The NCAA's decision to strip Joe Paterno of his wins from 1998 to 2011 once again makes legendary Grambling State coach Eddie Robinson the top winning coach in college football history.
The NCAA's decision to strip Joe Paterno of his wins from 1998 to 2011 once again makes legendary Grambling State coach Eddie Robinson the top winning coach in college football history.
Hired in 1941, when black players weren't allowed on white college teams in the segregated South (and many other places), Robinson led the Tigers to 408 wins in his almost six decades with the historically black university, besting Football Bowl Subdivision Bobby Bowden of Florida State by 31 wins.
Paterno had only led Robinson by one win when he was forced to retire in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal. His October victory over Illinois on Oct. 29 gave him 409 wins.
Robinson had 45 winning seasons, including winning or sharing 17 Southwestern Athletic Conference championships and nine black college football national championships. He graduated hundreds of players, sending 200 of them to the pros.
According to his Wikipedia bio:
Robinson held several jobs other than football coach, including teaching at Grambling High School, and coaching the girls' basketball team during World War II. His girls team lost the state championship by 1 point. He also coached boys' basketball, baseball, directed band and was in charge of the cheerleaders, with a budget of $46.
Robinson died in 2007 at 88.
Paterno's statue has been taken down from the Penn State campus and now sits in a storage facility. Read more about the NCAA's punishment of the late coach and Penn State for covering up former coach Jerry Sandusky's sexual abuse of young boys here.