Robinson takes last steps in a career of achievement

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Nov. 19, 2004 | 10:04 a.m.

While playing football at the University of Oregon in the late 1950s, John Robinson decided he would like to take a turn at coaching one day.

"John McKay was our backfield coach," Robinson said. "I used to go into his office all the time and beg him, especially in the off-season, to teach me about football."

And after serving as a graduate assistant in 1958, Robinson was hired on by Ducks coach Len Casanova in 1960 as a full-time assistant.

Now 44 years, 211 victories, two Heisman Trophy winners and four Rose Bowl head coaching victories later, the man his players simply refer to as "J-Rob" will coach his final game on Saturday night while his injury-plagued UNLV Rebels (2-8, 1-5) try to avoid the Mountain West Conference cellar when they travel to San Diego State (3-8, 1-5).

Robinson, 69, has been a head coach in 27 of those 45 seasons, including the past six at UNLV where he pumped some much-needed life into a struggling program. He coached the Los Angeles Rams to two NFC title games in nine years there and also had two-head coaching stints at USC where he compiled a 104-35-4 (.741) record and was 4-0 in the Rose Bowl. He also coached the Trojans to a national championship in 1978 just three years after taking over for his mentor, McKay.

"I thought he was the smartest man who ever lived," Robinson said of McKay, who won four national championships in a 13-year span at USC. "He was the guy I tried to pattern myself after."

Robinson is only 28-41 in his six seasons at UNLV but led the Rebels to a Las Vegas Bowl upset of Arkansas, 31-14, in 2000. His legacy, however, will go beyond just wins and losses, helping install much-needed facility upgrades as well as garnering national attention and respect for a program that many considered to be the worst in Division I-A football when he took over.

"We were at rock bottom," Robinson, who got the Rebels ranked as high as 30th in the polls during his stay, said. "We've established a program that I think is ready to move forward. We've built a platform for the next coach to be able to move forward."

Two state-of-the-art artificial turf practice fields and improved weight room facilities are among Robinson's biggest contributions. Increased national media exposure is another.

"And also the quality of the player," Robinson said. "They're going to school and they're graduating. The grade point average was around 2.1 when I took over and now it's going to be up around 2.7 or 2.8."

But Robinson said he also has had his share of regrets during his six years at UNLV.

"Losing close games for one," he said. "We didn't get our self-image up to being winners. I think there's still some doubt in that whole area.

"After the (Las Vegas Bowl win over Arkansas) there are probably six or seven games where you say, 'Oh, bleep, we should have won that one.' We were right there in so many close losses."

Asked what his proudest accomplishment was at UNLV, Robinson replied, "Just that I think we have become a program that represents the university well."

Robinson and his wife, Linda, plan to move to the Phoenix area soon so that they can be closer to their grandchildren. He said he expects to stay busy with doing assorted jobs related to football. He will do the radio broadcast of the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 23 and also will be one of the keynote speakers at this year's Heisman Trophy dinner in New York.

As for coaching his final game on Saturday night at Qualcomm Stadium, Robinson refuses to get too sentimental.

"I don't think you stand around and gaze into the sunset," he said. "That's not one of my deals. The specifics of the (game) eclipse everything else."