HOF Feature: Johnny Robinson
10/2/2026 8:04:00 AM | Football, General
‘Johnny Rob’ tackles his way into Tech’s Hall of Fame
With an athletic, freakish frame, an uncommon combo of quickness and speed, a boyish love of the game but deadly focus to win, and despite a bum ankle he kept secret until it just wouldn't work anymore, Johnny Robinson happily tackled his way into the Louisiana Tech Athletics Hall of Fame, Class of 2026.
Tackled, and tackled, and tackled some more.
Johnny Tackle.
From 1977-80 along Tech's defensive line, Johnny Dean Robinson was a 6-2, 252-pound Seek-and-Destroy Toy.
While it's been 40 years since "Johnny Rob" laced 'em up, the name of the defensive game is still tackling. Find ball, tackle ball. Simple as falling off a porch. As a defensive lineman who hit like a linebacker and moved like a safety, Johnny majored in it.
Proof? Glad you asked. Although numbers never tell the whole story, they do help introduce you to the football player.
Coming off a prep All-America season for Ruston High, Johnny had 29 tackles and four sacks as a freshman defensive end at Tech, then followed that with a 70-tackle, 12-sack season as a sophomore, plus seven tackles for loss.
Tech needed him to play defensive tackle as a junior. New position. More crowded. Less tackles, right?
Negative. He earned Defensive Player of the Year in the Southland Conference with 138 tackles (NOT a typo), 13 sacks and 11 tackles for loss, a bright spot in a 2-9 season. (By comparison, Tech star tackle and third-round pick Milt Williams, who has since won a Super Bowl with Philadelphia and now plays for New England, was nothing short of dominant when he had 44 tackles in 2020, his final season in Ruston.)
Robinson added another 103 tackles, three sacks, and six tackles for loss in his 1980 senior season, a 5-6 year in which Robinson was, again, playing his second position and for his third coach — two SLC titles under legendary Maxie Lambright, the forgettable 1979 campaign under rookie head coach Larry Beightol, and the 1980 season under Billy Brewer, who'd help the Bulldogs to the SLC title and playoffs in 1982 before leaving for Ole Miss.
Through the ups and downs, this tackling machine in action was something to see.
Just as he made the All-Rookie team in 1981 with 16 starts for the NFL's Oakland Raiders, Robinson made the All-Louisiana Freshman team in 1977 on his way to becoming one of the most accomplished and dominating defensive players in program history.
Three times he was All-Southland Conference.
Twice his team won the league and played in the Independence Bowl.
He earned his spot on Tech's 100-Year Anniversary Team and on its Top 50 Players in Aillet Stadium History Team.
And in 1983, his third season in Oakland, he helped the Raiders smear Washington, 38-9, to win Super Bowl XVIII.
In career tackles at Tech, Robinson is 10th with 340. The other nine spots are all linebackers, basically a team's "designated tacklers," except for NFL Hall of Fame defensive end/tackle Fred Dean (1971-74), and safeties Bobby Gray (1998-01) and Antonio Baker (2006-09).
In single season tackles, Robinson is seventh — those 138 stops in 1979 — and the other nine spots in the Top 10 are, not surprisingly, linebackers.
Somehow, in a position that's designed to take on blockers and plug gaps and rush the quarterback, Robinson was all over the field tackling the ball.
But it wasn't just the tackling. It was the way he tackled, the mix of grace and beauty and ferociousness Robinson brought to the craft. Sometimes he seemed to swallow ball carriers. Others he tackled as if they were sandcastles. Some he brought down by arriving on the scene out of nowhere, zipping in and out, like a little old wooded man popping out of a Swiss cuckoo clock or a chameleon snatching a fly.
And then sometimes, he seemed to grab four or five guys and throw different ones out until he found the one with the ball.
It was something to see, Johnny Rob playing defense.
Current assistant A.D. Ed Jackson, who teamed with Robinson at defensive end and would also play pro football before beginning a long coaching and administrative career at Tech, can offer an exact scouting report on why his teammate was so good, having
seen it so up-close that the two would often hit each other as they were hitting the quarterback.
"He was naturally strong," Jackson said, "he was fast, he could close on the ball … and he was mean."
"His lateral movement outside is his biggest asset," Mickey Merritt, who coached Robinson both at Ruston High and Tech, said. "And he has good strength. That always helps."
The first meeting between the two, Merritt and Robinson, was brief. A meeting of the defensive minds.
"We need an end," Merritt said to the tenth-grader.
"I'm a tackle," Robinson said.
"I'll teach you everything you need to know to survive as an end," Merritt said. "From this hashmark to the sideline, that's yours. Don't let anybody in, and don't let anybody out. Pursue and contain."
Match made in football heaven.
"Coach (Pat) Collins (Tech's defensive coordinator) and Coach Merritt had the same playbook," Robinson said. "All this (hash to sideline) is my territory. No one in, no one out. If not for those two, I wouldn't be sitting here now talking about the Hall of Fame."
