On Saturday, November 6, 2010 Penn State University’s head football coach and legend Joe Paterno celebrated his 400th win.  Sports outlets all over praised him for the wondrous feat. After-all, 400 wins is a lot of wins. One media outlet dubbed him the most winning-est coach in all of major college football… PAUSE!! Wrong answer.

Paterno may stand to become the most winning-est coach in all of major college football.  The LATE GREAT EDDIE ROBINSON of Grambling State University retired in 1997 with 408 wins and Coach John Gagliardi had 476 entering this weekend with Division III St. John’s, Minn.

I had the honor and pleasure of seeing Coach Robinson coach towards the end of his career in Jackson, Mississippi against Jackson State University and meeting him a few years later.

Now some will foolishly contend that GSU and other HBCU programs aren’t “major” college football programs, but I totally disagree. When considering the time that Coach Robinson coached, HBCU’s were the source of some the National Football League’s greatest athletes. From GSU’s own Doug Williams to Mississippi Valley State’s Jerry Rice, HBCU players have played “MAJOR” ball!

The NFL’s first HBCU player, Buck Buchanan was one of Coach Robinson’s players form GSU.  Coach Robinson trampled Bear Bryant’s record in the mid 80′s and racked up nearly 20 (SWAC) conference titles over the span of his career.  Over 200 of  Coach Robinson’s players went to the NFL.

Therefore, although November 4th marked a great  career milestone for Coach Paterno, he still has 9 more wins to gain before he passes Coach Robinson and 76 before he passes Coach Gagliardi. I wish Paterno luck on that journey but until he reaches that destination, please give honor and due respect to both Coach Eddie Robinson and especially to Coach John Gagliardi who with 476 wins is clearly THE ALL TIME WINNING-EST COLLEGE FOOTBALL COACH!