‘Will the FIRST’ – the saga of Detroit’s late sports/civil rights pioneer WILL ROBINSON (DetroitINK Publishing, 2015)- is being re-released now in time for Christmas. It’s available at Amazon Books (type in Dr. John Telford)–or, to obtain a copy signed by author Telford, call (313) 460-8272. Telford and Robinson coached champions together at Pershing in the 1960s–Telford in track and Robinson in basketball. Both men were NCAA All-Americans–Telford in track at WSU and Robinson in football at West Virginia State. An All-State high school quarterback who lettered in five sports in Steubenville, Ohio, Robinson became the first African-American athletic coach in Michigan when he took over the basketball,, football, and swimming reins at Detroit Miller High in old Black Bottom, where star players Sammy Gee and Charley “King Snake” Primas sparked Miller’s ‘Trojans’ to four city basketball titles under Coach Robinson. Will went on to coach successfully at Cass Tech and Pershing, where his teams starring Spencer Hayood, Ralph Simpson, and later ‘Bubbles’ Hawkins won state championships.
Will then became the first African-American coach in NCAA Division One. His ‘Red Birds’ at Illinois State had five consecutive winning seasons in Normal, Illinois, where local wags started calling them the ‘Black Birds’ due to Will’s proclivity for bringing in players from Detroit and Chicago, where he had once coached at that city’s DuSable High. During those years, Will had also scouted part-time for the Detroit Lions, bringing in “Night Train” Lane, Lem Barney, and other standouts. He concluded his distinguished career scouting and then administrating for the Detroit Pistons well into his nineties. His Piston proteges included Isiah Thomas andJoe Dumars, who was quoted as saying, “Will was a legend–one of a kind.” Coach Robinson sent 300 athletes to college on grants-in-aid and thirty to the pro’s.
Says Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan: “The Will Robinson story is a saga of national significance.” U.S. Army Col. Aaron Gordon, a Miller track star whom Robinson mentored, declares, ” Dr. John Telford has captured the essence of a great American human-rights pioneer and his life and times in this landmark book.” .
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