Beightol, who came to Tech after serving as an assistant at Arkansas under legendary Lou Holtz, was a disaster as a head coach. But he spent the next 22 years coaching offensive linemen as an assistant with eight NFL teams and in 1979 knew a great player when he saw one, having been around the old Southwest Conference block a time or two.
"I've seen and coached a lot of good football players the past 10 to 12 years, and I still don't think I've been around one better than Johnny," Beightol said that long-ago autumn. "He's something special. There is no doubt that he could be starting for any team in the country."
"You're talking about a player with great pursuit, great fight for the ball," said the Raiders defensive line coach Earl Leggett of Robinson the rookie. Note that Leggett, who died in 2008 at age 75, was an All-SEC lineman at LSU, a member of the "Monsters of the Midway" 1963 NFL champion Bears, and coached Lyle Alzado, Howie Long, John Matuszak, and "Hit 'Em In The Head" Ted Hendricks, along with other Oakland greats. Guy knew defense.
"Johnny's quick, intense — just has all the things you want to see in a defensive lineman," Leggett said.
Beyond the natural talent — he also scored points for the Tech track team in the discus and shot — Robinson played with an undercurrent of joy that gave him an extra gear. He wasn't "mean" so much as he just loved to play, had ever since he was outside with the kids in his neighborhood, the same neighborhood where Fred Dean grew up, not three miles from Joe Aillet Stadium, the same place he lives today.
"On rock roads, dirt roads, in the yard, the street, anywhere," Robinson said of his playgrounds. "That's all we knew. Basketball. Running track. There was always some kind of competition going on. I loved it all. Coach Merritt told me, 'If you ever get mean, won't nobody be able to handle you.'"
Maybe he was, for him, just mean enough.
"The most fun thing to me," he said before his sensational junior season, "is getting down in my stance, seeing the ball handed off to the back, and going to get him.
"Right after the ball is snapped, to see it handed off to a back who is coming in my direction … I really enjoy what happens next."
Life for ballcarriers became a little more pleasant when a broken foot, the delayed but maybe inevitable result of a broken promise years before, ended Robinson's career.
Years ago, his mother told her just-turned-teen not to ride his bicycle after an ice storm.
"I disobeyed her order," he said, "and dislocated by right ankle. Hit the biggest pine tree in north Louisiana. The doctor said it would never be the same."
He protected it playing at the line of scrimmage with his bad ankle closest to the sideline, but the traffic was heavier when Oakland moved him as a rookie to nose tackle. Plus, the ankle kept growing older.
After three seasons, the day came. Too much damage. Career ender.
"Every step I take, when I feel this pain, I think about my momma," Robinson said. "I was lucky to get from disobedience to a blessing; not everybody gets that mercy and grace. I was able to play high school, college, and pro ball on it. My last game was the Super Bowl (January 1984).
"It all started here, with my teammates," he said. "Some great athletes have come through Tech, and I'm still on the list. Thank the Lord."
Tackled, and tackled, and tackled some more.
Johnny Tackle.
From 1977-80 along Tech's defensive line, Johnny Dean Robinson was a 6-2, 252-pound Seek-and-Destroy Toy.
While it's been 40 years since "Johnny Rob" laced 'em up, the name of the defensive game is still tackling. Find ball, tackle ball. Simple as falling off a porch. As a defensive lineman who hit like a linebacker and moved like a safety, Johnny majored in it.
Proof? Glad you asked. Although numbers never tell the whole story, they do help introduce you to the football player.
Coming off a prep All-America season for Ruston High, Johnny had 29 tackles and four sacks as a freshman defensive end at Tech, then followed that with a 70-tackle, 12-sack season as a sophomore, plus seven tackles for loss.
Tech needed him to play defensive tackle as a junior. New position. More crowded. Less tackles, right?
Negative. He earned Defensive Player of the Year in the Southland Conference with 138 tackles (NOT a typo), 13 sacks and 11 tackles for loss, a bright spot in a 2-9 season. (By comparison, Tech star tackle and third-round pick Milt Williams, who has since won a Super Bowl with Philadelphia and now plays for New England, was nothing short of dominant when he had 44 tackles in 2020, his final season in Ruston.)
Robinson added another 103 tackles, three sacks, and six tackles for loss in his 1980 senior season, a 5-6 year in which Robinson was, again, playing his second position and for his third coach — two SLC titles under legendary Maxie Lambright, the forgettable 1979 campaign under rookie head coach Larry Beightol, and the 1980 season under Billy Brewer, who'd help the Bulldogs to the SLC title and playoffs in 1982 before leaving for Ole Miss.
Through the ups and downs, this tackling machine in action was something to see.
Just as he made the All-Rookie team in 1981 with 16 starts for the NFL's Oakland Raiders, Robinson made the All-Louisiana Freshman team in 1977 on his way to becoming one of the most accomplished and dominating defensive players in program history.
Three times he was All-Southland Conference.
Twice his team won the league and played in the Independence Bowl.
He earned his spot on Tech's 100-Year Anniversary Team and on its Top 50 Players in Aillet Stadium History Team.
And in 1983, his third season in Oakland, he helped the Raiders smear Washington, 38-9, to win Super Bowl XVIII.
