Remembering John Robinson, a game changer for football — and for me

John Robinson passed away on Monday and a big piece of football went with him. Much of the 89-year-old’s legendary status is linked to winning 79 games for the Los Angeles Rams, where he was head coach from 1983-89 and earning the 1979 national championship at USC.
Robinson had two head coaching stints with the Trojans from 1976-82 and 1993-97. Up until last week, he reigned over the Rams as the winningest coach in franchise history.
I first met Robinson in late November 1998, on the campus of UNLV. A tip came into our KLAS-TV newsroom that the former USC coach was considering a comeback, and the Rebels had just dismissed head coach Jeff Horton after a 3-8 season.
With an idea of where the meeting was taking place, I grabbed a photographer and waited outside. Sure enough, a door opened and out walked the biggest name with the largest list of credentials to ever consider coaching at UNLV — and we had the scoop.
“Not now guys, but I will talk to you later,” Robinson said as he hurried off to another meeting.
Several days later, on Dec. 3, UNLV made the stunning announcement that Robinson was its new head football coach.
Landing Robinson in Las Vegas was such a big deal that KLAS informed CBS that it was blowing out its Thursday night programming to televise UNLV’s season opener at North Texas — something the station had never done before.
I knew we needed a cool way to promote it and while watching “Superman” I got an idea. The big question was whether I could get the coach to go along with it.
Still relative strangers, I scheduled a few minutes with him in his office.
“I need to you trust me on this,” I said cautiously. Ten minutes into the pitch, he gave me the green light to move forward, with just one caveat.
“I get to approve it before it goes on TV,” he requested.
I agreed.
A week later, we were back with our production crew. Robinson arrived with the requested light blue dress shirt, red tie and blue blazer. A bit nervous, I handed him the rest of the costume and as the coach left the room to change, he gave me a stern “I’m trusting you” look.
Two weeks later, with the doors closed to his office, the coach and I huddled around a small television monitor as our producer hit the play button. This was the moment of truth.
The spot began with a visual of a movie theater and the curtains parting to show a black-and-white countdown on the screen. Superman music started as two hands, in Clark Kent fashion, pulled the blue shirt and sports jacket apart, revealing Superman’s iconic “S” logo.
Next, the camera panned up to reveal Robinson’s stern face — then he smiled from ear to ear. The music changed and the camera cut to a black background and the words “I’m Back!” appearing on the screen. Then it switched to “UNLV at North Texas” and finally, “Thursday on Channel 8.”
“Let’s see that again,” Robinson said with an intriguing smile.
After a few more looks, I asked, “What do you think?”
“Alright. Let’s do it,” he said.
We left the office with his approval and more importantly, his trust. Two weeks later, in a prime-time Thursday night broadcast, with Blaine Fowler and I on the call, UNLV defeated North Texas 26-3 to usher in the Robinson era in Las Vegas.
Walking into Robinson’s hotel room atop the Provo Marriott on Sept. 23, 2000, I noticed two things. First, the room was as quiet as an empty church and second, the largest fruit platter I had ever seen was sitting on the table.
“Are you eating all of this?” I asked.
“Are you kidding?” he replied. “Please, help yourself.”
Robinson’s wife Linda, who wasn’t on the trip, had insisted he start eating healthier.
As UNLV’s play-by-play announcer, I was there to record our pregame interview, but he was in no hurry. The skies were clear and the view across Provo was unencumbered. Robinson knew of my local ties to the area, including BYU, but I didn’t know about his.
“I spent part of my childhood here,” Robinson said.
“What? Where?” I asked.
The coach looked out the window and pointed north.
“Somewhere over there,” he said. “We moved here, and my dad helped build Geneva Steel.”
Robinson attended Rock Canyon Elementary School for three years between 1941-44. He was surprised to learn it was still operational and only blocks from where his Rebels would play BYU later that day at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
Every coach has a quirk. Some have more than one. For Robinson, once the game and the post-game shows were over, he was done talking about football.
“McCann!” He shouted, waving me over with his arm. I wasn’t sure what he wanted. His Rebels had just upset No. 14 Wisconsin 23-5 in Madison on Sept. 13, 2003, and the team was standing on the tarmac waiting to board the flight home.
I left my media colleagues and walked over to see what he needed. This was such a big moment in the history of the program. UNLV’s nationally televised win was the story of the day in college football. I expected a game-related question. Instead, I got this.
“Tell me about your church,” he asked.
“What?” The request caught me off guard.
“C’mon, we have five minutes. Tell me about your church.”
It took a moment, but my missionary training from 15 years earlier kicked in and we shared a special visit. Five minutes later he said,
“OK, thanks. Let’s go home.”
We got on the plane and flew back to Las Vegas.
Robinson’s run at UNLV lasted until 2004 before health issues complicated his situation. Our last private dinner together was at his favorite posh restaurant buried inside a famous hotel where I was convinced the waiter still thought Robinson was coaching at USC.
The purpose of the dinner was to thank me for my efforts. Forever impressed by his genuine kindness and rich reservoir of football stories, I consider myself blessed to have had an association with him.
His roster at UNLV didn’t feature the kinds of athletes that he won with at the Rams or Trojans. There was no Marcus Allen, Charles White, Ronnie Lott, Eric Dickerson or Keyshawn Johnson, but he loved his Rebels all the same.
I watched him motivate average players to play good and good players to play great. He inspired me to elevate my game as well. While in a commercial break during one of our coaches shows, he looked at me, smiled and said, “If my team was as good as this show, we’d really have something going on here.”
Most of his UNLV teams weren’t great, but he definitely had something going on.
During his final season, BYU presented Robinson with a send-off trip to Hawaii prior to kickoff. Moments later, his Rebels, who had upset the Cougars in Provo two years earlier, proceeded to beat them again, 24-20.
Afterwards, in true Robinson style, he quieted down the happy locker room and asked with an inquisitive, growling voice, “What’s the big deal? We always win at BYU!” The thunderous roar that followed filled the air just blocks away from where Robinson was taught how to read, write and do arithmetic — and somewhere along the way, he learned how to coach.
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com.