the high school level. During his high school coaching career Robinson enabled more than 300 students to attend college, and organized coaching clinics for black coaches in the south, recruiting staff members of the Detroit Lions and Detroit Tigers to provide instruction. As a result of his efforts at the coaching clinics, Lions coach Buddy Parker hired Robinson as the first black scout in the NFL. As a scout Robinson discovered Pro Football Hall of Famers Charlie Sanders and Lem Barney. In 1970 Robinson was hired as the head coach at Illinois State University, making him the first black head coach in NCAA Division I basketball. He compiled a record of 78-51 from 1970–75 (see Illinois State Redbirds Men's Basketball Season-By-Season Records). His best player during that time was Doug Collins, the school's only consensus All-American and the #1 pick in the 1973 NBA Draft. In 2003 Robinson received a lifetime achievement award from the Missouri Valley Conference. The Pistons era Will Robinson retired from Illinois State in 1975, and accepted a position as a scout for the Detroit Pistons in 1976. Robinson was responsible for discovering Joe Dumars and Dennis Rodman, key members of the Pistons' championship teams in 1989 and 1990. Robinson was actually offered the Pistons' head coaching position by general manager Jack McCloskey, who gave the job to Chuck Daly instead when Robinson turned down the position. Robinson retired from the Pistons in 2003, and during the 2003-04 NBA season the Pistons named their locker room "Will Robinson Locker Room of Champions." The Pistons won their third NBA title that season. Robinson died on April 28, 2008 at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit at the age of 96. For the remainder of the 2008 NBA Playoffs, the Pistons uniforms wore a black patch in his memory. References 1911 births 2008 deaths African-American basketball coaches American basketball scouts Detroit Lions scouts Detroit Pistons scouts Illinois State Redbirds men's basketball coaches People from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania People from Wadesboro, North Carolina Sportspeople from Steubenville, Ohio 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American people