Veteran's Affairs Plus discusses the issues that veterans in Las Vegas deal with on a daily basis. Your host, David L. Washington connects listeners with relevant community resources and information that they need to help veterans or themselves.
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what's going on good day
Unknown Speaker 0:50
Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host. I introduce our guests here shortly. However, I need to make a few comments. One, a couple weeks ago, I mentioned that we would have Deborah Campbell formally with Fox five as a guest. That will not be the case. Deborah will not be on the show. I just want to pass that information on. And once again, I'm encouraging folks register, educate yourselves and vote, and I encourage the parents, the veterans, to study project 2025 you can check the previous podcast that I talked about Veterans Affairs information as well as the Department of Education information as it relates to project 2025 by way of condolences, I want to express condolences to my family. My sister, Kathy Richardson, she passed away recently in her services. In fact, is today at the Majestic house of worship at 1113, H Street, under the leadership of Pastor Jeffrey and Carolyn Rees. So condolences to the family. Also extend condolences to Attorney Lizzie Hatcher, who recently passed away, so we extend that to their family. And those of you who need help out there, once again, always be willing to call for an appointment with our service officer Tony Marshall 301-537-9462, ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to introduce Terry robinski that I just met a couple days ago with my good friend Frank Hawkins. This young man is a NFL coach, former NFL coach and Hall of Fame member. How you doing, Terry,
Unknown Speaker 2:37
I'm doing good. David, how you doing? How's it going? Going,
Unknown Speaker 2:40
okay, man, going, okay. Look, I, as I mentioned to our listening audience out there, I just met this gentleman just a few days ago, and I sat with him and Frank for three hours listening to story after story that Terry spoke of from his experience over 40 to 50 some years in the NFL. It's crazy, man, but this guy has a rich history. So with that, Terry, tell our listening audience about where you were born, and also give a little history of your family that you told me about that I think would be interesting for people to know about. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 3:18
so big thing. I'll give you a couple of that, David, but listen, let me do this before we get started. First of all, let me say that I'm sorry to hear about your sister Cathy nothing but the love and sympathy to you for that one. Thank you. But my other thought was when I was coming on, when you told me about this show, I had to go back and do some research. I don't like to be be sitting there blind and don't know what's going on. I went back did some research. And the first thing, obviously, like you said, I've done football all my life, right? But the big thing I wanted to do is to research your show and go listen a couple things. And you got to get me on for another show too, not just football, because you guys had a show a couple of weeks ago with Frank Harkin, and I can hear you guys on that Frank talking about telling American people, especially Nevada, to go buy some duplexes and triplexes in quatre we got to somehow get that message to our young kids, man, when you single and you got a few extra bucks in your pocket, go buy that rental property. I mean, I tell people all the time I travel around and come to come to seeking. I tell people all the time, in the NFL, with football, that's where I made a living, right? I paid my bills. I made a living with real estate, triplexes, and triplexes and all those places there that that's where I made money, okay? That's why, and it has been great. And now to talk about myself a little bit like you said, I was in NFL. I was NFL, coaching and playing for 45 years, and for the fans of the Raiders, they would know me. I was the guy tell him, I was the guy that everybody cuts that I was off. The coding with our shell, and we had Marcus Allen and Bo Jackson and those guys, and we went to the championship game and ended up losing to the Buffalo Bills. But I tell people all the time, David the NFL, when I retired in 2021 the NFL had been in existence for 99 years, and for almost 50 of those 99 I was there. So I got to see a lot of things, that I got to do a lot of things and be involved in a lot has been great for my life. I grew up down on I tell people I grew up in the swamps, swamps of Louisiana, down on the Bayou. I was about 18 miles on this side of New Orleans to get to my house, to get to my hometown, which I tell people even today, my hometown is about 99% African American. You know, we don't have all the