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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1935-07-25)July 25, 1935 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | November 11, 2024(2024-11-11) (aged 89) Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Career information | |
| High school | Junípero Serra (San Mateo, California) |
| College | Oregon |
| Career history | |
Coaching | |
| |
Operations | |
| |
| Awards and highlights | |
As head coach:
As assistant coach:
| |
| Head coaching record | |
| Regular season | 75–68 (.524) (NFL) 132–77–4 (.629) (college) |
| Postseason | 4–6 (.400) |
| Career | 79–74 (.516) (NFL) 140–78–4 (.640) (college) |
| Coaching profile atPro Football Reference | |
John Alexander Robinson (July 25, 1935 – November 11, 2024) was an Americanfootball coach best known for his two stints ashead coach of theUSC Trojans and for his tenure as the head coach for theLos Angeles Rams of theNational Football League (NFL) from 1983 to 1991. Robinson's USC teams won fourRose Bowls and captured a share of thenational championship in the1978 season. Robinson is one of the few college football head coaches to havenon-consecutive tenure at the same school. In 2009, he was elected to theCollege Football Hall of Fame.
Robinson was born inChicago on July 25, 1935. He moved toProvo, Utah and then toDaly City, California where he attendedCatholic school with futurePro Football Hall of FamerJohn Madden, at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, graduating in 1950, andJunípero Serra High School graduating in 1954.[1][2][3]
Robinson attended theUniversity of Oregon, where he playedtight end on Oregon's1958 Rose Bowl team.
Robinson began his coaching career at theUniversity of Oregon, hisalma mater, where he served as an assistant coach underLen Casanova andJerry Frei from1960 to1971.
Robinson then served as USC'soffensive coordinator from1972 to1974 under head coachJohn McKay, who had been an assistant coach at Oregon when Robinson played there. During this three-year stretch, the Trojans went 31–3–2, winning three Pac-8 Conference titles and appearing in three Rose Bowls (winning two of them) with a pair of national championships.
Robinson left USC to serve as theOakland Raiders' running backs coach in1975, reuniting with Madden. That season, the Raiders went 11–3 and reached theAFC Championship Game, where they lost 16–10 to thePittsburgh Steelers.
In 1976, when John McKay left USC to coach theTampa Bay Buccaneers, Robinson was named to succeed him. Robinson would coach at USC from1976 to1982, during which he led the Trojans to three conference titles and five bowl games. He won the Rose Bowl in the 1976, 1978, and 1979 seasons, finishing #2 in the AP Poll all three years; USC also earned a Coaches' Poll national championship in 1978. Following the1982 season, Robinson stepped down as head coach with a record of 67–14–2 over seven seasons.
Hired to replaceRay Malavasi prior to the1983 NFL season, Robinson is considered one of the more successful coaches in Rams history, leading the franchise to the playoffs in six of his first seven seasons and twice reaching theNFC Championship Game. Both of those contests ended in defeat against eventualSuper Bowl champions, the1985 Chicago Bears and the1989 San Francisco 49ers. Robinson's tenure as Rams coach was made more difficult by the fact that the Rams played in the same division as the 49ers, the dominant team of the 1980s (the only time he won theNFC West title during his tenure was1985). However, he had great success in importing his trademark running game after using the No. 2 overall pick in the1983 NFL draft to draftrunning backEric Dickerson. In just over four seasons with the Rams, Dickerson ran for 7,245 yards and led the league in rushing three times, with his1984 total of 2,105 yards still an NFL record going into2026. After Dickerson was traded midway through the1987 season, Robinson's Rams still had the league's rushing leader inCharles White, whileGreg Bell continued Robinson's running tradition with back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons in1988 and1989. Additionally, Robinson introduced to the league a group of highly respected assistant coaches, includingNorv Turner,Hudson Houck, andGil Haskell, all of whom would go on to have long and productive NFL coaching careers.
Following the Rams' 30–3 loss in the 1989 NFC Championship Game, the Rams franchise went into decline. After a 5–11 season in1990 and a 3–13 mark in1991, Robinson was fired by the Rams, though his 79 career victories remained the most in franchise history untilSean McVay surpassed him in 2024.
After spending several seasons in radio and television broadcasting, Robinson returned to the sidelines in 1993 withUSC. In his second stint with the Trojans, the team won three straight bowl games, including the 1996 Rose Bowl. Though Robinson never finished with a losing season at USC, his mark of 37–21–2 (including a 3–6–1 mark against traditional rivalsNotre Dame andUCLA in his second stint) led to tension by the1997 season; in 1996 and 1997, he won just twelve of 23 games combined.
Robinson was at odds with athletic directorMike Garrett. On December 17, 1997, through an answering machine, he was informed that he was fired; and he was replaced byPaul Hackett.[4][5]
Two years later, Robinson was hired to coach football at theUniversity of Nevada, Las Vegas. Robinson won his first two games in1999, the second win was againstBaylor where the Rebels won despite entering the game's final play down by three points and not possessing the ball; the Rebels finished 3–8 in Robinson's first year. The Rebels rebounded to win eight games in2000, including a 31–14 victory overArkansas in theLas Vegas Bowl, Robinson's only bowl appearance with the Rebels. In2002, Robinson was chosen as the university'sathletic director, but he stepped down from that position a year later to concentrate on the coaching. In 2003, he was inducted into theRose Bowl Hall of Fame.[6] Despite being relieved of duty as athletic director, he resigned after going 2–9 in his final season in2004.
