GSU Tigers will host Jackson State on Saturday

GRAMBLING, LA — Grambling is still feeling the physical effects of its season-opening loss to Louisiana Tech. GSU had an open date on Saturday, and it appears the bye came at the right time, even if it is still very early in the season.

"We needed it because physically we had some guys that were banged up quite a bit," coach Rod Broadway said. "I'd have preferred to continue playing, but if we would have played last week we would have been without a number of players so I guess it came at a good time."

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GSU quarterback promising

SHREVEPORT, LA — Grambling might be lacking experience at quarterback, but if Saturday night's game against Louisiana Tech is any indication, the Tigers are not lacking talent. Tech defeated GSU 20-6, but even in defeat Grambling's Anthony Carrothers, making the start as a true freshman, showed flashes of being an explosive playmaker.

He completed 9-of-16 pass attempts for 86 yards and was intercepted once. He was also an elusive threat on the ground, gaining 39 yards (he ended the game with 14 net yards, having lost 25 yards on sacks).



Opening survivor: Bulldogs start fast, struggle but beat Tigers

SHREVEPORT — The question heading into Saturday night's Louisiana Tech-Grambling State game wasn't "Who is going to win?" The questions were "How good is Tech going to feel about its win, and how bad is Grambling going to feel about its loss?"

No disrespect to the Tigers, but they're probably the weakest team Tech will face this year. In turn, the Bulldogs are nowhere close to being...

Grambling loses 3 to injuries

The pomp and pageantry of college football was in full display on Saturday night in Shreveport's Independence Stadium with Grambling State University and Louisiana Tech University meeting for a historic first time.

Located just five miles, in the piney woods of Lincoln Parish, the schools have met in other sports but avoided the gridiron, where emotions can run to a fever pitch, for oh these many years. Fortunately for both schools, they picked a perfect fall night for the meeting that attracted one of the largest crowds either school will draw this season.

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Louisiana Tech knocks off Grambling in Port City Classic

Louisiana Tech and Grambling State hooked up for what was billed as a historic, inaugural meeting on Saturday night in Shreveport’s Independence Stadium, but what they found out about themselves in Tech’s 20-6 victory might be of more immediate importance.

Despite winning their season opener, the Bulldogs have a long way to go if they are to contend for a WAC title. A multitude of penalties and a lack of offensive consistency kept Tech coach Sonny Dykes’ team from the dominant performance their fans expected against the FCS Tigers.

“It was good to get the first win, although...



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Louisiana Tech not overlooking Grambling State

Ruston, LA - You have to wonder how Jerry Moore's mailman feels around Christmas time. The Appalachian State head football coach must be flooded with gifts and cards from coaches of top FBS (former Division-I) programs across the country.

Because of the Mountaineers' upset of No. 5-ranked University of Michigan at the "Big House" in 2007, FBS coaches no longer have to contrive a speech to get their teams motivated to play FCS (former Division I-AA) schools.

In his first foray into head coaching, Louisiana Tech's Sonny Dykes has looked to benefit from Moore's feat. Louisiana Tech and Grambling State University will meet for the first time in the Port City Classic at Independence Stadium tonight.

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Grambling Legends to make major donation to the Eddie G. Robinson Museum

The Grambling Legends will make a donation of $10,000 to the newly opened Eddie G. Robinson Museum, honoring a coach, mentor and man who deeply influenced the group -- and the nation.

"We are very proud of the museum, to have something that represents coach in such a positive manner," said Legends co-founder James "Shack" Harris, who helped Grambling to four straight league championships under Robinson in the late 1960s.

Robinson Museum board chairman John Belton said a news conference with the Grambling Legends was held at 2 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 26, at the facility, housed in the former women's basketball gymnasium on Grambling's campus.

"They never forgot what this man meant to them, and they want others to see that. This will be one of the centerpiece donations," said Wilbert Ellis, chief local fundraiser for the museum.

The Legends group most recently held a gala Friday reception for the 2010 class of its Sports Hall of Fame at the Robinson Museum, bringing together a number of former players and co-workers who hadn't yet visited the newly opened exhibit space.

"Their involvement is tribute to a man who meant so much to so many," said Ellis, who crafted his own American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame career at Grambling. "I'm just thrilled to death about it. They still want the best for a man who deserved the best."



A 1997 inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame, Robinson coached at Grambling from 1941-97 -- along the way, passing college football legend Paul "Bear" Bryant for career victories with 408. Plans to build a museum in Robinson's honor, however, had endured a series of setbacks before his death in 2007 at age 88. Within months, the University of Louisiana System agreed to house the museum on the Grambling campus, and the state Legislature approved funding.

