In 1891, Dr. James Naismith invented a game to keep physical education students active in the winter at what is now Springfield (Mass.) College. Who would have imagined what is now called basketball would become such a phenomenon? Today, some 26 million Americans play the game at all levels — more than any other sport. And basketball ranks fifth in participation worldwide.
Glenn Robinson is the men’s basketball coach of the Diplomats at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., and, like many, learned to play the game as a child. He was a successful high school and college athlete, playing both basketball and baseball at West Chester (Pa.) University. Today, some thousands of games later as a basketball player and coach, he is nearing 50 years at the helm of the F&M team.
Says Mr. Robinson, who has a quiet off-court demeanor: “It has been pretty special. F&M was my first coaching job in 1968 and I certainly didn’t expect to still be here 50 years later, but I am pleased I have. I enjoy what I do and have had some success doing it. ... F&M has become my home away from home.”
To say Mr. Robinson has had “some success” is certainly an understatement. Mr. Robinson is statistically the most successful Division III coach in the nation and, arguably, one of the all-time best. He has stayed longer at one institution than any other active coach in the nation.
With the start of a new season on the horizon — Mr. Robinson’s 49th at F&M — he ranks third in wins among all NCAA coaches with an overall record of 967-360, and he is only one of three college coaches with 900 wins. Mr. Robinson is within sight of guiding his team to 1,000 victories, a feat achieved by just four coaches in the history of the game.
And although F&M’s Mayser Gym may be his second home, Mr. Robinson and wife Kathy have a lovely historic, first home in Peach Bottom, Pa. They renovated a late 1700s farmhouse from the ground up and have lived there for nearly 40 years. The couple both had an interest in historic homes and took on the challenge of breathing new life into their 200-plus-year-old residence. It is an oasis for Mr. Robinson away from his relentless basketball schedule, which seems to get longer each year with recruiting, practices and games that afford him very little summer time off.
Teacher, leader, role model
To get a feel of what Mr. Robinson has achieved and what he brings to the game, you only have to talk to former players, coaches and colleagues whom he has touched along the way.
Mr. Robinson’s predecessor Chuck Taylor (no relation to the famed shoe salesman) retired from F&M in 1991. Taylor spent 36 years as the school’s athletic trainer, and he also coached the men’s basketball team from 1968 to 1971 before Mr. Robinson became head coach. Taylor said he hired Mr. Robinson as an assistant in 1968 and knew immediately he was the right man for the job. “After watching him coach the freshmen for two years,” he said, “I knew he would be an excellent varsity coach.”
One of the highlights of Mr. Robinson’s career came during his first decade with the team, as he coached All-American Donnie Marsh, one of F&M’s all-time great players. At the end of a magical 1978-79 season, in which the team went 27-5, the Diplomats won an emotionally charged home game against Jersey City State 81-72, described by those who were in a packed Mayser Gym as “electric,” as the college advanced to the first of its five NCAA Division III Final Four appearances.
Falling short in the first game, the team rebounded in the consolation game (a now-defunct feature of the tournament), with Mr. Marsh completing two free throws at the end of regulation play to defeat Centre College of Danville, Ky., 66-65, and finish as the nation’s No. 3 team.
The team would build upon this success, going so far as the national championship game in 1991, where the team lost to the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
“It has been exciting for all of us — teams, players and fans — to get to the Final Four five times,” Mr. Robinson says, “and playing in the championship game in 1991 was a testament to our players. They are all great memories, but the first Final Four was truly special.”
Mr. Marsh credits Mr. Robinson for turning him into a better player and shooter. “I was a running guard at Atlantic City (N.J.) High School and scored mostly on layups,” Mr. Marsh recalls. “It was Coach Robinson who tutored me and designed the shooting drills that I worked on for four years that made me a much better scorer and I use [those drills] even today with players.”
Mr. Marsh has spent 34 years as a college head and assistant coach, and calls Mr. Robinson a mentor and friend. Says Mr. Marsh, “I learned discipline and accountability from [Mr. Robinson] and have carried it forward through my years on the bench.” Mr. Marsh calls it “the plan”: “Teach it, practice it, work on it and then have your players be accountable to do it in the game.”
