He Hasn’t Fared Well in His Goodbyes

Happy endings never have been John Robinson’s specialty.

For all his charm and canny talents, Robinson has experienced a peculiar pattern of roaring starts and empty exits, instant rapport with players and public and strangled infighting with his superiors.

He won 183 games as a coach in three tenures, professional and college. He lost 65, 11 in the last two seasons. He battled with bosses John Shaw and Mike Garrett, fired former friends, and got fired this week by phone.

He coached with energy. At times he looked and sounded as though he had surrendered. He was fired, inspired and triumphantly rehired.

And more than anybody in the recent history of Los Angeles football, Robinson understood the necessity of offering himself as a symbol for others to follow.

“When you say USC, who do you think of first?” said Trojan offensive line coach Doug Smith, who played for Robinson on the Rams. “It’s John Robinson, no question. That’s who you think of when you say USC. Even when I was playing for the Rams, when I thought of USC, I thought of John Robinson.

“I think he’ll be remembered for personifying this school.”

After two loud and occasionally glorious stints at USC and a nine-year run as the coach, spokesman and eventual scapegoat of the Rams, Robinson stands as L.A.’s most enduring, identifiable football personality--and its most elusive.

What is the legacy of his three high-profile tenures?

Ten years from now, what will you remember: the Rose Bowl victories or the lost Decembers? The Heisman trophies or the dumbfounding exits? The personable winner or the listless loser?

Maybe, most of all, when you think of Robinson you will think of a man who was offered a big stage, performed brightly, survived several challenges . . . and probably stayed on too long.

Who, at his worst, probably used more energy to stay in his job than he did to deserve it.

“If he spent as much time coaching the team as he does running around trying to deflect the blame in other directions, we’d have been one of the elite teams this year,” a high-ranking Ram executive once said of Robinson.

At USC in his first head coaching tenure, Robinson, who had been offensive coordinator from 1972-74 under John McKay, inherited the Trojan football tradition of Howard Jones and McKay.

He started in 1976, and immediately went 11-1 with a Rose Bowl victory. Robinson lasted seven seasons, split a national title with Alabama in 1978, coached Charles White and Marcus Allen to Heisman seasons and won three Rose Bowls--after the 1976, 1978 and 1979 seasons.

In his first USC incarnation, Robinson was 6-1 against Notre Dame and 5-2 against UCLA, and was 67-14-2 overall.

But, at 46, Robinson walked away after going 8-3 in 1982, taking a vice president’s job at USC, saying he was ready to move on to new challenges. Associates said he had grown weary of the college coaching life.

A few months later, Ram owner Georgia Frontiere, hoping to halt a spree of negative media coverage, installed Robinson as her coach and front man.

The Rams drafted Eric Dickerson a couple of months later, and once again, Robinson jumped out quickly, leading a previously wretched team to four consecutive playoff berths and successfully shielding Frontiere from outside criticism.

Dickerson gained an NFL-record 2,105 yards in 1984, and the Rams scrambled their way to the NFC title game with Dieter Brock at quarterback in 1985. Even after Dickerson forced a trade in 1987, Robinson’s Rams made it to the NFC title game again in the 1989 season.

But by then his relationship with Shaw, the team’s executive vice president, had begun to sour, and the 1990 season ended with Shaw recommending his firing.

Knowing that firing Robinson after one bad season would be a public-relations nightmare, Frontiere interceded, giving Robinson a new contract. But the rupture still existed--proven by Robinson’s firing of his defensive staff, including highly regarded defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur, now with the Green Bay Packers.

By the devastation of the 1991 season--which ended with 10 consecutive defeats--the Robinson regime was over.

“We’ve had a good nine years,” Robinson said at the news conference to announce his resignation--eerily like his solo performance Wednesday, and also without taking questions.

“Unfortunately, the last two years, we’ve faltered. This year has been particularly difficult for us. We tried to make a lot of changes in the football team, and we just didn’t get it done.

“I feel badly about our performance this year, but overall, [in] my tenure with the Rams, I feel very good about what we accomplished.”

A year later--after his “sabbatical,” Robinson called it--he called outgoing Trojan Athletic Director Mike McGee and asked if he knew of any possible openings. McGee, about to take a similar position at South Carolina, knew of one: replacing Larry Smith as Trojan coach.

“I’m not being brought in to save the program,” Robinson said then. “It’s my opportunity to contribute what I can.”

But after Smith’s struggle, Robinson was full of cheery optimism.

“I’m going to put another stand out there next to all our Heisman trophies,” Robinson said. “I’m going to leave it vacant. And somebody’s going to fill it.”

At the time, McGee said he foresaw little problem with the fact that he was leaving and that a new athletic director would inherit a football coach he did not hire. Garrett was hired as athletic director a few weeks later.

“Alabama is the national champion,” Robinson said then. “Three or four years ago, Alabama was not even ranked in the top 20. Notre Dame is No. 2 in the country. A few years ago, didn’t Miami beat Notre Dame by something like 55-7, 55-10?

“Cycles are inevitable. We can go right back to the top.”