amenities a lot of people in the world have, but you can't beat us for love. It just won't happen in my hometown, that little bitty town of about 2500 people I left from that all black high school, that's still all black today, and I went to Louisiana State University. I ended up going to LSU. And when I went to LSU, at the time I got there, was about 30,000 students in school there, and I was the sixth, the fifth, or sixth black football player to sign. And when we were there, it was 30,000 students, and it was about, I think about 30 black students on the whole entire campus. So it was, it was quite an experience, but it taught me one lesson at the end of the day. I think in America, they don't really care where you've been. They don't care where you come from as a whole. They just want to know, can you help us, right? Help us. Can you help us? Put us on a map? Can you help us succeed and help us go get victory, right? And it was an interesting thing for me. See, I think I tricked a lot of people, David, you talked about my family. I grew up and I turned off. It was 11 of us in a three bedroom house, that little bitty shotgun house. Was 11 of us living there, and then a couple of them, a couple of my kids, my kids, a couple of my older brothers and sisters passed give us a little room. We had no room. We didn't have to sleep five to a room, right? But we was okay. But at the same time, I think I tricked them, because, you know, way back then, in 1969 and 70, when I was putting all those touchdowns, everybody kept saying, robiski, robiski. But they kept, they kept putting me on TV and covering me. And every sports team was there, and I was the number one recruiting nations. But I think people thought I was Polish. That last name is Polish. See, that's robust. But then when they saw me, and I had this big old, big old afro. I had an afro like Dr J, and when I walk up to people, they said, are you introducing me to robiski? I said, Yeah, one day, one day I might introduce you to it. And it was the biggest thing in the world. When I got drafted, I got drafted by a guy named Al Davis, the same guy that drafted Frank Hawkins. I got drafted by Al Davis, and when I walked in the locker room the very first day, rookies always had the share locker. Two or three of them in a locker had the worst lockers in the back of the locker room. When I got in there, man, I had a plush I had a plush locker. I had brand new shoes, brand new helmet, brand new pad, all my shirts, everything was well, pressed, clean, right, nice. And I walked over to my locker, Dave and I took my shirt off, and equipment guy runs over there and shoved me so he would say, Get out of here. Get out of this locker room. This is for robiski. This is for robiski. I said, I am robust. He looked up at me. They almost faded, and he said, Well, you're the funniest looking.
Unknown Speaker 8:49
You know what? Terry, in fact, would you go all the way back into history and tell me, tell our listening audience? Because I found it really something how your your name got to you and your family in down in the southern part of of Louisiana. And I believe you said you were from Mississippi or somewhere.
Unknown Speaker 9:07
Again, I was I was raised. I was born and raised in New Orleans, right? But my parents and my grandparents, I've had two grandmothers, one died, and she was 104 and the other one died, she was 107 and then sitting down, talking to the one that was 104 she kind of took me back as far as she could. I went, looked it up in the library a little bit, and we traced, we kind of traced our last name to a guy that was from Poland that had come down to come down to New Orleans looking to buy some slaves. And he bought a plantation. Went by plantation office enslaved, and he bought the things, I think it missed somewhere up in Mississippi. And then, you know, obviously my great ancestors was working on the plantation. One of my, I guess, on the female side, one of them, was working in the house, in the kitchen, and she was working in the house, in the kitchen. And somehow they end up sleeping together. He had a baby she had a baby boy. That baby boy got married and had a daughter, and since his father happened to be the guy that owned the plantation, he told him that he would give him his freedom and give him his papers, because he didn't want his son to grow up as a slave for the rest of his life. So he gave him, from what I was told and the way I could track it. He gave him his last name, he gave him his walking paper, his freedom paper, and he gave his papers. Give him a canoe, a little canoe boat, right for him and his wife and his two, his two newly born kids. And he told him how to follow the river. Follow the Mississippi River, follow the water, go down to New Orleans. Give these papers to Mr. So and so. They had some land on it that had been set aside for it. And that's how my family ended up outside of New Orleans, down in the swamps. And that's as far back I traced the name back to 19, I'm sorry, to 18, something like 1851 back as I could go. And when I got back to 1851 I thought that was far enough back, and I left it at that, right? I didn't want to find out too much more, because the people I was tricking, I couldn't trick anymore,
