Ex-players, colleagues roast Robinson

Steve Guiremand

Friday, May 5, 2000 | 10:42 a.m.

Keyshawn Johnson was there minus his wallet, which was left on a plane bound for Omaha.

Washington Redskins head coach Norv Turner was there after flying cross country following a morning practice.

Marcus Allen, Ronnie Lott, Eric Dickerson and Jackie Slater also were among the 200 people at the Anthem Country Club on Thursday night who took part in a roasting of UNLV football coach John Robinson after the first day of Robinson's two-day celebrity golf tourney.

What was supposed to be a 45- to 60-minute program stretched to two hours as Robinson's former players and coaching colleagues at USC and the Los Angeles Rams took turns praising and trading good-natured jabs with the Rebels' coach.

The golf tournament is expected to raise in excess of $100,000 for the UNLV Football Foundation.

Ted "The Mad Stork" Hendricks, NFL Hall of Famer Dave Wilcox, former UCLA head coach Terry Donahue, Texas A&M head coach R.C. Slocum, Dallas Cowboys assistants Hudson Houck and Clarence Shelmon and Seattle Seahawks assistant Gil Haskell also took part in the program.

"John, we sort of owe our careers to you," said Allen, the 1981 Heisman Trophy winner at USC who will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame this year. "I'm lucky and I appreciate the fact that I'm going into the College Football Hall of Fame. I certainly want you to be there."

Replied Robinson with a smile: "Marcus is right. He does owe his career to me. But he has never sent me a damn cent. Not a penny."

While introducing Dickerson, Robinson told a story of how he thought he had successfully recruited the running back to USC.

"But a couple of weeks (after Dickerson visited USC), we went down (to Sealy, Texas) and he told us how this recruiting thing had gotten a lot more interesting and that we were only about 28th on his list now. Then he got up and drove away in his nice sports car."

The two would eventually hook up a few years later with the Los Angeles Rams.

"When I came to LA and the Rams, nobody really knew who I was," Dickerson said. "I wanted people to know the name Eric Dickerson. And Coach Robinson was the kind of guy who loved running backs. Coach, I want to thank you for all the 47 gaps, all the toss rights and toss lefts, because I wouldn't be wearing this (NFL) Hall of Fame ring today without you."

Lott, who will join Dickerson in the NFL Hall of Fame later this year, was Allen's roommate at USC and helped lead the Trojans to their last national championship in 1978.

"John Robinson ... what more can I say about him?" Lott said. "There's a lot of lessons I learned from him and they've carried me a long way. I just want to say thank you and that I'm glad that I'm here. I'm glad to be associated with this program."