Wabash College Athletics

A native of Danville, Illinois, Jerry Robinson came to Wabash as a three-sport athlete who would excel in cross country and track, earning four letters each in those sports. Running for coach J. Owen Huntsman, Robinson was a member of some of the finest Wabash cross country and track and field teams in Little Giant athletic history. Robinson now joins teammates Warren Hall '60 and Ron Reinhart '61 in the Wabash Athletic Hall of Fame.

During his rookie year, Robinson, Hall, and Reinhart formed the best 1-2-3 cross country punch in the state, winning a Little State championship and placing sixth in the NCAA College Division Cross Country meet. By his sophomore year, Robinson was named the Most Improved Runner and seemed to alternate victories with Hall in dual meet action, which included a 28-28 tie with Indiana. He also took third at Little State behind Hall and Reinhart as Wabash won their third straight title and set a new meet record with the lowest team score. The NCAAs followed, and Robinson trudged through the snow to help the Little Giants claim third place, their highest finish ever in cross country, while earning individual all-America honors along the way.

A year later, as a junior, Robinson was named MVP, leading Wabash in seven of 12 meets. The 1960 individual Little State champion, Robinson led Wabash to sixth place at the NCAAs for a third straight top-six finish. Robinson earned all-America status for a second straight year.

Robinson was also a part of three straight Little State track and field championship teams, earning individual titles in the mile run in both 1960 and 1961. Named Most Valuable Runner in track as a junior, he captained the team in his senior year, and earned the Pete Vaughan Award. Robinson was a brilliant relay runner as well, setting Wabash records in the four-mile relay at the 1960 Texas Relays and the distance medley relay at the 1961 Kansas Relays.

Attacking classroom work with the same ethic as a the cross country course, Robinson went on to earn his Ph.D in zoology from the University of Cincinnati in 1970 , and worked as a research scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for 15 years. Listed in the Who's Who of American Scientists, Robinson has published over 50 articles, abstracts, and book chapters. He is currently residing in Raleigh, North Carolina, and for the last eight years has been Health Scientist Administrator and Chief of the Organs and Systems Toxicology Branch at the National Institute of Environmental Health Scientists.