Unknown Speaker 11:07
right, right? This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I have Mr. Terry robinski. He is a former NFL coach and he's a Hall of Fame member. Give us a little bit about your experience as a player and then into your role as a coach, if you would,
Unknown Speaker 11:25
well as a player, like I said to you, I got drafted out of LSU. I ended up going to LSU. I said I broke and set a lot of records, a lot of firsts. A lot of record set has been broken, but there's something you can't break when your first is hard to break. But even with with all the accomplishments there, I didn't get drafted the first day back then, the draft was eighth round, and a guy named Al Davis personally called me and said, I'm gonna draft you. John Madden. That everybody knows John Madden had already drafted a running back in the second round, so John wasn't really fired up about drafting another guy, and Al Dave said, I'm doing it. And now David personally drafted me. So I came here to the Raiders, and I ended up playing. I made the team. I did a great job. John Madden fell in love with me. A lot of the guys fell in love with me because of my special team play and because of, quote, unquote, as John Madden say, my running back coach will say, This guy is brilliant. You know, mental this guy's brilliant. So from those two things, I made the team. I ended up playing there for three years. Got I was I was there for three years, and I got hurt about five times, serious knee injuries and surgery and all that stuff. So I got cut. I left from playing for John Madden and Tom Flores, both Super Bowl coaches with Super Bowl winning coaches, and then I went down to Miami and played in Miami for two years for a guy named Don Shula, who a lot of people know right coach, obviously, was the winningest coach in pro football history. So I played for Coach Schuler for two years, and had a great time with that. And from that, Al Davis decided, You know what, I'm bringing this guy back. Terry could help me in a lot of ways, and more ways than one. So Al Davis brought me back, and a big part of him bringing me back was that all the guys that I had met when I was here, all the older players, the young players, the guys that was here, somehow we all connected. A lot of guys love me, and I loved a lot of guys, and I've always had that deal where, when I meet you, when I meet fierce for life, I trust you and I believe in you until you give me a reason not to right. And when I came back, I went back that little guy from that little small, all black town in Lucy, Louisiana. When I came, came back to the Raiders, it was a year after they had just won the Super Bowl. And the Raiders at that time was known as what they were known as renegades. And there was minute renegades and misfits. And you know, things of that nature had a really, really bad reputation. But their reputation was bad when you read it or when you heard it, but when you was there every day looking at it, you knew it was real. And I'm gonna be open with you on your radio station, Dave, I'll say something I haven't said a long time. When I joined the Raiders as a coach, some of the guys that I have played with had developed really bad drug problems. And I don't mean I don't mean legal marijuana, right? I mean guys was illegally doing things they had no business doing putting things in a body that had no business putting in there. Wow. A lot of guys were a lot of guys were smart and using cocaine. And one or two guys that I was very, very dear with, we said, and I had a conversation, and I said, Hey, I gotta do you like. I would do my son. I gotta do you like. I do my brother. I have to do you. I gotta do my first cousin by my nephew. I gotta grab you by your hand, and I gotta take you to rehab and say, Hey, we got to save your life, right? We got to save this problem. It had nothing to do with football, right? Had everything to do with love for one another. Love for you know, another guy, another player, a teammate, a brother. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 14:54
the human spirit. Man. The human spirit is so important, man and love. Will certainly make our world a better place, no doubt,
Unknown Speaker 15:03
