Will Robinson, Hoops Pioneer, Dies at 96
First African-American coach in Division I; scout for Detroit Pistons.
April 28, 2008 -- Auburn Hills, Mich. — Will Robinson, who was the first black coach of a Division I college basketball program and a legendary evaluator of talent in both basketball and football, died on Monday. He was 96.
Robinson died in a nursing home in the Detroit suburb of Harper Woods, said Detroit Pistons spokesman Matt Dobek. Robinson had been sick for 15 months and in a nursing home for more than a year, Dobek said.
Robinson made history when he became the first black Division I coach, leading Illinois State in the 1970s.
He joined the Pistons as a scout in 1976 and discovered Joe Dumars and Dennis Rodman, key players on Detroit's 1989 and 1990 NBA championship teams coached by Chuck Daly — who took the job after Robinson declined former general manager Jack McCloskey's offer.
"Will Robinson was truly a legend and will be missed dearly," Dumars said. "He was a huge inspiration for me and so many others. He was simply the best."
Robinson was the first black high school coach in Michigan. He also joined Spencer Haywood, a member of his Detroit Pershing 1967 state championship high school team who had left the University of Detroit to sign with the ABA's Denver Rockets, in a successfullegal challenge to the NBA's ban on underclassmen.
Robinson's life in sports was bracketed by his high school years in Steubenville, Ohio, where he won 14 letters in five sports, andby 28 years as a scout for the Pistons. He also was a scout for the NFL's Detroit Lions.
Robinson was inducted into a number of halls of fame, including the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1982. Accolades aside, he tookpride in helping more than 300 young people attend college on sports scholarships.
"My grandparents raised me," Robinson once told The Detroit News. "Sports was a family thing, and I coached that way - whethera kid needed money, clothing, a place to stay. I put all these things into a family. And [many of] the players who played for me,I got into college. Some are doctors. Some are lawyers."
