As the final seconds ticked off the scoreboard clock at the Louisiana Superdome Saturday and Grambling State’s 31-13 victory over Southern University in the 36th Bayou Classic was secure, it wasn’t hard to imagine legendary Grambling coach Eddie Robinson – who died in 2007 at age 88 — taking in the scene and smiling broadly.

Robinson would have been doubly pleased to know that his Tigers defeated their cross-state rival for the second consecutive year in front of 53,618 fans and that the Bayou Classic – a contest that was born in his mind more than 50 years ago – has grown to the point that it is more than a football game; it is an event that’s part homecoming as both schools’ alumni travel from all over the nation to see and be seen, and part reunion as family friends plan their schedules around the game each year.

The contest between the traditional rivals – televised nationally on NBC the last 18 years – was the culmination of a week of activities that included a coaches luncheon, a job fair, a college fair, a fan festival and the ever-popular Battle of the Bands.

More than 200,000 visitors descended on New Orleans for the Bayou Classic, and they pumped more than $30 million into the city’s economy, making it easily the most glamorous game on the HBCU schedule each year and among the best-attended in the Football College Subdivision of the NCAA.

“This is what he wanted," says retired Grambling State athletic administrator and baseball coach Wilbert Ellis, who worked closely with Robinson over the years. “He always had this dream that these large crowds could be same as the Sugar Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, and that fans could come together, fellowship and enjoy themselves. If he were still alive, he’d be rejoicing. He’d be happy to see how the game has grown."

Robinson was the winningest coach in college football history with 408 victories in 54 seasons – all at Grambling – when he retired in 1997. He wrote in his autobiography, "Never Before, Never Again," that he began to put in motion a plan for what was to become the Bayou Classic after the Tigers played Florida A&M in the 1955 Orange Blossom at Miami’s Orange Bowl. The game drew 48,000 fans, which was the biggest crowd Robinson’s team had played in front of at that time.

Robinson in 1956 proposed a similar game – the Sugar Cup Classic – involving Grambling that would have been played at 76,000-seat Tulane Stadium to the Sugar Bowl committee. However, the committee rejected the idea.

Robinson turned to a group of black New Orleans businessmen, who after years, put together an organization and approached the City of New Orleans about playing the contest. They got approval to play the Sugar Cup Classic at City Park Stadium, a dilapidated high school football field.

The game was a debacle. Grambling State defeated an overmatched Bishop College squad 42-6 in a contest that was played in one of those downpours for which New Orleans is famous. Robinson wrote in his autobiography that the parking lot was so muddy, cars couldn’t get in or out, and the game may have drawn 2,000 fans.

It would be 1973 before Robinson took another stab at staging his dream game. That’s when he convinced Southern that the teams should move their annual season-ending contest from their campuses to the 41,000-seat in Shreveport, La. He came up with the idea after the 1972 Southern-Grambling game – the last contest between the schools played at Grambling. For that game, spectators were on top of buildings and in trees, Ellis .....

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