absolutely, absolutely. So I took up. I took a couple guys and took, well, I took my first guys drug rehab center in Scottsdale, Arizona. And I tell you what, it was a hell of an experience for help, but it was an unbelievable experience for me. But in the end, in the end, you know that light shined in that tunnel off of bright, because when we left from Arizona, it wasn't the same person that I went there with. I went there with him. I stayed there with him. I was at the rehab center all day, every day, going to meeting, sitting in meetings, and having fun, having a good time. And we made it work out. And let me knock on wood and said is, on occasions, one or two those guys, not only did I save their life, not only that save them away from football, but I saved their career, and I saved their life, and I saved their future. And that's been really, really phenomenal for me. It was very, very touching. But I think the true light, as Al Davis was said, the light that shined the brightest was after we did what Al and I did, to clean up the team and to clean up some of these players, right? That next year, within, within 13 months, we won a Super Bowl. So it worked, you know? It worked. We took guys, I think, we took guys out of the drug house and took him to the big house in Tampa Bay where the Super Bowl, Super Bowl was being played. And we won the Super Bowl. We made it to pull it off, and we got it done. And then, from that, from that, I think I began to get a few pat on my back that I liked, and one pat on the back was from the Commission of the National Football League who flew me and a lot of other guys to New York to understand, Terry, how did you do what you did? How did you get that done? Right? And when I said, explain myself to him and what I did and how I did it, then the NFL itself adopted my program that I was doing with the Raiders. Now let me say this to you that wasn't with all that fanfare. Al Davis was bad as hell, right? Because Al Davis always told you, it's us against the world, right? And he hated, and he hated the NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, right? So when he found out that I had went and told them about, quote, unquote, our secrets and how I did it and what I did the program. He wasn't fond of it because he didn't want to, he didn't want to help the enemy, right? I never saw it as the enemy. I saw it as the people I was helping with, all God people. It was all people from all ways to the world, but it was all people with life problems. And I could help Absolutely, if I could help another man. I don't care who he was, what color, what race, how he was growing up. When he grew up, I could care less. It was my opportunity to reach out to help another fellow right, and I did it excellent, and I did it excellent. I'm still proud today of all those things that I started within that drug program that the NFL adopted and they still using today. So that was phenomenal. Well,
Unknown Speaker 17:59
God bless you, man. I think you saved a lot of lives, and that's more important than all the money in the world. So now you as a long time not a head coach, but an assistant coach and other different specialties, and you wind up in the Hall of Fame. How did that happen?
Unknown Speaker 18:18
Well, that was, you know, I'd like to tell you that was a dream come true. Everybody, I think, everybody that goes in the NFL, you know, we dream of playing in the NFL. We dream of being a good player. Then we dream of playing the NFL, and then, if you end it long enough, you dream of going in the going in the Hall of Fame, you know, listen, I had played five years, and I've done a lot of things that have a lot of fun, and again, won a Super Bowl, you know? So that was great. But it was never a day in my life that I looked up say, oh, man, what that will be in the Hall of Fame. Just just didn't think it would ever happen. You know what I mean, right? Like, I told you, David, I started that, that program, I started that was great. And I'll say this too on air, I helped started two coaches union. I thought as a as a whole, we needed to be unionized for help to help black coaches advance in this profession. So I started, I helped start a white Coaches Association, and I helped to start a black coaches I started the black coaches union. So I started both of those unions. And in the process of doing that, man. Listen, I was spending many, many nights sleeping on a cot bed at my office that I was still coaching players. I was still helping players, and I was still grabbing players and making them the best football player they could be, right? You know a guy like Frank Hawkins. You know your buddy, Frank, you know he was alright. You know the guy was alright. He could chew a little bit gum and walk at the same time. You know what I mean, so, but I, I had to teach him a couple other things, and I helped a lot of players. Really helped a lot of guys now, Terry from that, yeah,
Unknown Speaker 19:51
but tell me, how long have you been married?
Unknown Speaker 19:54
How long have I been married? You can't ask me down there that golly man, let me.