In 2010, Robinson returned to coaching as adefensive coordinator atSan Marcos High School inSan Marcos, California, having never before coached at the high school level.[7] With Robinson's assistance, the Knights went 4–7 and reached the CIF-San Diego Section football playoffs.
In July 2019, Robinson joined theLSU football program as a senior consultant to head coachEd Orgeron.[8] He remained in that position through the2021 season.
Robinson began a three-decade long association withSports USA Radio Network in 1998 and as of January 2018 served as acolor analyst for the network.[9] He was a board member for theLott IMPACT Trophy, which is named afterPro Football Hall of Fame defensive backRonnie Lott and is awarded annually to college football's Defensive IMPACT Player of the Year.[10]
His son, David Robinson, is a defensive coordinator for theFullerton College Hornets football program. He had played on Fullerton's 1983 national title team. David worked for his father as an assistant coach, working in six bowl games, most notably the1995 Cotton Bowl and1996 Rose Bowl.[11]
Robinson later resided inEncinitas, California. He died from complications of pneumonia inBaton Rouge, Louisiana, on November 11, 2024, at the age of 89.[12]
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | Coaches# | AP° | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USC Trojans(Pacific-8/Pacific-10 Conference)(1976–1982) | |||||||||
| 1976 | USC | 11–1 | 7–0 | 1st | WRose | 2 | 2 | ||
| 1977 | USC | 8–4 | 5–2 | T–2nd | WAstro-Bluebonnet | 12 | 13 | ||
| 1978 | USC | 12–1 | 6–1 | 1st | WRose | 1 | 2 | ||
| 1979 | USC | 11–0–1 | 6–0–1 | 1st | WRose | 2 | 2 | ||
| 1980 | USC | 8–2–1 | 4–2–1 | 3rd | 12 | 11 | |||
| 1981 | USC | 9–3 | 5–2 | T–2nd | LFiesta | 13 | 14 | ||
| 1982 | USC | 8–3 | 5–2 | T–3rd | 15 | ||||
| USC Trojans(Pacific-10 Conference)(1993–1997) | |||||||||
| 1993 | USC | 8–5 | 6–2 | T–1st | WFreedom | 25 | |||
| 1994 | USC | 8–3–1 | 6–2 | T–2nd | WCotton† | 15 | 13 | ||
| 1995 | USC | 9–2–1 | 6–1–1 | T–1st | WRose | 11 | 12 | ||
| 1996 | USC | 6–6 | 3–5 | T–5th | |||||
| 1997 | USC | 6–5 | 4–4 | T–5th | |||||
| USC: | 104–35–4 | 63–23–3 | |||||||
| UNLV Rebels(Mountain West Conference)(1999–2004) | |||||||||
| 1999 | UNLV | 3–8 | 1–6 | 8th | |||||
| 2000 | UNLV | 8–5 | 4–3 | 3rd | WLas Vegas | ||||
| 2001 | UNLV | 4–7 | 3–4 | T–5th | |||||
| 2002 | UNLV | 5–7 | 3–4 | T–5th | |||||
| 2003 | UNLV | 6–6 | 2–5 | T–7th | |||||
| 2004 | UNLV | 2–9 | 1–6 | 8th | |||||
| UNLV: | 28–42 | 14–28 | |||||||
| Total: | 132–77–4 | ||||||||
| National championship Conference title Conference division title or championship game berth | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Team | Year | Regular season | Post season | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Won | Lost | Ties | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
| LA | 1983 | 9 | 7 | 0 | .563 | 2nd in NFC West | 1 | 1 | .500 | Lost toWashington Redskins inDivisional Game. |
| LA | 1984 | 10 | 6 | 0 | .625 | 2nd in NFC West | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost toNew York Giants inWild Card Game. |
| LA | 1985 | 11 | 5 | 0 | .688 | 1st in NFC West | 1 | 1 | .500 | Lost toChicago Bears inNFC Championship. |
| LA | 1986 | 10 | 6 | 0 | .625 | 2nd in NFC West | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost toWashington Redskins inWild Card Game. |
| LA | 1987 | 6 | 9 | 0 | .400 | 3rd in NFC West | – | – | – | – |
| LA | 1988 | 10 | 6 | 0 | .625 | 2nd in NFC West | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost toMinnesota Vikings inWild Card Game. |
| LA | 1989 | 11 | 5 | 0 | .688 | 2nd in NFC West | 2 | 1 | .667 | Lost toSan Francisco 49ers inNFC Championship. |
| LA | 1990 | 5 | 11 | 0 | .313 | 3rd in NFC West | – | – | – | – |
| LA | 1991 | 3 | 13 | 0 | .188 | 4th in NFC West | – | – | – | – |
| LA Total | 75 | 68 | 0 | .524 | 4 | 6 | .400 | |||
| Total | 75 | 68 | 0 | .524 | 4 | 6 | .400 | |||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