"He led a life so extraordinary that it was worthy of a museum," said Richard Lapchick, director of UCF's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport and co-author of Robinson's appropriately named autobiography, "Never Before, Never Again."

"His achievements were unparalleled. When he retired," Lapchick said, "he had more wins than any coach in the history of Division I football, had sent more of his players to the NFL than any other coach, had a team graduation rate of nearly 80 percent in a sport in which it hovered around 50 percent nationally, and never had a player get in trouble with the law until his last and 57th year as head coach of Grambling."

The Eddie G. Robinson museum opened in February of this year, on what would have been Robinson's 91st birthday.

"We want to be part of contributing to something that honors someone who was so important to us," Harris said. "We think that it means a lot to the tradition. It's a great tribute to Eddie Robinson, and done in a first-class way. That enhances Grambling, and shows future generations how he touched the lives of so many people."

Freshman emerges as Grambling's starting QB

GRAMBLING, LA — When Greg Dillon was denied a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA earlier this month, the quarterback race at Grambling State University became wide open.

Freshman Anthony Carrothers has emerged. Generously listed at 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds, the Independence High (Charlotte, N.C.) product will make his college debut at Independence Stadium on Saturday against Louisiana Tech in the Port City Classic. "He's just made plays," Grambling head coach Rod Broadway said Monday.

Carrothers threw for 4,028 yards and 36 touchdowns for Independence High (Charlotte, N.C.) last year. He finished high school with 10,775 passing yards, second in Mecklenburg County and state history behind former University of ...

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GSU Tigers opens with Port City Classic

Grambling's Rod Broadway seeks consistency from his team ‎

GRAMBLING, LA — Although the Grambling State football team has survived fall practices in decent shape and is now headed into game-week preparations, coach Rod Broadway isn't convinced his team is ready for the 2010 season. "We've done a lot of things good, but not good enough," Broadway said on Saturday. "We need more consistency in the things we're doing. We'll be good for a series and not-so-good for a series."

Not that the veteran coach is worried that his Tigers will be ready to play when they open the season against Louisiana Tech at 6 p.m. on Saturday in Shreveport's Independence Stadium against.

History awaits GSU, Louisiana Tech‎

Louisiana Tech University is just a Terry Bradshaw Hail Mary pass away from Grambling State University. And it's a good bet if the Grambling Tiger Marching Band tried hard enough it could rattle the walls at Tech's Cottingham Hall with the rhythm of its thunderous bass and vibrant horns.

But in the football world, the 3 miles that separates these campuses might as well have been 3 million. The schools have chosen to stay clear of each other on the gridiron. History will be made Saturday in Shreveport as the Port City Classic at Independence Stadium features the first battle between "good friends and good partners."



WHAT: Port City Classic
WHO: Grambling vs. Louisiana Tech
WHEN: Saturday, 6 p.m.
WHERE: Independence Stadium
TICKETS: $20-$32; $10 (Groups of 20 or more)

In the FCS Huddle: An uplifting return and a season in doubt

Amid the many wins and losses of a season - any season - we're so often reminded that the results take a bad seat to the people playing the game.

That has been demonstrated in the Football Championship Subdivision in recent days. Amid the many announcements of who's in at quarterback and who will or won't be available for the fast-approaching season-opening games came uplifting news from Princeton and sobering reality at Grambling State involving a pair of Tigers.

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Grambling updates on QB race and Anthony

GSU quarterback competition comes into focus

GRAMBLING, LA — After starting training camp with six candidates for its starting quarterback job, Grambling has narrowed the field to two. It may remain at two for the next few weeks, even as the Tigers start playing games. GSU opens its season on Sept. 4 against Louisiana Tech at Independence Stadium in Shreveport.

"We're not in a big rush to do that (name a starter)," Grambling head coach Rod Broadway said. "We'll let it play out, and it looks like it's Danny Reyes and Anthony Carruthers."

GSU"s Christian Anthony Isn't Expect Back

Grambling head coach Rod Broadway does not expect defensive end Christian Anthony will play at all in 2010. Anthony recently spent several days in the Intensive Care Unit at Northern Louisiana Medical Center after experiencing chest pains. Teammates said Anthony had a heart attack.

"I don't think so, personally," Broadway said. "I need to visit with him again, but I don't think so."

