For Grambling legend Wilbert Ellis, Robinson Museum project was personal

Wilbert Ellis, one of the final remaining links to Grambling’s most celebrated period, always approached his work for the Eddie G. Robinson Museum as a quest.

The long-delayed project would provide an economic boost to Lincoln Parish, and a recruiting tool for Grambling State University. For Ellis, however, this effort was more personal: He wanted to honor a mentor and old friend.

Together with late school president R.W.E. “Prez” Jones and basketball coach and athletic administrator Fred Hobdy, Robinson provided a foundation for Ellis’ hall of fame career.

Their voices guided him as he pushed this project through its final years, something Ellis underscored in an emotional moment at the beginning of his speech during the museum’s grand opening ceremony on Saturday.

“Wait just a minute, I’ve got a telephone call,” Ellis said, bringing a cell to his ear. “Hello? Yes, this is Ellis. Coach, how’re you doing!? Yeah, we’re here. It happened, Coach! We’re so proud. It couldn’t happen anywhere but in America — you’re right, Coach. Wait, ‘Prez’ wants to say something?”

The assembled crowd burst into appreciative laughter and applause.

Ellis’ relationship with the Robinsons goes further back, when Doris Robinson was his elementary school teacher. Though she couldn’t attend because of health issues, Ellis was consistent in mentioning Doris’ meaningful contributions — and a banquet hall adjoining the Robinson Museum is now named in her honor.

“To the First Lady of Football,” Ellis said at the dedication, “you were my teacher and inspiration.”

From the start, Ellis was able to galvanize nostaligia into a sense of purpose for the museum board.

He brought along an old photo to the April 2006 meeting where he was named to head local fundraising for the project. Included were Ellis, Jones, Robinson and Hobdy.

“That picture brings back so many memories,” Ellis said. “My motivations go back to those days. We hope to rally the school, the community, the business world and everybody around the nation to help us establish a place to experience what Coach Rob achieved.”

Ellis, who retired in 2003 after serving more than 43 seasons as an assistant and then head coach at Grambling, brought his own credentials to the effort.

In 2006, the same year he joined the museum effort, Ellis had been inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame — an honor recognizing 737 victories during a head coaching tenure from 1977-2003 at Grambling. Ellis had also served for 17 seasons as an assistant to Jones, Grambling’s first baseball coach and its second school president. Jones retired with more than 800 wins, as well, many of them with Ellis beside him on the bench.

“‘Prez’ gave me a great opportunity, hiring me as a young coach right out of school,” Ellis said. “I tell you what, when he offered me the job, I never even asked how much I would make. I was working with some of the greatest men in the world — ‘Prez’ and Eddie Robinson.”

Ellis’ teams won three Southwestern Athletic Conference titles and five SWAC West divisional titles, while advancing to a trio of NCAA tournaments.

Even while continuing to coach, Ellis served in a series of administrative roles at Grambling over the years, beginning as assistant athletic director to Robinson in August 1989. He was later promoted to associate athletic director and also served as the university’s interim athletic director from September 1996 to January 1997.

“It was Grambling and I loved that university,” Ellis said. “Grambling just had such a great impact on my life.”

One of Ellis’ proudest moments at GSU came late in his career, when he oversaw the opening a new baseball stadium. That precipitated the first night game ever played on campus, as Grambling swept the Texas College Steers on Feb. 13, 2003. Ellis also played host to the New York Yankees in exhibition games on campus in 1979, 1989 and 1996.

A native of Ruston, Ellis holds a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Grambling, earned in 1959, and a master’s degree from Kansas State University.

Ellis retired as the 40th all-time winningest baseball coach in Division I history. He has since worked as NCAA coordinator for regional and super regional tournaments, and served on the NCAA Rules Committee for baseball, before joining the Robinson Museum project nearly four years ago.

On Saturday, there were times where he could only shake his head in delight. The words, at times, wouldn’t come. But Ellis was among friends again. He said he could sense them right there beside him.

“Eddie Robinson was so humble in what he would do; he never talked about his own accomplishments,” Ellis said, then widened his focus to include Jones and the other Grambling mentors he’d worked with.

“Once they touched a youngster’s life, they were concerned about him more off the field than on,” he said. “They were preparing them to represent our community. All of that rubbed off on me. Outside of my mom and dad, they had the most impact on my life.”
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About Robinson
Eddie Robinson was hired as a coach and teacher in 1941 by what was then the Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute, which would later become Grambling. By 1995, he had become the first coach to win 400 games. Robinson eventually amassed 408 victories before retiring in 1997, a still-standing NCAA Division I record. A member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, he led Grambling to 17 Southwestern Athletic Conference titles.
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