Eddie Robinson was the head football coach at Grambling State University from 1941 through 1997. Robinson's teams won 408 games, making him the first, and one of only two coaches, to win more than 400 football games in a career. Most importantly, by grooming and mentoring two players—Paul "Tank" Younger and James "Shack" Harris—he opened pro football to athletes from historically black colleges and undermined stereotypes that excluded black players from leadership positions in the game. Robinson began his coaching career under the South's rigid Jim Crow system of racial segregation, and achieved great success as both a football coach and a role model for African Americans in Louisiana and neighboring states throughout the Civil Rights Era. This book places Eddie Robinson's career, his life as an influential leader of his race, and the growth of the Grambling football program in the larger context of the Civil Rights Movement.
