‘I thought to myself, uh, oh’

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, March 6, 2003 | 9:50 a.m.

In more than 40 years of coaching college and professional football, John Robinson has spent thousands of hours in front of a TV breaking down videotapes.

That did nothing to prepare him for 40 of the most important minutes of his life Monday afternoon at St. Rose Dominican Hospital in Henderson.

While lying on the operating room table, Robinson, 67, the UNLV head football coach and athletic director, patiently watched on a nearby video screen as doctors removed blockage from his right artery and then inserted a stent to help prevent future blockage.

"I was awake the whole time," Robinson said Wednesday from his hospital room where he was recuperating. "I could watch the whole thing. ... It was a little different."

Robinson, who was moved from the intensive care unit into a private room later in the afternoon and is expected to be released from the hospital today, recalled the whirlwind series of events that led to his surgery.

"It all happened just so fast," Robinson said.

He was driving home Sunday from Southern California with wife Linda, who had just undergone major surgery a week earlier for a double mastectomy, when he got the first hints that something was wrong.

"I had eaten a lot of garbage out there," he said. "I started to feel some discomfort in my chest and then it went away. And a little later it came back. I thought maybe I had the flu."

Although he was still feeling some pain on Monday morning, he reported to work at his Lied Athletic Complex office as scheduled and spent about an hour working before the pain became more severe.

"I thought to myself, 'Uh, oh, I better get this checked out,' " Robinson said.

So he went to see his family physican, Dr. Joe Johnson, at the Rose de Lima campus of St. Rose Diminican Hospital in Henderson.

"He referred me to a cardiologist who gave me an EKG," Robinson said. "He told me, 'You may not like to hear this but you're having a heart attack. We're going to get you ready for surgery right now.' "

A couple of hours later, Robinson was resting comfortably in his room in the Intensive Care Unit after witnessing the life-saving surgery first-hand.

"I'm all right now," Robinson said. "I'm OK. I get out of here (today) and then I've got some rehab time. I've got to take it easy for a little while before I can go back to work."

Although he has been doing the rare double-duty as head football coach and athletic director at the school for more than 14 months, Robinson refused the blame the heavy workload for his medical problem.

"I don't think this was caused from that stress at all," he said. "I think it was more my lifestyle for the last 30 years. The most stress I've had was last week with Linda's thing. It's not like the day I took the (athletic director's) job my artery all of a sudden got clogged. That's something that happens over a much longer period of time and has a lot to do with the lifestyle you have."

Robinson said he plans to continue in both jobs when he returns to work in about a week. The biggest difference will be implementing a few lifestyle changes that a longtime friend and former Rose Bowl coaching rival, Bo Schembechler of Michigan, gave him this week.

"Bo went through two or three of these," Robinson said. "He just told me that I better just plan my life out. I've got to make sure I make time for exercise and also to eat the right foods."

The good news for Robinson is that Johnson said his main artery on the left side of his body looked "very good" during tests and that he expects the fifth-year Rebels coach to make a full recovery in time for the start of spring practice on March 25.

That's music to Robinson's ears.

"I'm really looking forward to spring practice," he said. "I think we have the makings of a pretty good football team for next season."