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Christian Anthony to Return to Campus Next Week

GRAMBLING, LA --- Christian Anthony, Grambling State University’s All-American defensive lineman who was recently admitted to the North Louisiana Medical Center for chest pains, is headed to his home state of Alabama for a few days after being treated and released by the medical facility in Ruston.

According to head football coach Rod Broadway, Anthony will return to the university next week for classes. He added that Anthony has not been cleared to return to the field, but says he remains a member of the team.

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Grambling's Christian Anthony hospitalized after apparent heart attack

Grambling defender Christian Anthony, the Southwestern Athletic Conference's preseason defensive player of the year, was hospitalized after suffering an apparent heart attack Thursday afternoon. He is listed in stable condition at Northern Louisiana Medical Center, university officals said.

Anthony suffered chest pains around 4:30 p.m. after practicing with the team from 8:30-11 a.m. GSU Director of Public Relations Vanessa Littleton said there was no indication that the incident was heat-related, and that Anthony showed no signs of distress when the team went to a meeting room to cool down and hydrate around 11:30 a.m.

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Five burning questions for Grambling football

The Grambling State Tigers opened their fall camp on Saturday in preparation for the team's season opener on Sept. 4 against Louisiana Tech in Shreveport. The Tigers' camp, though, was somewhat overshadowed by the news on Friday that Grambling quarterback Greg Dillon's request for a sixth year of eligibility from the NCAA was denied.

"I see this as one of the unfortunate and, to an extent, tragic times when a rule that was created to keep universities from abusing the system penalized the courage of a young man to play through pain," Grambling athletic director J. Lin Dawson wrote in an e-mail to The Times. "In the last five years, Greg has played on two years, and we fought to get him another year in which I believe he deserves."

The quarterback question looms over Grambling's fall camp.

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GSU defense is no one-man show

Christian Anthony gets all the headlines for the Grambling defense, and rightfully so. The Tigers' star defensive end is the reigning SWAC Defensive Player of the Year, and is expected to take the award home again this year. Last season, Anthony had 76 total tackles (55 solo), 15 tackles for loss, eight sacks, five interceptions, five forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries, and two defensive touchdowns.

But there's more to Grambling's defense than just Anthony. One player who is extremely effective, but doesn't get as much recognition, is defensive end Kendall Robinson. Robinson had seven tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks last season, and along with Anthony, he creates a formidable tandem for the GSU front four. "He's not as flashy as Christian, but he's started for us for four years," Grambling head coach Rod Broadway said. "He doesn't get nearly enough due."

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NCAA denies Grambling QB's petition for another year of eligibility‎

Greg Dillon, show in photo as #1 in GSU game with Oklahoma State in 2009 was denied a sixth year opportunity by NCAA. Dillon played a total of two years in college football career.

Greg Dillon’s college football career is over. The Grambling quarterback’s petition for a sixth year of eligibility has been denied by the NCAA, leaving Grambling without its two-year starting quarterback for the upcoming season. “From where I sit, it’s a big injustice,” Grambling head coach Rod Broadway said on Friday. “But we’ll have to live with it.”

Dillon began his collegiate career as a walk-on for ULM in 2005. He then transferred to Grambling, and won the starting job as a walk-on in 2008. Grambling finished the 2008 season 11-2 and captured a SWAC Championship with Dillon under center, and last season Dillon led the Tigers to a 7-4 record and a win in the Bayou Classic.

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BEST DEFENSE: Grambling football heads to fall camp with offensive uncertainty

The Grambling football team reports for fall camp Friday, and on Saturday the Tigers will hold their first training camp practice in preparation for the 2010 season. The team is in a familiar position, but not necessarily a comfortable one. The Tigers have some uncertainty at quarterback but should be strong on defense. It's the same situation the team faced in 2008, when incumbent quarterback Brandon Landers was ruled ineligible just weeks before the start of training camp.

Greg Dillon eventually won the starting job vacated by Landers, and while Dillon and the GSU offense worked out the kinks, the defense paved the way to an 11-2 overall record and a SWAC Championship. Now Dillon's eligibility is up in the air, and Grambling might need to follow the same script if it is going to challenge for a conference title in 2010.

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Former GSU's Gary 'Big Hands' Johnson dead at 57

Gary “Big Hands” Johnson, a Chargers Hall of Famer and one of the most dominant defensive tackles in club history, died yesterday, two weeks after suffering a stroke. Johnson, also a member of the College Football Hall of Fame after an outstanding career at Grambling State University, died at LSU Medical Center in Shreveport, La., the city in which he was born. He was 57.

