Paul Robinson

Paul Harvey Robinson (born December 19, 1944) is an American former professional football player who was a running back for two seasons in the American Football League (AFL) and four seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Arizona Wildcats.

Early life Robinson was born on December 19, 1944, in Tucson, Arizona. He was the third youngest of 12 children

In 1951, the family moved to Marana, Arizona (principally located in Pima County) where Leslie worked as a farm contractor. Robinson attended Marana High School, where he starred in basketball and football, but he especially excelled at track. He was a state champion hurdler and sprinter, and set records in high hurdles and the pole vault. As a senior, he was the second leading scorer on a basketball team that was the runner up for the state championship, led the football team in scoring, and was first team Class B All-State at halfback. He was an honor student as well as an athlete, and was named Marana's Athlete of the Year in May of 1963.

College career Robinson graduated from high school in 1963 and attended Eastern Arizona College, a two-year community college in Thatcher, Arizona. As a member of its track team, he reached the nationals in intermediate hurdles; but he did not play football at Eastern Arizona. He received a track scholarship to the University of Arizona and ran track for two years for the Wildcats. But when his track scholarship ended, Robinson turned to football out of necessity for one season to obtain a new scholarship to be able to complete school and graduate. He had not played football since high school. Future NFL player Ron Gardin, then a collegian at Arizona and later Robinson's roommate, had seen Robinson at track tryouts a season earlier, and realizing Robinson's potential encouraged him join the football team. Robinson became the team's number two running back his senior year. However, he was injured during that senior year, and only had 80 rushing attempts for 306 yards.

In his first year as a professional, he gained 1,023 yards rushing to lead the American Football League (AFL), and also led the AFL with eight rushing touchdowns and 238 rushing attempts. In 1934, Beattie Feathers' of the National Football League's (NFL) Chicago Bears gained 1,004 yards rushing in his rookie season in only 11 games. Since that time, Robinson became the second man to gain over 1,000 yards in his first year in professional football in the U.S., after Cookie Gilchrist did it for the Buffalo Bills in 1962. Robinson and Feathers were the only rookies coming directly out of college to lead their leagues in rushing. Gilchrist came to the Bills after six years in the Canadian Football League. Robinson is the only running back in professional football history to gain over 1,000 yards in a season for a first-year expansion team.

He was the 1968 Associated Press (AP), United Press International and The Sporting News AFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. Robinson finished eighth in AP's AFL Most Valuable Player (MVP) voting to Joe Namath. It has also been stated that he was second in that year's MVP vote to Namath. He was named first-team AFL All-Pro by the Associated Press, Sporting News and Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA), among others. He was the only rookie named to the All-AFL team. He led the 1968 Western AFL All-Star team to victory over the Eastern All-Stars, scoring two touchdowns.

Robinson scored the first-ever Bengals regular-season touchdown on September 6, 1968. His two-yard run gave the Bengals a 7–0 lead over the San Diego Chargers at San Diego, although the Bengals lost 29–13. For the Oilers, he played in eight games, gaining 355 yards on 86 attempts for a 4.1 average and three touchdowns.

NFL/AFL career statistics Legend Led the league Bold Career high

Regular season Year Team Games Rushing Receiving GP GS Att Yds Avg Lng TD Rec Yds Avg Lng TD 1968 CIN 14 14 238 1,023 4.3 87 8 24 128 5.3 68 1 1969 CIN 14 14 160 489 3.1 24 4 20 104 5.2 25 0 1970 CIN 14 14 149 622 4.2 26 6 17 175 10.3 27 1 1971 CIN 14 8 49 213 4.3 17 1 8 47 5.9 16 0 1972 CIN 4 0 21 94 4.5 15 0 0 0 0.0 0 0 HOU 8 7 86 355 4.1 30 3 14 112 8.0 24 0 1973 HOU 11 1 34 151 4.4 22 2 7 46 6.6 19 0 79 58 737 2,947 4.0 87 24 90 612 6.8 68 2

Personal life Paul Robinson was married to the late Arlene (Hines) Robinson. They had three daughters and also a son, Paul Harvey "PJ" Robinson Jr., who died in 2009. His brother Cleo was also a high school hurdler at Marana, played on its first state champion football team, and later served as a football official for decades in the Pac-12 conference. Paul is also the granduncle of Atlanta Falcons running back Bijan Robinson, Cleo's grandson,

Robinson currently resides in Safford, Arizona.

In 1991, Robinson was inducted into the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame.