Former Receiver Robinson Gives Lessons in Success
Feb. 20, 2006
The words "wide receiver" have come to be synonymous with childish nuisances who run really fast and have big hands. Loud-mouth, pain-in-the-neck receivers can be found strewn across the National Football League. A position that was once personified by class acts, the wide receiver is quickly becoming the class clown.
But for Dell Robinson, former wide receiver at Ohio University, Class of 1988, class is only one of the many lessons he learned from football.
A Cleveland native, Robinson went from organizing pick-up games in his blue-collar neighborhood to playing receiver in high school at Benedictine School for Boys. Robinson won state championships in 1981 and '82 for the same school where football great Chuck Noll played.
After attending Baldwin Wallace College for a year, Robinson decided to take his winning ways to Ohio University and unleash it in the classroom. "I heard that Ohio University had the best sports management program in the country," Robinson said.
With the Bobcats hovering around .500 when he arrived, Robinson decided to try and walk on. "I thought that I would have a good chance, because 65 people walked on," Robinson said, "and they took 13 of us."
It is widely known, despite the arrival of Coach Frank Solic this season, that Ohio football is not exactly a winning program. In fact, Robinson remembers celebrating the lone victory of his junior year as if it were the Super Bowl. Why?
Well, Robinson is not just a glass-half-full kind of guy. He's a `no-juice-in-the-glass-but-I-still-got-the-glass kind of guy'. Robinson could find the silver lining in a cloudy day during a tornado in the middle of a plague. He's that positive.
At the end of two-a-day practices in the summer, Robinson's coaches would test the team's speed by making them run an obscene amount of sprints in the August heat.
"It was like ten 100s, fifteen 80's, or something like that. It was a whole bunch of running, and seeing everybody falling out, lining up on the side of the field. It was a really crazy time," Robinson said, "but there was an accomplishment in knowing it was over."
For Robinson, there's always something greater to be learned, to be experienced, and to be gained. Football meant more to him than just another mark in the win or loss column. It was about instilling discipline and hard work. On a team that could barely muster a single win, football was about sustaining the drive to succeed at anything and everything.
"We didn't have a lot of winning seasons in the time that I was there, but we were always working towards something or trying to get better," Robinson recalled.
Not that Robinson didn't know these lessons already. Any man who chooses to try and walk-on to a football team that some predict may not win a single game, knows the virtues inherent in the game. To help him along, though, Robinson had Coach Cleve Bryant, a man Robinson still talks with every year and considers a mentor to this day.
"During our stretching and everything, [Bryant] would always ask `How are the classes? How are you doing?' Then for people who weren't doing very well he'd always say `Well I heard you didn't do too good on midterms,'" Robinson said. "That always stuck with us."
Football, for Robinson, was always a means to a greater end. As a young African American youth growing up in Cleveland-one of the most segregated cities in America, Robinson didn't have many cultural or artistic outlets. Sports became a way for him to express himself, show his talent, and explore his abilities and opportunities.
He knows what sports mean to poor kids from the city. Having coached at Saint Rock Park in inner-city New Orleans, Robinson recognizes that for many African American youth, athletics offer not just an opportunity for self-expression but an escape from poverty.
"It's still a way out for a lot of people, depending on their situation." Robinson said. "I just hope that they embrace the opportunity. The scholarship is huge and not to be understated."
Not surprisingly, Robinson has mentored and talked with kids, recruited students in urban areas for Ohio, and lectured at his old stomping grounds about life both on and off the field. "I've got a trail of individuals that I've talked with," he said.
Undoubtedly, Robinson's work, mentoring, and talks have inspired a litany of athletes to push their dreams beyond the end zone. But Robinson really need not say a word; his own success, born from his laborious hard work and dedication, serves as an inspiration in itself.
Presently, Robinson is the Associate Commissioner for Legislative and Compliance Services for the Mid American Conference. Overseeing every MAC teams' compliance with MAC and NCAA rules and regulations, Robinson is the highest ranking African American in the organization.
For Dell Robinson, athletic success is not achieved on the field, recorded in the stats, or displayed on the scoreboard. It is carried into all of life's endeavors--a lesson he's learned well.
Zack Boileau is a journalism student at Ohio University.
