DRIVE FOR MUSEUM GETS CLOSER TO REALITY

BY TED LEWIS
TIMES-PICAYUNE
NOVEMBER 21, 2007

GRAMBLING -- A few months before his death, a hospitalized Eddie Robinson received a visit from Wilbert Ellis, Grambling's former baseball coach and Robinson's longtime close friend, along with Ellis' grandson Dee.

"It was one of his good days," Ellis recalled. "He had some apple pie and ice cream and hugged Dee, telling him how he knew he was going to be a football player."

The conversation, mostly one-sided because Robinson was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, eventually came around to the Eddie G. Robinson Museum, which had languished since its authorization by the Legislature in 1999. But Ellis, as president of the Friends of the Eddie Robinson Museum, was pushing to get it back on track.

"I told him that if there was one thing I was ever going to do, (it) was to get that museum built," Ellis said. "He grabbed my hand and squeezed it hard -- he still had that Robinson grip. And he said, 'Damn, boy. You are going to do it.' "

Increasingly, it's looking like Ellis' vow will come true.

Next month, the State Bond Commission will act on a request for a $1.3 million line of credit to begin renovation on a building used as the women's gymnasium on Grambling's campus to house the museum. An additional $300,000 has been approved for planning and to hire an architect.

If all goes well, the museum could open by mid-2009. The museum will be 8,000 square feet -- larger than the Bear Bryant Museum in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

"This is at the top of my museum priorities," said Secretary of State Jay Dardenne, under whose office the museum will function. "Eddie Robinson is one of Louisiana's real heroes. This should have been done earlier. But now we're going to get it completed and get it done right."

Robinson's death last April proved to be the impetus to get the ball rolling for the museum.
Although the Legislature had authorized a commission to oversee the museum and authorized $600,000 for the project with another $3.9 promised by 2004, little was getting done other than the accumulation of two truckloads of memorabilia by the Louisiana State Archives.

But the museum project became part of nearly $700 million in budget cuts made by Gov. Kathleen Blanco after Hurricane Katrina, but Ellis and commission members John Belton, a Ruston attorney, and James Davidson, a wealthy Ruston businessman, kept the project alive.

"We were kind of stumbling along," Davidson said. "And when you're dealing with the state, everything works a little slower than you'd like it to be."

Dardenne, speaking at Robinson's funeral, told the crowd of more than 5,000 in the Grambling Assembly Center that the opportunity was there to pay tribute to the late coach by making a reality of the museum.

Several former Grambling players in attendance for the funeral plus others such as New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner pledged money for the operation of the museum, which will have two state-paid employees but otherwise must be funded locally.

Ellis has been working toward raising the $3 million he estimates it will take to keep the museum going once it is open.

The museum will have several items familiar to those who knew Robinson: the army hat he usually wore during practice, his ever-present briefcase and even a replica of his office.
Objects donated by players -- such as the late Ernie Ladd's size 22 shoes -- already have been accumulated, along with bleachers from the soon-to-be-demolished Memorial Stadium, Grambling's football home.

There will be more modern amenities as well, such as films of Robinson interviews and Grambling games plus a lecture room for visiting speakers.

"It's a great honor for the family," Eddie Robinson Jr. said. "You really get the feeling that everyone wants it to be done right."

That's Ellis' top desire as well.

He remembers well that night in the hospital with Robinson.

"When I was getting ready to leave, we embraced," he said. "Eddie used to say the first person to cry was a sissy, but then he'd go ahead and cry.

"Well, we were both sissies that night."