Johnson was the eighth player chosen in the 1975 draft and played for the Chargers from 1975-84 before finishing his career with San Francisco in 1984 and 1985. Johnson was voted an All-Pro in 1980 (when he had 17 1/2 sacks) and 1981 and was named to the Pro Bowl in four straight seasons (1979-82). The Chargers won the AFC West in three of those seasons and made the playoffs in all four.

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Grambling State locals honored for contributions

The Monroe-Ouachita Chapter of the Grambling State University National Alumni Association will host its eighth annual Evening with the GSU Athletic Department tonight at the Monroe Civic Center. Athletics Director Lin Dawson and head football coach Rod Broadway are expected to be on hand to discuss the upcoming season, and a selection of local alumni will be honored for their contributions to GSU: James "Shack" Harris, Delles Howell, Lee Fobbs.

The event begins at 6 p.m. in the Fort Miro Room, with a silent auction beginning at 5:30 p.m. Admission is $10. Door prizes will be given away, including Bayou Classic tickets and GSU football season tickets. Ezzard Burton, a former president of the Monroe-Ouachita Chapter, said the event drew a crowd of about 180 last year and raised about $4,000 for GSU athletics. He hopes for a turnout of over 200 this year.

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When it comes to rogue agents, Grambling's coach makes Saban look soft on crime

As Nick Saban demonstrated and advocated at SEC Media Days, name-calling and license-revoking are two ways to deal with agents and their minions who don't play by the rules. Grambling State University coach Rod Broadway, a former Florida assistant, favors a tougher approach.

Blindfolds and cigarettes. Then lock and load.

"No. 1, they should put 'em all in front of a firing squad, then shoot their ass, if you catch guys doing that stuff," Broadway said Tuesday at SWAC Media Day in Birmingham. "Because that's wrong.



Coach Broadway comments are at the 2:45 mark.

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Grambling's Anthony isn't buying the early hype

In what is almost certain to be the least surprising announcement of the Southwestern Athletic Conference's 2010 football season, Grambling's Christian Anthony was named Preseason Defensive Player of the Year on Tuesday.

In addition to Anthony's honor, a poll of conference coaches, media, and selected sports information directors predicted Grambling to finish the 2010 season in the same spot as the Tigers finished in 2009 — second in the Western Division and left out of the SWAC Championship. Prairie View A&M, the defending SWAC Champion, was picked to finish ahead of Grambling in the West. "Prairie View is No. 1, and right now Prairie View is the team to beat," Anthony said.

"They came out last year and defeated us, and right now we're chasing glory, and that's a situation you love to be in."

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CELEBRATION OF STARS: Grambling Legends honor athletes who guided them

The Grambling family gathered Saturday at the Monroe Civic Center to induct the Grambling Legends Sports Hall of Fame's second class, and to again celebrate the lives of the four biggest legends that made the school's proud athletics history possible — Eddie Robinson, Ralph W.E. Jones, Fred Hobdy and Collie J. Nicholson.

"It tells you what Grambling meant to so many of us," inductee Doug Williams said. "A lot of these guys — and even when I came out of high school — we couldn't go anywhere else. Grambling was the place that we had to go, and we made the best out of it.

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New Grambling Legends honoree Doug Williams reflects on Super Bowl XXII: 'What a great, great feat is was'

Grambling State might never again author a master stroke as deft as replacing the towering Eddie Robinson with an outsized protégé like Doug Williams.

It wasn't easy. This is a school that had witnessed its last coaching transition in 1941, when gas was 19 cents a gallon. World War II was still an idea, not a headline. Robinson would go on to cast a shadow that not many could escape: His 1942 GSU squad, one of two to go undefeated, was unbeaten, untied -- even unscored upon. Robinson retired in 1997 after 57 years at Grambling State, but not before adding 81 victories to Paul "Bear" Bryant's once-unassailable 323 college football wins.

Yet Williams -- primarily through the force of his towering personality -- managed to carve out his own niche, leading Grambling to a trio of SWAC championships as coach in 2000-02 and establishing a .743 winning percentage over six years.

He had a name coming in, and not just based on those oft-repeated heroics in Super Bowl XXII. Williams built his legend first in Lincoln Parish, taking took over in the fifth game of his freshman season in 1974, and never sitting back down. Seventeen of Grambling State's league-best 22 SWAC championships came on Robinson's watch. Two of those titles (in 1974 and '77) featured eventual Heisman Trophy finalist Williams, who posted an impressive 36-7 record as a starter.

Doug Williams was a first-team All-American and finished fourth in Heisman Trophy voting in 1978 at Grambling State. During his college career, he passed for 8,411 yards and 93 touchdowns. In 1988, Williams had the greatest day of his NFL career when he led the Washington Redskins to victory over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXII.