Chris Finch, one of F&M’s 26 All-Americans, was a leader on the 1990-91 team that played for the NCAA Division III national championship. Mr. Finch is currently an associate head coach with the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans. Like Mr. Marsh, he looks back with fondness on his F&M years and playing for Mr. Robinson.
“It is easier to see now from my current position what made Coach so good,” he says. “He was all business. He focused on doing simple things, well. Everything we did in practice was translatable to the game and led to success. He is an excellent teacher in practice and always exhibited excellent in-game management skills.”
Changing with the game
Mr. Robinson has had to adapt to serve significant changes in the game during his decades of coaching. These include the implementation of the shot clock, which started at 45 seconds in 1985 and is now 30 seconds; the inclusion of the three-point shot in 1986, which has become a major part of everyone’s offense; and, more recently, a player’s right to freedom of movement that has made it difficult to employ aggressive man-to-man defenses.
Mr. Robinson has also honed his talents as a recruiter. In basketball, and just about every other college sport, coaching is critical to a team’s success, but without recruiting the best athletes for the program, that success will be elusive. Mr. Robinson has developed the ability to find the players who best fit his program and the style of play that makes the team successful.
To recruit to the fullest in today’s game, on the scale it takes to see players all over the country, it means relying on hardworking assistant coaches, and Mr. Robinson admits he works his assistants hard. But the team’s success, Mr. Robinson says, is a tribute to that work.
Dan Fahringer spent 23 years on the bench as an assistant and recruiter for Mr. Robinson, starting in 1990. “I began watching recruits on VHS tape and ended attending live, high-end basketball exposure events run by The Hoop Group,” he says. Mr. Fahringer explains that as the team remained successful, “Many of Mr. Robinson’s former players were recommending potential student-athletes for us to look at and consider for our program.”
Nick Nichay, a current F&M assistant and chief recruiter, says that continues today. “We have a great story to tell about the college, our current and former players, and our program and its success,” Mr. Nichay says. “I’ve seen and believe that, under Coach Robinson’s tutelage, good players get even better here.”
Mr. Robinson praises Mr. Nichay for his work. The young assistant stepped in as acting coach for 12 games during the past season as Mr. Robinson recovered from a concussion that kept him from practice and games for the first time in decades.
Stats tell the story
Former Lancaster Newspapers sportswriter Gordie Jones covered Mr. Robinson and the F&M team from 1981 to 2003. He points to the coaching and team statistics, which he believes tell the story. Mr. Robinson has the most wins of any Division III coach. His teams have recorded 20-win seasons 26 times; they have made 25 NCAA tournament appearances, including 17 trips to the Sweet Sixteen, 10 to the Elite Eight and five to the Final Four, including the 1991 national championship game.
Ninety F&M players have received all-conference honors during Mr. Robinson’s tenure, and more than two dozen have been All-America selections including, most recently, Brandon Federici in 2018, who is now playing professionally in Europe. And over his near half-century with the team, the graduation rate for his players is almost 100%.
Michael Blymier, F&M’s director of athletic communications, has worked with Mr. Robinson for more than a decade. He has witnessed firsthand the coach’s dedication to the sport and his players. The two have collaborated on a video preview of the season in each of the past several year, explains Mr. Blymier, and Mr. Robinson has delivered the same opening line in each video: “Our goal is the same as it is every year, and that is to play to our potential. What that is, we don’t know yet.”
When the average basketball coaching tenure is under five years and only 1 in 10 Americans stays at the job for 20 years, Mr. Robinson’s tenure with Franklin & Marshall is remarkable. There is no reason to believe the man whose name is synonymous with F&M men’s basketball and its success won’t be on the bench for the foreseeable future. Mr. Robinson’s former players, friends and fellow coaches don’t doubt it.
Art Petrosemolo (apetrose@icloud.com) is a freelance writer and photographer from New Holland, Pa.
First Published: October 13, 2019, 11:00 a.m.
