Donald Roy Robbinsacademics.utep.edu
- UTEP 1967-68 academic catalog - p.15 (October 27, 1933 – September 18, 2020) was an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

coach. He was the head coach at the

University of Idaho The University of Idaho (U of I, or UIdaho) is a public land-grant research university in Moscow, Idaho, United States. Established in 1889 and opened three years later, it was the state's sole university for 71 years, until 1963. The un ...

from

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

through

1973 Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 14 - The 16-0 19 ...

, compiling a record of 20–24.

Playing career

An identical twin born in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...

, Robbins grew up primarily in Breckenridge, one of three sons of football coach Cooper Robbins, Sr. Along with twin brother Ron, he graduated from Breckenridge High School in 1952, where his father was the head football coach for seven seasons (1945–1951), then became the freshman football coach at

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

in 1952, and son Don played for him that first season. Following Robbins' sophomore season, Paul "Bear" Bryant was hired as the head coach at A&M and Robbins was a member of the Junction Boys as a junior end in September 1954. He graduated in 1956 and later earned a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in education from A&M.

Coaching career

After coaching in Texas at Big Spring High School, Robbins became a collegiate assistant coach in 1966 at Texas Western (renamed the

University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public university, public research university in El Paso, Texas, United States. Founded in 1913 as the State School of Mines and Metallurgy, it is the third oldest academic component of the Univers ...

(UTEP) in 1967) under head coach

Bobby Dobbs Robert Lee Dobbs (October 13, 1922 – April 2, 1986) was an American gridiron football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Tulsa from 1955 to 1960 and the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) from 1965 to ...

. After two seasons in

El Paso El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

, he was hired as an assistant at

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

in April

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

under first-year head coach When McNease was dismissed after spring drills in Robbins was promoted to head coach of the

Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vand ...

.Robbins to replace McNease at Idaho
''Tri-City Herald'' Associated Press - 1970-05-17 - p.38 His

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

team had the best record in the history of the school at , but the next two seasons were less successful and he was dismissed in He was succeeded by an assistant under Robbins and his two predecessors (and the head Robbins returned to Big Spring High School as head coach and athletic director in 1976..e-yearbook.com
- Big Spring High School - ''El Rodeo'' yearbook - 1977 - p.177 After retirement, he lived in College Station and died in 2020 at age 86.

Head coaching record

College

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robbins, Don 1930s births Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Identical twin males American football ends Idaho Vandals football coaches UTEP Miners football coaches Texas A&M Aggies football players High school football coaches in Texas Players of American football from Fort Worth, Texas People from Breckenridge, Texas