Unknown Speaker 19:59
But, well, let me say this. Let me, let me three years. How many? 43 years? Yeah, man. And let me tell you something for her to hang with you, sleeping on the on the couch, and really going through this turmoil with you as you was getting some guys alive straight. Now, man, that's a commendable not only on your part, but your wife as well. I just want to, I just thought that was important to say. Now yes, you got something else coming up. And I don't know how much time we got left, but Wes will give me an indication here shortly. But what I want, what I want you to do is talk a little bit about a documentary that you're working on, talk to our listeners about that,
Unknown Speaker 20:35
I will. And let me take one quick second to go finish this one. Sure it was a phenomenal it was a phenomenal thing for me, David, when the the president of the NFL Hall of Fame, a guy named Dave Baker, called me and said, Terry, Imma, call the NFL. Imma change the rules to put assistant coaches in because they had a rule of who could go in. And he changed the rules, right? And made him adopt a new policy. And when some people tell you rules can't be changed, that's bullcrap. Rules can be changed if they want to change them, I agree. Dave Baker was the one guy that went to the league office and said, Hey, I am in charge. I am the president of the Hall of Fame. I'm changing the rules. And he began to put assistant coaches, trainers, equipment, doctors, PR, directors, he began to put those people in the Hall of Fame. And I was one of the first assistant coaches in the history of NFL to be inducted the Hall of Fame. And there's a phenomenal, phenomenal feeling. And from that, that, from that and that journey from that little bitty town on the river, I've had some friends come to me and say, Man, you got to tell your story. We got to do a documentary on you, that's right. And we started with a documentary and putting that thing together and working on it. We're still doing it, and now that I'm now that we in the middle of it, we've discovered they're going to try to do a docu series, as opposed to a documentary, because we've had so many guys that we call, and for example, I call Frank Hawkins, say, Hey, man, can you please be honest? You know, my life better than anybody. And then some guy named Marcus Allen got jealous Frank Hawkins on it. How can you put Frank Hawkins on it? Don't put me on and then Bo Jackson call you know, how you gonna put Frank Hawkins on it? They wasn't, they wasn't with me at night when I was running the streets trying to go find players, Frank Hawkins was there with me. Right? They were home. They was at their house eating caviar and drinking champagne. Now they want to be Dennis and Greg Hawkins. Don't make no sense to me. But you know, everybody, everybody want to be a part of something that's pretty good, something nice. And I'm just happy. And I'm happy so many guys, I'm happy. I thank God so many guys want to be a part of it. And so many guys stepped up to say, Hey, man, let me get in. And we were working as hard as we can to try to get this thing somewhere, Netflix or somebody, by May of next year. We're trying to get it done. Excellent.
Unknown Speaker 22:50
Well, I can tell you this, man, just based upon the short time that I've known you and got a chance to spend a little time with you. Man, you are a very unique individual, and in fact, Frank had told me about you some time ago. I thought she was white. Robiski, Frank said no, he's a brother man. He's a black guy from a black, predominantly black town way down in your home state of Louisiana. So yeah, Wes just pointed out to me that we got five minutes, so we're rocking and rolling good, but no man, I commend you as I trust others do, because one thing I do know, when you're in a leadership role, you're at the top of the heap, whether you're the fire chief or the head coach, there's others who help you to make that success become to fruition. Ain't no doubt about it. So I'm glad that the NFL finally woke up and decided, Hey, man, it ain't just the head coaches that made this happen and the players. There's others too. So great. Yeah, excellent.
