Cal Basketball: Earl Robinson - 2011 Pete Newell Career Achievement Award
Earl Robinson, a two-sport star at Cal in the
1950s who played both basketball and baseball for the
Golden Bears, will receive the
Pete Newell Career Achievement Award during a halftime ceremony when Cal hosts
UC Santa Barbara Dec. 19 in the second annual Pete Newell
Classic.
The contest honors the legacy of Cal's
Hall of Fame basketball coach Pete Newell and the contributions he made to
University of California basketball. The Career Achievement Award is presented to a Cal men's basketball alumnus who has distinguished himself in his career accomplishments, upholding the highest ideals of
Coach Newell and the University of California.
Robinson clearly fits that description, having earned selection to the Cal Athletic Hall of Fame and the
Pac-10 Hall of Honor since his days wearing
Blue and Gold.
A 6-1 guard on the hardwood, Robinson played under Newell and helped Cal to conference titles in
1956, '57 and '58, earning a spot on the All-Coast team twice and the All-Pacific
Coast Conference squad three times. The last two teams advanced to the
NCAA Tournament and reached the
West Regional final. The '58 team nearly advanced the
Final Four, only to lose to an
Elgin Baylor-led
Seattle team in overtime.
Robinson was voted Cal's Most Inspirational
Player as a senior in
1958 when he also served as team captain. He had his best statistical season during his junior campaign when he contributed 12.1 ppg, and he finished his career with 882 points, which ranked among the school's all-time top five at the time.
Robinson, whose college roommate was
Golden Bear legend
Joe Kapp, was also a standout on the baseball diamond, where he earned All-America honors as a shortstop. During Cal's run to the
1957 NCAA championship, he paced the
Bears with a .352 batting average. Because of his relationship with Kapp - the Bears' quarterback - Robinson was also a Cal yell leader during the 1957 football season.
Robinson signed with the
Los Angeles Dodgers in the spring of 1958 when the
National League organization first moved to the
West Coast. In an era before sports agents, Robinson relied on the services of Cal law professor
Adrian Kragen to negotiate a better deal with the
Dodgers, and his $75,000 signing bonus was a record sum for a black baseball prospect at the time. Robinson made his
Major League debut as a rookie third baseman in 1958, then was traded to the
Baltimore Orioles before the
1961 season, where he converted to the outfield. He remained with the organization through
1964 and played in the
Chicago Cubs' organization in
1965. Robinson finished his career with a .268 batting average. During the winters of 1963-65, Robinson returned to Cal as an assistant basketball coach. Upon retiring from baseball, he became head basketball coach at
Merritt College in
Oakland for the 1966-67 season - the first African-American head basketball coach in the
California junior college system. A year later, he moved to
Laney College, where his team finished with a 19-8 record. He rejoined his alma mater as freshman basketball coach in the fall of
1968.
Robinson later taught speech and communications classes at Laney College and was credited with helping
Rickey Henderson craft his well-received speech for the baseball Hall of Fame ceremonies in
2010. He is now a part-time professor at Laney
In addition, Robinson also worked with the
Oakland A's in the
1980s as director of special projects under team president
Roy Eisenhardt and the
Haas family's club ownership, and spent time as an
English teacher at Oakland's
Castlemont High School. He is a former vice president for the
Board of Trustees with the
Oakland Zoo and served three years on the
Board of Directors for the California
Alumni Association.
Robinson was inducted into the Cal Athletic Hall of Fame in
1988 and into the Pac-10 Hall of Honor in 2010.
Robinson credits three members of the Cal community as being among the most influential people he has met in his life - Newell,
Rene Herrerias (Newell's assistant coach and Cal head coach from 1961-68) and
Dr. Bob Albo (a Cal
Hall of Famer and Robinson's mentor and doctor for more than 50 years).
Last year, the Bears hosted
Kansas in the first Pete Newell Classic, and Al
Buch received the Career Achievement Award.