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STATE COLLEGE, PA - JANUARY 25: Head coach J Robinson of the Minnesota Golden Gophers during a match against the Penn State Nittany Lions on January 25, 2015 at Recreation Hall on the campus of Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania. Minnesota won 17-16. (Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Former Minnesota Golden Gophers wrestling coach J Robinson died on Sunday at the age of 79 according to the University of Minnesota. Robinson led the Gopher wrestling program from 30 seasons from 1986 through 2016 and led the Gophers to the only three NCAA Team Championships in school history in 2001, 2002 and 2007. In his career at the U Robinson coached 14 individual NCAA champions, 63 different All-Americans for a total of 124 All-America honors, won six Big Ten titles and had 49 individual conference champions.
Robinson was an Army Ranger before competing for Oklahoma State. He qualified for the 1972 Olympic Greco-Roman Wrestling team and would go on to be an assistant coach at Iowa along Dan Gable from 1972-1984 where he helped the Hawkeyes win seven of eight NCAA titles from 1977 to 1984. After Robinson clashed with the University of Iowa over his Iowa Intensive wrestling camps during the summer, he left the Hawkeyes after the 1983-84 season and would take a head coaching role at Minnesota during the 1986-87 season.
It took Robinson several years to build up the Gopher program, but once he got it to the top it stayed there for many years. Marty Morgan won the first individual NCAA Championship under Robinson in 1991 at 177 pounds. Robinson won his first Big Ten Team title with the Gophers in 1998-99 led by back to back NCAA Champion Tim Hartung. The Gophers would not finish lower than third in the Big Ten between 1997 and 2008. The Gophers would finally crack through winning the NCAA Team Championships in back to back seasons in 2001 and 2002. The 2000-01 team would be one of the most dominant in wrestling history with all ten of the Gophers wrestlers earning All-American honors this season. Robinson again got the Gophers on top with back to back Big Ten titles in 2005-6 and 2006-07 capped off with the program’s third NCAA team title in the 06-07 season.
While the Gophers were still competitive in the final decade of Robinson’s coaching tenure Minnesota could never finish any higher than second in both the Big Ten and in the NCAA Tournament. Robinson ended his Gopher tenure on a sour note when he was fired in September of 2016 after after allegations that some of his wrestlers misused prescription drugs and were selling them on campus.
Robinson ended his career at Minnesota with a .753 winning percentage, and a.716 winning percentage in Big Ten action. He led the Gophers to 440 duel meet victories and six Big Ten titles, along with the three NCAA Championships—all the most ever at Minnesota. He was named to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2005. Besides his work with the U of M athletes, his J Robinson Intensive Camps allowed thousands of Minnesota kids to learn from one of the best over it’s run. While Robinson’s personality was often bristling and intense, there is no doubt he goes down as the best wrestling coach in the history of the University of Minnesota, but also as one of the best in the history of college wrestling.
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