Unknown Speaker 23:51
The one thing, the one thing I'll do, since you said we got five minutes, David, the one thing I'll do is this. And this is, I think this one I've kind of a, I think I've kind of accepted and fell in love with. I tend to want to pat myself on the back. I pat myself on the back. When I look around and I see guys like a frank Hawkins, who wasn't a first round of draft choice, but at the end of the day, became a first round human being, right? You know I see, I see guys like Frank, a lot of guys, and I can give you a team if I go to Cleveland Browns. It was a guy named Kevin Johnson, if I go to if I stay with the Raiders. It was a guy named Beth Evans, if I go to Atlanta, it was a guy. It's a guy in Atlanta named Roddy white. You know when I see guys, young guys that I was with, that I worked with, that I was close to, and I look up at them today, and I know that those guys have gone from, you know, being a sixth round draft choice, a fifth round draft choice, fourth round, not a first round draft choice, but today, but today those guys by sitting with me, and we sit and talk, and we compare notes, and I'm able to say, Look, you. Knucklehead, you know. And most people can't talk to them that way, you know. But I discovered for me, having that rapport, that relationship with those guys. Here's where I pat myself on the back. David, I know each one of those guys I just called has done something in his hometown, in his community, in his community, that they go back and say, Wow, this guy has donated, donated $80 million to this Well, this guy has, Frank, just got a plaque in Las Vegas for the charity model work he's done that. He's invested over $100 million in homes for people you know, Kevin, Kevin. Kevin Johnson is exactly the same the guy who's built the retirement center for some 100 and $30 million for all retired people in his hometown, Vince Evans in Compton, California, had a shopping center he built over $100 million those are guys, and this is what I tell them all the time. Those are guys that I grabbed as a little young rookie that walked in the NFL with this, you know, big head that he's gonna do so well, right? But at the same time, he couldn't blow his nose and get his book out without talking to me first. But at the same time, David, I pat myself on the back when I see the bridges these guys have built from the poor communities to the rich communities in their neighborhood that we're able to walk across today because of the Frank hawk. Kevin Johnson, Rodney white,
Unknown Speaker 26:24
excellent. And you know, one thing I recognize when, when you and Frank and I was talking on Saturday, is that you guys are not very far apart age wise. And I think that was seemed to me, that's one of the the bridges that you were able to to cross with those young folks, and then as time went on, you just learned your technique to deal with them, even when they became 20 and 25 years younger than you, and you were still doing your coaching. So I commend you, brother, for doing such a great job and and having a human spirit, because that's one of the most important things that seems to be just a lost not an art, but just a characteristic of people, man to care about one another. Once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more, we have Terry robinski, go ahead, Terry.
Unknown Speaker 27:10
Only thing I'll say, I'm gonna try to say it in closing, is, I've always tried to tell my players, and I don't care who they are, you can go find them all. I don't care what color they are. My players have always known I love you like a son. Imma coach, you like a son. You can come to my house and eat all my food. You can date my sister. But man, you can't mess up. You can't mess up your personal life. You can't screw up and do something you got no business doing in the nightlife, in the bars, in the streets you got to represent, I told them all the time, I don't care about the emblem on the side that helmet, you got to represent that name on the back of that jersey. And only a lot of guys just, oh, man, I don't even know who my dad is. I don't know who he is either, but you kept his last name, that's right. So you won't respect it, and you're gonna live your life accordingly. Well, you gotta grow up to be a man and respect that name on the back of that
Unknown Speaker 27:58
jersey. Well, said because I used to tell my grandsons. Let me explain something. You carrying that Washington name because I mean, one grandson, you know, when it's a time to do something that they had committed to doing? Oh, I don't want to do that. Wait a minute, I expect you to be a man of your word. Well, I'm not. I'm not a man. I said, Well, be a boy you were. And he started laughing. I said, you ain't carrying my name running around here, and you ain't gonna do the right thing. But Terry, you've done a phenomenal job, man, and I think you've opened up the doors for a lot of people, kept a lot of people on track. And yeah, we'll get you back on the show sometime in the future, because I think you have a lot more to say, and I think our listening audience out there, veterans and others, will be certainly appreciative of what you share with them, and particularly, keep it we'll keep you posted out there, and I'm talking out to the listening audience on the availability of brother Terry's documentary when he gets out. So we'll, we'll stay in touch with you and certainly give you an opportunity to get back on the show to talk about that. So we appreciate you. I
Unknown Speaker 28:55
appreciate the big time David, and tell your listeners, listen to Frank Hawkins when he's talking about that. BLM, alright. BLM, that man management is a big program up there, y'all guys. So telling people, listen to Frank Hawkins. He he didn't invent it, but he know what he's talking about.
Unknown Speaker 29:08
Alright. Appreciate it. Alright. Terry, thanks man, alright.
Unknown Speaker 29:12
You guys be good. Thanks a lot. Come on. You need me.
Unknown Speaker 29:14
Yes sir. Once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 Jazz and more. We'll talk to you next week.
Outro Song 29:42
Oh, oh, all the smoke in the air till they hate when they stare, all the pain that we bear, all you bear.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai