John Robinson was cut from the Pulaski Heights Junior High School basketball team in the early 1950s, which led him to hone his jump shot to a level where he wouldn’t get cut again.
Robinson eventually made the team at Central High School and went on to become the University of Central Arkansas’ sixth all-time leading scorer before becoming a successful high school coach in Texas and Arkansas.
Robinson, who scored 1,551 points from 1957-1961 at UCA and won 608 games as a high school coach, died Thursday night at his home in Cabot after a long illness, his family said. He was 74.
“John was perhaps the toughest competitor I’ve ever had the opportunity to know,” said Mike McGibony, who went to Central with Robinson and lives in Hot Springs.
McGibony said being cut from the team at Pulaski Heights was what stoked Robinson’s competitive fire the most. McGibony remembered seeing Robinson shooting baskets outside of Our Lady of the Holy Souls Catholic School in Little Rock, no matter the weather.
“It would be pouring rain and there would be puddles on the concrete, and he would be out there by himself shooting,” McGibony said. “John made himself into a great shooter. That’s what he was all of his life, a great shooter.”
Robinson went from Little Rock Central to Arkansas State Teacher’s College in Conway, now UCA. He helped the Bears win the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference title in 1959 and reach the NAIA national tournament in 1959 and 1961.
His career scoring average of 18.2 points per game is UCA’s sixth-best. The 22.3 points per game he averaged in 1959-1960 is still UCA’s eighth-highest, and he was inducted into the UCA Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.
He spent more than two decades coaching basketball at Corning, Jefferson Davis Junior High School in North Little Rock, Scott, three high schools in Texas, at Blytheville and Mills.
Before coaching at Mills, he was an assistant to Memphis State Coach Wayne Yates from 1976-1979, helping the Tigers to a 20-9 season and an NIT appearance in 1977.
Robinson had the same fire as a coach, McGibony said, as he did as a player, when he earned the nickname “The Spotter” for his shooting prowess.
“He was demanding,” McGibony said. “He was a disciplinarian, and he demanded the best out of every one of them.”
Robinson spent seven years working in administration at Cabot High School after compiling a 608-110 coaching record that included two state championships and 12 conference championships.
He is survived by his wife, Kristie; children Sherri, John Robinson Jr. and Lisa Robinson; brother Roger Robinson, sister Roberta Robinson; five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Sports, Pages 25 on 02/08/2014