Doug Williams was enshrined into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2001, joining the legendary Eddie Robinson, Buck Buchanan, Gary "Big Hands" Johnson, and Tank Younger from GSU.

He now joins 14 other inductees on Saturday in the Grambling Legends Sports Hall of Fame, with 2010 ceremonies set for 6 p.m. Saturday, July 17, at the Monroe Civic Center.

Tables and individual tickets are still available for the Legends event. Price is $500 for tables of eight; contact Al Dennis at 318-261-0898. Individual tickets are $60, and can be purchased through Dennis or the Monroe Civic Center box office at 318-329-2837. Tickets will also be available at the door.

"It says a lot," Williams enthused about this Legends designation. "Grambling will always be home."

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected Williams in the first-round of the NFL Draft in 1978. Over a five-year tenure there, he would lead the Buccaneers to their first three playoff appearances in team history, an appearance in the 1979 NFC championship game and Tampa's first-ever NFC Central title. But Williams had a nasty contract dispute with late owner Hugh Culverhouse and left for the since-disbanded United States Football League.

History awaited. Williams returned to the NFL in 1986 with the Washington Redskins and head coach Gibbs, who had been the Bucs' offensive coordinator when Williams was drafted out of Grambling. At the end of their second season back together, Williams became the first African-American quarterback to start, and win, the Super Bowl -- and the first to claim the game's most-valuable player award.

It happened in what seemed like a split second: Williams, once down by 10 to Denver, ran just 18 second-quarter plays -- but scored 35 unanswered points in Super Bowl XXII. Game over. The Redskins went on to win 42-10.



"It makes you feel really fine that they can go out and do those kind of things," Robinson once said. "It just makes you know what our school can do -- and what our students can do."

Gone forever were the misconceptions about an African-American's ability to master the complex strategies of an NFL offense. In a locked-up environment where most blacks had been automatically converted to receiver or cornerback, Williams knocked the door off its hinges that day in 1988 -- setting a new mark for passing yards in an NFL title match.

"The thing about a Super Bowl is," Williams said, "they may call you a black quarterback, but the truth is that they can't color that experience." Williams' sense of the importance of his Super Bowl triumph, even now, continues to grow.

He says strangers still stop to talk about what it meant to African Americans. Seeing it through his children's eyes also gives Williams a clearer perspective than even the passage of time did.

"I can enjoy the fact that my kids can watch what happened and say: 'My daddy accomplished this and that,' " Williams says. "I wasn't to the point that I could realize years ago what a great, great feat it was."

Turns out, the revolution in football was, in fact, televised. And on Super Bowl Sunday, no less.

Robinson rushed down on the field to embrace his former player.

"I talked to him a long time after the game," Robinson said. "I told him how proud the people were -- in our community and our churches."

Ten seasons later, Williams took on another daunting rebuilding project when he returned to Grambling as head coach.

He went 5-6 in 1998 and then 7-4 in 1999 -- but that seven-win mark was one more than GSU had in two combined seasons before he arrived. His teams then reeled off that trio of conference-championship seasons, and were a win away from a fourth-straight berth in 2003.

Named Street and Smith's Black College Coach of the Year in 2000, Williams was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2001. While Williams assembled his own addendum to a memorable playing tenure, he never forgot who originally opened the door.

"My time at Grambling will be secure," Williams said during this final season of coaching at Grambling. "But I also think that Eddie Robinson's time at Grambling is the reason why I am here. You can't lose sight of that."

Williams then embarked on new career in pro football front offices back back at Tampa Bay, where he worked from 2004 until earlier this year, and now in the fledgling UFL as general manager.

"I used to always tell Coach Rob that we players were 'coach-makers.' Without us, they're nothing," Williams said. "He always used to make a statement -- and it took me being a coach to understand it: He said he was the luckiest man in the world. I can see how that's true now. But at the same time, we were lucky too that we had Coach Robinson. Luckier than we knew."

For more on Williams' fellow 2010 Grambling Legends Sports Hall of Fame inductees, multimedia content, event details, and information on contributing to the Legends' charitable activities on behalf of GSU athletics, go to GramblingLegends.net.

Today, Doug Williams continues to be a trailblazer as the first General Manager of the United Football League's (UFL) Norfolk, Virginia franchise. The Norfolk franchise will officially launch during the 2011 UFL season and plans to hold trouts, training camp and various other events at several venues within the state of Virginia according to a press release.

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