The Early Years

Born on March 23, 1908, in Jupiter, North Carolina, Harvey Leigh Robinson, was a college football player and later, football coach at several universities.

After completing his high school education, Robinson began his time at the University of Tennessee, where he excelled on the football team.

He played as quarterback for the Volunteers between 1931 and 1932 before completing his degree and embarking on a career as a professional football coach.

Coaching History & Timeline

The majority of his coaching career was spent at his alma mater, the University of Tennessee. However, when he began his career, Robinson’s first post was as the football coach at Central High School in Knoxville, Tennessee.

He held this position between 1935 and 1941, after which point he was recruited as a freshman coach at the University of Tennessee. He spent three seasons in this role before being promoted to backfield coach, starting in 1949.

After two seasons as the backfield coach, he was appointed Head Coach during the 1953 and 1954 seasons, where he went 10-10-1 with his team, the Volunteers.

Robinson certainly didn’t have the strongest record as a head coach, even though the Volunteers won their first season under him. The first season consisted of a 6-4-1 record, and whilst not the best start, with Tennessee losing their first two games, the next six matches consisted of one tie and five wins before losing to Kentucky 21-27 on November 21, 1953.

While the season finished with a loss against Houston, interestingly, Robinson was able to guide the Volunteers to victory in their penultimate match against none other than Vanderbilt University. The victory was no small feat, going 33-6 against one of the strongest sides in the region.

The second season wasn’t a successful, and it was a losing one at 4-6. The win loss pattern was broken by two promising wins over Dayton and North Carolina, but the Volunteers then experienced four consecutive losses, going scoreless against Vanderbilt in the last match of the season.

After many years at Tennessee, Robinson took a job at the University of Florida, where he served as assistant football coach to the Gators for half a decade.

He then went back to his alma mater in the capacity of backfield coach, a position which he had spent several years in previously. He stayed in this role for four years, before eventually retiring from coaching altogether at the end of the 1963 season.

It seems that Robinson found more success, and felt more at home in the position of backfield coach. As Head Coach his record, whilst not a losing one, was not a winning one either, and the fact that he spent more time in the role of backfield coach suggests this was his true calling within the realm of college football coaching.

During the 1960-1963 period he was part of a strong coaching team with the head coaches at the time being Bowden Wyatt followed by Jim McDonald.

Life After Coaching

After he retired from coaching, Robinson stayed true to his roots, staying within the football industry, where he became a scout for the NFL.

He passed away in Knoxville, Tennessee on April 25, 1979, at the age of 71.