The curtain finally closed on a week-long controversy surrounding Eddie Robinson, Grambling University's legendary football coach.

Now that the seventy-seven-year old Robinson has been granted his wish to coach one more season, the new questions become: "What will Grambling do to make the most of Robinson's last hurrah?"; and "Who will succeed him?"

Coach Rob, as he is often called, has roamed the sidelines for the G-Men for fifty-five seasons. In the process, he became the winningest coach in the history of college football with 405 career victories.

Although no announcement has been made regarding specific plans about a tour, there are three possibilities that may be considered for approval by the school in the coming weeks:

Look for a Robinson media blitz in late July when the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC), the league in which Grambling plays, stages its annual preseason media tour.

During the season, Grambling will play several road games in locations where the school has an alumni chapter. It is possible that the alumni chapters could devise their own programs to honor Robinson and help generate funds for the school's athletic department.

Under Robinson, more than 200 grambling players have gone on to professional careers. With so many professional alumni, there should be ample opportunity for the school to secure corporate sponsorships for any event associated with Robinson's farewell.

As to Robinson's successor, former Washington Redskins Super Bowl MVP Doug Williams is the name most frequently mentioned. Earlier this month, Grambling's president, Dr. Raymond A. Hicks, met with Robinson and suggested that the coach step down and take a vice president's position. Robinson wasn't interested and asked that he be allowed to coach one final season. But not everyone wanted Robinson to stick around for the additional year. Critics pointed to his recent losing record.

The program, which is coming off back-to-back losing seasons for the first time in school history, has also been scrutinized by the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) for alleged rules violations. Plus, there was an incident where four Grambling players were charged with raping a fifteen-year old girl.

It took almost a week before Hicks announced at a news conference that Robinson will end his coaching career at the end of next season. During that time, Grambling took a big public relations hit for its treatment of the legendary coach, according to James Bradford, Grambling's director of its national alumni association.

"With all the media attention, things were blown out of context," says Bradford. "The way things came out made it look like we were trying to run him out. That's not so. Nobody dislikes him. He's done a grand job. But there comes a time when it's time to move ion]. We don't want to see him destroy what he has built up."

Fourteen months ago, Robinson was the toast of college football, bagging his 400th career win against Mississippi Valley State. Over the last three seasons, however, Robinson's record is 8-17, including four straight to arch-rival Southern University in the Bayou Classic.

"Grambling started losing more than it ever had and people got concerned when [Robinson] never said anything about retiring," Bradford explains. "They felt he just might try to go on and on." The unexpected decline in Grambling football coupled with Robinson's reluctance to talk specifically about his retirement plans, created a sharp division among Grambling alumni, according to Collie Nicholson, a Grambling alumnus, who served as the school's sport publicist for thirty-one years.

"After a while, it became a sore point," Nicholson says of Robinson's silence on his retirement plans. "It didn't help that he was losing more than he ever had. As a result, he didn't have the level of alumni support that he usually has. And that created a lot of division [among alumni]."

With Robinson getting one final shot to go out a winner, the assumption is that he has a decent chance to pull it off. Nicholson says such notions build false hopes.

"The blue-chippers have already made their commitments, so coach Robinson won't sign any of those guys," Nicholson says. "We don't want anyone, including Eddie Robinson, to think that somehow, someone is going to wave a magic wand and he'll automatically have a winning season." Even with Robinson back for one more year, recruiting still figures to be hampered.

In Nicholson's mind, that's where ex-NFL quarterback Doug Williams, a Super Bowl MVP and former Grambling star, enters the picture. Williams is currently a scout with the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars but was recently interviewed by Morehouse for a coaching job.

"It would be a good move to bring Doug in now, but put him in a position other than football coach during Eddie's let year," Nicholson says. "I can still get a start on recruiting and have a solid chance of getting some of the top athletes because of his high visibility and because the recruits will know that he's going to be the coach. That puts Grambling in position to get the quality of athletes it has in the past, and the school won't lose an additional year in recruiting like it would if the school waits until later next year to hire a new coach."

COPYRIGHT 1996 Cox, Matthews & Associates