Sports Poets Society

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/sports/30robinson.html By Bruce Weber   The New York Times - April 30, 2008 Will Robinson, who broke racial barriers as a college basketball coach, discovered talented players as a scout for both professional basketball and football teams, and was an influential figure in both interscholastic and professional sports in Detroit, his hometown, died there Monday. He was 96. The cause was complications of pneumonia, his granddaughter Leah Robinson said. It was in 1970, four years after the landmark championship game that ushered in the era of integration in college basketball - Texas Western, with five black starting players, defeating the University of Kentucky and its entirely white roster - that Mr. Robinson was hired as head coach at Illinois State University . He became the first black man to hold a head-coaching post in Division I, the top competitive tier of the N.C.A.A. Mr. Robinson spent five years at Illinois State and never presided over...

https://www.nba.com/pistons/news/blaha_blog_080501.html by George Blaha May 1, 200812:08 PM EDT Thursday, May 1, 2008 Long before I went to work as the voice of the Pistons, I had heard of Will Robinson, the great basketball coach and even better man who spent almost 30 years as a most valued set of eyes for first Jack McCloskey and eventually for Joe Dumars . Will died the other day, as you’ve no doubt heard by now, and it leaves a tremendous hole in not only the Pistons’ organization but in the basketball community and, beyond that, in the world at large. I had heard of Will Robinson going all the way back to my college days. In my grad school days in the late ’60s, he really put some great teams on the floor at Detroit Pershing. That squad won his first state championship and had Spencer Haywood and Ralph Simpson and was arguably the gr eatest high school team in history, to this day . I’d like to see that Pershing team, with all that talent and coached by a guy with the razor-sha...

Former Pistons' star Isaiah Thomas (left) honors Will Robinson at a Pistons game. Mr. Robinson was the first black coach in Division I college basketball.  (Detroit Pistons via ap/file 2005) http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2008/04/29/will_robinson_basketball_pioneer_as_coach_scout/ By Larry Lage Associated Press / April 29, 2008 AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - Will Robinson, the first black basketball coach at a Division I school and a Detroit Pistons scout who discovered Joe Dumars and Dennis Rodman, died yesterday at a Detroit hospital. He was 96. Mr. Robinson had been in a nursing home for about a year, said Matt Dobek, a Pistons' spokesman. Mr. Robinson broke a racial barrier in the 1970s when he coached Illinois State . He joined the Pistons as a scout in 1976, and the additions of Dumars and Rodman were keys to Detroit's 1989 and 1990 NBA championships . Those teams were coached by Chuck Daly, who took the job after Mr. Robinson declined an offer by fo...

NBA legends Bob Lanier, Will Robinson, Earl Lloyd and Dave Bing pose for a picture during half time of the game between the Detroit Pistons and the Orlando Magic in Game two of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals during the 2003 NBA Playoffs at The Palace of Auburn Hills on April 23, 2003 in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The Pistons won 89-77. https://vault.si.com/vault/2001/11/19/this-bird-dog-still-hunts-detroit-pistons-scout-will-robinson-90-thinks-hes-way-too-young-to-retire NOVEMBER 19, 2001 MARTY BURNS ORIGINAL LAYOUT At an age when many of his contemporaries are pushing up daisies , Will Robinson is still beating the bushes . " Indianapolis, Toledo, East Lansing ," the spry 90-year-old says with a chuckle, listing his next scouting itinerary for the Detroit Pistons. "Looks like it's going to be a light week." Hopscotching the country in search of college talent might leave another nonagenarian lost in space, but not Will Robinson. Every few days he packs his ...

WILLIAM J. ROBINSON CLASS 1937 INDUCTION 1981 SPORT(S) Football, Baseball, Basketball, Gymnastics Publication: CHARLESTON DAILY MAIL Published: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 Page: 1B Byline: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - Will Robinson, a West Virginia State alumnus and the first black basketball coach at a Division I school , died Monday. He was 96. Robinson was the Detroit Pistons scout who discovered Joe Dumars and Dennis Rodman. Born in Wadesboro, N.C., Robinson quarterbacked the Steubenville (Ohio) High football team and finished second in the state high school golf tournament despite not being allowed to play the course at the same time as whites. He won 15 letters in four sports at West Virginia State, where he graduated in 1937. Robinson was inducted into the Institute school's Sports Hall of Fame in 1981. Robinson died at a Detroit hospital, Pistons spokesman Matt Dobek said. Robinson had been sick for 15 months and in a nursing home for more than a year, Dobek added...

Spencer Haywood, Ralph Simpson, and Will Robinson. https://michiganpreps.rivals.com/news/the-forgotten-detroit-pershing-basketball-team-of-1967 Branden Hunter Senior writer Detroit was not a pleasant place to be during the last week of July in 1967 . For four days, citizens of Detroit rioted, a civil unrest that infamously became known as the 12 street riot. The 1967 Detroit riot was one of the most violent, destructive, and deadliest riots in the nation's history . It set a thriving city back decades, both racially and economically . The aftermath of the event can still be felt today, scars in the form of abandoned homes, buildings, and businesses , representing the wounds from 50 years ago.  But contrary to belief, not everything was bad in Detroit that year. The riot was such an important part of Detroit's history, that it often overshadows the Pershing High School basketball team that year, which lost one time all season . The Doughboys - which mi...