Harvey Robinson
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|}:This article is for the college football coach. For the serial killer of the same name, see Harvey Miguel Robinson.
Harvey Robinson was the head football coach of the University of Tennessee for two seasons, 1953 and 1954. He replaced General Robert Neyland, who retired as Head Coach due to health reasons. Robinson's career record was 10-10-1.
Harvey Leigh Robinson was born on March 23, 1908, in Jupiter, North Carolina (near Asheville and Weaverville in Buncombe County), the son of William D. and Ida Lee (Harris) Robinson. He attended grade school and high school in Weaverville, North Carolina (1).
Although he did not play high school football, he won a halfback spot on the Weaverville Junior College team in 1927. By 1928 he was captain of the team and an All-State performer, weighing only 140 pounds. His teams won the North Carolina Junior College championship both years and Robinson scored 150 points or more each season. He then followed his older brother, George, to the University of North Carolina. Chuck Collins, the Notre Dame-trained coach, recast him as a guard. Harvey resigned three weeks later and enrolled at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (2).
In the Neyland system Robinson was assigned to play halfback, but he did not play a lot inasmuch as two All-American halfbacks, Gene McEver and Beattie Feathers, were there at the time. When he looked back years later at his college years at UT, he felt the opportunity to learn fundamental football under coach Robert R. Neyland was the major benefit of his college career.
The highlight of his years at UT came during the famous battle in the rain with Alabama on October 15, 1932. In the last quarter the Crimson Tide was leading 3-0 when Feathers kicked a soggy ball 70 yards to the Alabama 13. Alabama’s John Cain punted 46 yards on the first down and Robinson ran the kick back 15 yards to the Tide 45. On the muddy field, three plays gained five yards then Feathers punted the ball dead on the Alabama 1-yard line. Van Rayburn blocked Cain’s punt and Feathers scored the only touchdown of the game on third down. The Volunteers won 7-3. In this classic kicking duel Cain averaged 47 yards punting, Feathers 43. Robinson’s timely run had changed field position in Tennessee’s favor at a crucial point in the game. Tennessee finished the season on December 3 with a 32-13 win over Florida in Jacksonville and a 9-0-1 record (3).
Years later, when Harry (Hobo) Thayer was asked if he recalled Robinson’s days as a player, he candidly replied, "Sure, everybody remembered Robinson. You know the gang we had. Dodd was a clown. McEver never took anything seriously. Buddy Hackman was in a fog half the time. Robinson was the quiet one. He was always listening when the coaches talked. Good passer too. No horseplay for Robinson. I think he’d already made up his mind to become a coach (4)."
Upon graduation Robinson entered an advanced degree program at the University of Michigan, earning a Master’s degree in 1933. He then coached at Ducktown, Tennessee for two years (1933-1935) and began a seven-year stint at Knoxville Central High School (1935-1941). Harvey Robinson acted as head coach and as coach of the offense and Nathan B. (Red) Eubank coached the defense. They formed a coaching combination responsible for a fantastic 56-5-5 record, winning six state titles and one Southern championship. A Robinson-Eubank coached team never lost to arch rival Knoxville High School during those years, although the teams did not play in 1937 (5).
Many stand-out players at the University of Tennessee and other universities began their approach to stardom by learning the basics under Robinson and Eubank at Central High School during those years. These included Kenneth (Red) Bales, Bob Suffridge, Charley Selby, Ray Graves, Hodges (Burr) West, Ray Cannon, Chan Caldwell, Dan Y. Boring, David Cawrse, Mack Hansard, Charles Moffett, Horace (Bud) Sherrod, Bill Fogarty and others. Important as those individual players were, the major attribute of a CHS Bobcat team was just that--its teamwork (6).
Legendary sportswriter Harold Harris called the undefeated and untied 1939 State Champion Bobcats the "best ever" Central High School football team. The team had Dan Boring at blocking back, Chan Caldwell and Ford Owen at ends, Dave Cawrse at tackle, Jim Cawrse at guard, John Brown at center, Howard Painter at fullback, R.E. Selby at tailback and Mack Hansard in reserve. Hal Kelly and Jim Tillett made the "All State" team that year. (Team Captain John Francis was not present for the photograph.)
World War II
In 1941 Coach Robinson left for four years of service (1941-1945) in the Army Physical Reconditioning Program in Long Island, New York. When he returned after the war, he became freshman coach at the University of Tennessee and, in 1948, became offensive chief. Insiders considered Coach Robinson the master technician of the single-wing, although he coached the T-formation late in his career. With Robinson as coordinator, using his hyped-up single wing offense that featured a buck lateral series, the Volunteer teams of 1950 and 1951 amassed school records in total offense that stood for several years. They also won the national championship in 1951.
