Dan Lanning pays tribute to passing of John Robinson

While the late John Robinson is most synonymous with USC, the program he led to a national title as a head coach, he got his start coaching the Pacific Northwest. So it was apt that Oregon head coach Dan Lanning took a moment to pay his respects to Robinson on Monday after news broke he had died.

Robinson, along with starting his coaching career at Oregon, played for the Ducks as an undergraduate and was on the 1958 Rose Bowl team. So when USC announced his death, the reverberations were certainly felt in Eugene.

“Want to start off by acknowledging a legend passing in the game and always sad to see somebody leave that meant so much to our sport and John Robinson, want to recognize him,” Lanning said during his Monday press conference. “Obviously legendary coach but got his start right here with the Ducks and I’m thinking about him and his family. Our entire organization is tonight.”

After finishing his playing career in Eugene, Robinson quickly joined the Ducks’ staff, working as an assistant from 1960-71 before the Southern California native took an assistant job at USC.

There were three different stints with USC throughout his career. Before taking over as the head coach in 1976, he was the offensive coordinator from 1972-1974. A one-year stop with the Oakland Raiders took place as the running back’s coach.

Robinson left USC to be the Los Angeles Rams head coach in 1983 and stayed in the NFL for eight years. The Trojans welcomed him back for five seasons beginning in 1993. In total, Robinson won five Pac-8/Pac-10 titles along with four Rose Bowls.

He was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 2003. USC is a program with a storied history with the Rose Bowl and Robinson was certainly one of their best coaches in the game.

The last coaching stop Robinson made was in Las Vegas with the UNLV Rebels. Staying out West, Robinson coached in the Sin City for six years. However, there was just one winning season but it was a successful one, getting a Las Vegas Bowl victory in 2000 — being UNLV’s third-ever bowl game at the time.

USC’s statement mentioned Robinson passing away in Baton Rouge. His final coaching job was with LSU under head coach Ed Orgeron, serving as a senior consultant to the team. Robinson began his time with the Tigers in 2019 — a national championship-winning one — and ended in 2021, the same season Orgeron was fired.

“After coaching, he did analysis on college football national radio broadcasts and was a development officer with the USC athletic department,” USC’s statement said. “He also served as a senior consultant with the LSU football program when the Tigers won the national title in 2019.”

Robinson is survived by his wife, Beverly, along with four children (daughters Terry Medina and Lynne Sierra and sons David and Chris), two stepchildren (Jennifer Bohle and Jeffrey Ezell), and 10 grandchildren (Raimond, Reanne, Andrew, Matthew, Jeremy, Ryan, Jason, Pierce, Preston and Evangeline).