In career tackles at Tech, Robinson is 10th with 340. The other nine spots are all linebackers, basically a team's "designated tacklers," except for NFL Hall of Fame defensive end/tackle Fred Dean (1971-74), and safeties Bobby Gray (1998-01) and Antonio Baker (2006-09).
In single season tackles, Robinson is seventh — those 138 stops in 1979 — and the other nine spots in the Top 10 are, not surprisingly, linebackers.
Somehow, in a position that's designed to take on blockers and plug gaps and rush the quarterback, Robinson was all over the field tackling the ball.
But it wasn't just the tackling. It was the way he tackled, the mix of grace and beauty and ferociousness Robinson brought to the craft. Sometimes he seemed to swallow ball carriers. Others he tackled as if they were sandcastles. Some he brought down by arriving on the scene out of nowhere, zipping in and out, like a little old wooded man popping out of a Swiss cuckoo clock or a chameleon snatching a fly.
And then sometimes, he seemed to grab four or five guys and throw different ones out until he found the one with the ball.
It was something to see, Johnny Rob playing defense.
Current assistant A.D. Ed Jackson, who teamed with Robinson at defensive end and would also play pro football before beginning a long coaching and administrative career at Tech, can offer an exact scouting report on why his teammate was so good, having
seen it so up-close that the two would often hit each other as they were hitting the quarterback.
"He was naturally strong," Jackson said, "he was fast, he could close on the ball … and he was mean."
"His lateral movement outside is his biggest asset," Mickey Merritt, who coached Robinson both at Ruston High and Tech, said. "And he has good strength. That always helps."
The first meeting between the two, Merritt and Robinson, was brief. A meeting of the defensive minds.
"We need an end," Merritt said to the tenth-grader.
"I'm a tackle," Robinson said.
"I'll teach you everything you need to know to survive as an end," Merritt said. "From this hashmark to the sideline, that's yours. Don't let anybody in, and don't let anybody out. Pursue and contain."
Match made in football heaven.
"Coach (Pat) Collins (Tech's defensive coordinator) and Coach Merritt had the same playbook," Robinson said. "All this (hash to sideline) is my territory. No one in, no one out. If not for those two, I wouldn't be sitting here now talking about the Hall of Fame."
Beightol, who came to Tech after serving as an assistant at Arkansas under legendary Lou Holtz, was a disaster as a head coach. But he spent the next 22 years coaching offensive linemen as an assistant with eight NFL teams and in 1979 knew a great player when he saw one, having been around the old Southwest Conference block a time or two.
"I've seen and coached a lot of good football players the past 10 to 12 years, and I still don't think I've been around one better than Johnny," Beightol said that long-ago autumn. "He's something special. There is no doubt that he could be starting for any team in the country."
"You're talking about a player with great pursuit, great fight for the ball," said the Raiders defensive line coach Earl Leggett of Robinson the rookie. Note that Leggett, who died in 2008 at age 75, was an All-SEC lineman at LSU, a member of the "Monsters of the Midway" 1963 NFL champion Bears, and coached Lyle Alzado, Howie Long, John Matuszak, and "Hit 'Em In The Head" Ted Hendricks, along with other Oakland greats. Guy knew defense.
"Johnny's quick, intense — just has all the things you want to see in a defensive lineman," Leggett said.
Beyond the natural talent — he also scored points for the Tech track team in the discus and shot — Robinson played with an undercurrent of joy that gave him an extra gear. He wasn't "mean" so much as he just loved to play, had ever since he was outside with the kids in his neighborhood, the same neighborhood where Fred Dean grew up, not three miles from Joe Aillet Stadium, the same place he lives today.
"On rock roads, dirt roads, in the yard, the street, anywhere," Robinson said of his playgrounds. "That's all we knew. Basketball. Running track. There was always some kind of competition going on. I loved it all. Coach Merritt told me, 'If you ever get mean, won't nobody be able to handle you.'"
Maybe he was, for him, just mean enough.
"The most fun thing to me," he said before his sensational junior season, "is getting down in my stance, seeing the ball handed off to the back, and going to get him.
"Right after the ball is snapped, to see it handed off to a back who is coming in my direction … I really enjoy what happens next."
Life for ballcarriers became a little more pleasant when a broken foot, the delayed but maybe inevitable result of a broken promise years before, ended Robinson's career.
Years ago, his mother told her just-turned-teen not to ride his bicycle after an ice storm.
"I disobeyed her order," he said, "and dislocated by right ankle. Hit the biggest pine tree in north Louisiana. The doctor said it would never be the same."
He protected it playing at the line of scrimmage with his bad ankle closest to the sideline, but the traffic was heavier when Oakland moved him as a rookie to nose tackle. Plus, the ankle kept growing older.
After three seasons, the day came. Too much damage. Career ender.
"Every step I take, when I feel this pain, I think about my momma," Robinson said. "I was lucky to get from disobedience to a blessing; not everybody gets that mercy and grace. I was able to play high school, college, and pro ball on it. My last game was the Super Bowl (January 1984).
"It all started here, with my teammates," he said. "Some great athletes have come through Tech, and I'm still on the list. Thank the Lord."
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