alright, now let’s see what you can do.

“I have noticed over the years his maturation as a coach in his sideline appearance. Working with Vermeil seems to be the last piece of the puzzle. That puzzle was probably forming at age five beginning with our father. At UCLA with Terry Donahue he learned his attention to detail being a mentor for young people. From there going on to life with Pete Carroll where he saw that it is OK to be yourself and kid-like at times and still be a leader. Shanahan was a mastermind, an architect of ingenuity. Then Vermeil topped it all off. That was the real finishing piece because he allowed Greg to see that it was OK to be yourself – warm, strong, emotional – and still be in charge. At Texas it was a chance to re-adjust to college coaching. What little I got to see of Mack Brown, I did see how important it was to interact with students, boosters and administrators.”

As Greg formulates his master plan for Syracuse football, his siblings have visions of success for the Orange.

“Greg is a very personable person,” Mark said. “He is a very good college recruiter. In eight years at UCLA, Greg brought in more All-Americans than any coach at UCLA. I was following it and I couldn’t believe how many All-Americans he brought to UCLA. He has a way with people. Those families wanted to go where he was. He lost that when he went into the pros because you don’t really recruit in the pros, but that is one of his strengths. He is a principles person. He has good family values. That comes across when he is recruiting a player. It is not just a football player. Family and character are critical. That is his strength.”

“He is not concerned with what you can’t do, only what you can do,” Jeoff said.

On September 4 when Robinson leads the Orange onto the field for the 2005 season-opener against West Virginia in the Carrier Dome, SU fans will see the beginning of what Robinson and SU football can do.

Syracuse University Athletics

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