Penn State Sports Magazine
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M A Y 2 0 2 3 6 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M ceiver and defensive end in an era just before two-platoon football had started to become commonplace. As a senior in 1962, Robinson had 17 catches for 178 yards, but the first-team Associated Press All-American was even more imposing as a defensive player. In his autobiography, "Paterno by the Book," Joe Paterno described Robinson as "a magnificent athlete" who couldn't be contained in practice even by Penn State's most experienced offensive linemen. "When he didn't want to get blocked, our best guys who'd been playing with us for four years couldn't stop him," Paterno wrote. That brand of physical dominance made the 6-foot-3, 245-pound Robinson a highly regarded pro prospect. Indeed, he was so highly regarded that he was selected in not one but three drafts in 1963. He went to the Green Bay Packers with the 14th overall pick in the NFL Draft, to the San Diego Chargers of the up- start American Football League in the third round with the 17th pick and also to the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. Robinson originally planned on signing with the Chargers, who were offering a $38,000 contract. However, when he learned that the team was planning to trade his rights to the Buffalo Bills, he signed with the Pack- ers instead. Green Bay may have been his fallback plan, but the decision could hardly have worked out any better. Coach Vince Lom- bardi moved him from defensive end to outside linebacker, where he teamed up with Ray Nitschke and Lee Roy Caffey to form one of the greatest linebacker corps in league history. The Packers were the NFL's reigning power at the start of the Super Bowl era in the mid-1960s, and Robinson played a key role in their ascendance. He had the strength to win physi- cal battles at the line of scrimmage and the speed, length and agility to drop back into coverage and shadow receivers, as evidenced by the 5 interceptions he snared in 1966. It was Robinson whose fierce pursuit of Dallas quarterback Don Meredith propelled the Packers to Super Bowl I. Green Bay was leading by a touchdown in the final minute of the 1966 NFL Championship Game, but a pass interference penalty had given the Cowboys a first down at the 2-yard line. With a historic Super Bowl berth on the line, Robinson chased down Meredith on fourth-and-goal, forcing an errant throw that was intercepted in the end zone to deliver the Packers a 34-27 victory. A year later, Robinson blocked a field goal in the opening round of the playoffs to keep Green Bay from falling into a 10-0 hole against the Los Angeles Rams. The Packers went on to win 28-7 and advanced to the NFL Championship Game — the legendary "Ice Bowl" in which they once again defeated Dallas, this time in subzero temperatures at Lambeau Field. Robinson ended up playing on three NFL championship teams in Green Bay, including the first two teams to win Super Bowl titles. He had 3 tackles in the Packers' 35-10 rout of Kan- sas City in the first game, and 7 tackles and a fumble recovery in a 33-14 victory over the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl II. In his 10 seasons with the Packers, Robinson was a three- time All-Pro selection and was named to the NFL's All-Decade Team for the 1960s. 'You Have To Like To Hit' When Lombardi left after the 1967 season, Green Bay began to slide. Defensive coordinator Phil Bengtson was promoted to the Packers' head coaching post and lasted just three seasons. He was replaced by Missouri coach Dan Devine in 1971, but the Packers won just four games in Devine's first year, compiling the franchise's worst record since it went 1-10-1 in 1958. Robinson clashed with Devine and was happy to be traded to Washington after the 1972 season. He ended up starting all 30 games in his two years with the team and made 6 more interceptions. Those half-dozen picks brought his career total to 27, a figure that becomes even more impressive when taking into account the run-oriented na- ture of most professional offenses during the 1960s and '70s. In August 1975, Robinson announced his retirement. Owner of a civil engineering degree from Penn State, he went to work for the Schlitz Brewing Company in Milwaukee. A few years later, he opened a beer distributorship in Akron, Ohio. By the mid-1980s, it might have seemed only natural that Robinson would have a presence elsewhere in Ohio — Canton, to be specific. After all, he had been inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame in 1982 and was recognized as one of the standout players on a history-making team. Nevertheless, he wasn't voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame until 2013, nearly four decades after his retirement. Among the many people that Robinson thanked in his en- shrinement speech were his former head coach at Penn State, Rip Engle, and Paterno, Engle's top assistant at the time. "They taught me a lot about football," Robinson said. "They took a diamond in the rough and made me a football player." A 1997 inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame, Rob- inson may have needed some refinement when he got to Penn State. But the intensity and passion that he brought to the game were there from the start, and he continued to display those qualities throughout his career. At his enshrinement in Canton, he described football as "a Spartan game played by Spartan-like individuals in a Spartan- like manner." "It's a game of hitting and getting hit," Robinson said. "You have to like to hit, and you have to like to get hit, because if you don't, you won't last long in this league. "I tell people, 'When you play football, you have to like the taste of blood. And you have to remember that 50 percent of the time, it's your blood.'" ■ "When he didn't want to get blocked, our best guys who'd been playing with us for four years couldn't stop him." J O E P A T E R N O O N R O B I N S O N