Coach Robinson always maintained that the single wing was the most interesting and involved form of offense and once told sports columnist Ben Byrd, "Every position in a single wing backfield required more practice and learning than even the quarterback position in the T formation. The single wing lost favor because it involved too much coaching time and because centers could no longer make the long snap. It would still gain the yardage today if anyone wanted to do all the work involved in bringing it back (7)."
When General Neyland resigned because of his health in 1953, only one season after he had led the Vols to a national championship, Robinson was chosen to succeed the legendary head coach. His 1953 team had a 6-4-1 record, but slid to 4-6-0 a year later. Robinson had inherited a young team and, additionally, an NCAA committee under Neyland’s leadership had voted to return to the one-platoon system after four years of two-platoon football. Teaching young players to play offense and defense, most of whom had never played both ways previously, was quite a challenge.
Neyland, now the athletic director, replaced him with a former Vol All-American end, Bowden Wyatt, who had just won a Southwest Conference title at Arkansas. Typically, Robinson was steadfast in that he never spoke bitterly of the two-year experience. He was always proud that he left the team with a wealth of young talent that he and his staff had recruited and developed. Only two years after his departure, the 1956 team, led by one of his recruits, tailback Johnny Majors, went 10-0-0 and captured the Southeastern Conference championship (8).
Years later, Majors who had come to The Hill from Huntland, Tennessee as a 155-pound freshman, summed up those two years under Coach Robinson, "The General (Neyland) had just retired and Harvey Robinson was the coach. He was a great man, a good, smart coach, but he was caught waiting for us to develop. He didn’t have a lot of great material my freshman and sophomore years because we were just learning (9)."
When the opportunity arose in 1955, Robinson moved to Florida as an aide to former Vol Bob Woodruff. He came back to UT as an assistant in 1960. Two years later he took a scouting job with the Dallas Cowboys and was assigned to assess prospective professional football players all over the Southeast. His base was in Knoxville, but the position placed him in a close relationship with another football legend, Tom Landry, the head coach of the Cowboys.
The scholarly Harvey Robinson, a bachelor and a "gentleman of the old school," underwent surgery twice for cancer late in his life, but returned to an active life after his convalescence each time. He retired from his scouting position with Dallas in 1976 and passed away on April 25, 1979, at Fort Sanders Hospital, at age 71. A member of the Second Presbyterian Church, he was survived by three sisters and a brother, Colonel Donald Robinson of Asheville, North Carolina. He is interred in Greenwood Cemetery (10).
Coach Robinson devoted almost his entire adult life to football. His hobbies included fishing and bridge and he was also an accomplished classical pianist. However, most of his time was spent in studying, coaching or talking football. By both precept and example he made a positive difference in the lives of his students and his team members.
Record of CHS Football Team Under Coaches Robinson and Eubank:
Year Won/Lost/Tied-CHS/KHS Score 1935 10-0 8-6 1936 10-0 21-6 1937 5-1-1 Did not play 1938 6-4 9-7 1939 10-0 13-0 1940 9-0-1 25-13 1941 6-0-3 7-0
1. Tom Siler, Tennessee (Football’s Greatest Dynasty), Knoxville News-Sentinel (Knoxville, 1962); "Death Claims Harvey Robinson, a Very Special Volunteer," Knoxville News-Sentinel, April 26, 1979.
2. Ed Harris, Golden Memories of Ed Harris (50 Years in Big Orange Country) (Knoxville, c1972).
3. ibid. (Harris, c1972); op. cit. (Knoxville News-Sentinel, April 26, 1979).
4. op. cit. (Siler, 1962).
5. Personal conference and compiled Central High School statistics from Dan Y. Boring and David Cawrse, September 21, 2002.
6. op. cit. (Siler, 1962).
7. Ben Byrd, "Robinson, UT Coach, Dies at 71," Knoxville Journal, April 28, 1979.
8. Russ Bebb, The Big Orange (A Story of Tennessee Football), Strode Publishers (Huntsville, 1973); Johnny Majors (with Ben Byrd), You Can Come Home Again, Rutledge Hill (Nashville, 1986).
9. Mike Siroky and Bob Bertucci, Orange Lightning (Inside University of Tennessee Football), Leisure Press (West Point, New York, 1982).
10. ibid. (Byrd, 1979); Obituary, Knoxville News-Sentinel, April 27, 1989.
[edit] External links
www.fountaincitytnhistory.info/
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| Preceded by Robert Neyland |
University of Tennessee Head Football Coach 1953–1954 |
Succeeded by Bowden Wyatt |
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