From Cuonzo"s YouTube channel, "It All Counts With Cuonzo Martin. His interview with Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson.
Cuonzo Martin's interview with "The Big Dog".
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Quite possibly your best post ever! I remember Glenn as a prop before one game with him in his clothes opposite of the tunnel the team comes out. I had a son with me and yell Glenn a couple of times and he walked maybe 10 feet or so to where I was. I said, Glenn would you sign this for my son? He looked at me and said he hadn't even played a game and if I knew anything about him. I told him Phil Waddell had told me about him and I watched him in high school. I told him that I made a trip to Mackey to watch him in teh semi-state and that he hit the winning shot from the left elbow not far from where he was standing. Apparently, he thought that was good enough and signed his name. He wasn't interested in signing his name just because he was a player, but would sign his name if you showed you wanted him in particular. I've seen a good share of young players and he is the best I've seen live ever. I recall Ron Heflin having his team run 13 miles a day in the summer before Glenn's senior year.
I also remember Zo being introduced before his first game at an intrasquad game or something and him limping out on the court...dragging his foot. Then I recall reading about Zo's childhood and how his mother would take him to open houses to see how other people could live as a means of motivating him and letting him know he could do different.
Both players were driven, coming from humble beginnings that worked hard to improve their lives. I loved the video! Thank you!
Was a bit surprised that there was no mention of his son Gicarri signing to play for Purdue.
Did catch Zo, Roy Hairston and Tim Ervin before the game. Told Zo his podcast with Glenn was outstanding. Asked Roy how his shirt was...and that brought Zo and Roy laughing...talked to Tim about knowing he coached.
Don't be they have no relationship. Other than DNA to the best of my knowledge. Gelen is the legacy connection for him.
I lost my dad almost 30 years ago. I'm 64. And I cried like a baby watching this, for Lance and me and everyone else that's lost a parent.
Lost my dad 39 years ago and it was 50 years ago the last time he could speak and was not paralyzed. Nobody knows when his or her life may be altered within seconds. I would gladly trade a year off my life for a year in the past to ask those things I never thought of at the time. It happens. A lot of people have bigger battles. In youth, we all miss chances for things that will someday be closed. We are all guilty if not in youth...even a few years later. That is life.
Still, it is things like this that should have us keep a proper perspective that Purdue basketball that we all love is a game...a game we love, but a game played by youngsters giving their all each with different struggles at different times
Glenn wished Zo happy Halloween so Gicarri hadn't committed yet?
My own funny story out of this podcast. I've probably told it before here. Cuonzo started talking about halfway through the podcast about how they had to take real classes at Purdue, and specifically talked about Communications classes. I had COM 114 with 'Zo. Both of our freshman years, Fall of '91. I even did the group speech with him and a few others. Our topic was Gender differences in communication. We ended up doing a bunch of little skits for our presentation. One of them had me as 'Zo's father, and I come home to find him sitting on the floor playing with a doll. I yelled at him, threw the doll out the classroom door, and handed him a basketball. It probably really didn't work with the topic, but it was funny as hell and something I'll never forget.
What a terrific anecdote!
Along similar lines, I was in the COM 114 section immediately preceding Glenn's, also in the autumn of 1991. Rarely -- if ever -- did he fail to emerge from that classroom in Heavilon Hall as his section filed out and mine awaited entry. His was a 7:30 start.
It is unlikely that Glenn delivered any speeches rivaling Cicero, though that merely places him with the rest of us. I don't believe that the Class of '95 produced any great orators.
As this conversation demonstrates, he was trying his damndest amid what had to be a difficult and uncomfortable period in his life* to establish himself academically in order to maximize his potential.
Seeing him every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday that semester was heartening, and reinforced how happy I was (and still am) to support a program that does it the right way.
*Glenn's difficult and uncomfortable freshman year was not more so than mine, however. I was assigned to Fowler Courts.
One more edit to my COM 114 story. The name of our teacher was Paige Turner. Honest to God.
I also took COM 114 in the fall of '91. Don't remember a single thing about it. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I didn’t want to take it so badly, that I convinced PU to give me credit based on advanced coursework I had in HS 😁
It's life. My heartbreak didn't stop there, but continues today in a different arena. Still, I know many had it worse. It does however give me a perspective that some can't fully obtain. Just things you would like to bounce off when younger.
OT, but Kim is upstairs right now doing genealogy on his tree. She is pretty experienced at this and trying to make sure she doesn't go down a rabbit hole that doesn't pass time lines, locations and such that some less thorough won't verify on my father's side. I have a book and DNA verifications a little over an inch thick on my mother's side and filed in the national archives so this will complete a lot of ancestry. My father's mother's side goes back to a German paper maker that did business with Ben Franklin. He was known as an elite paper maker that others wanted him to make counterfeit money of which he refused according to a historical society report.
Anyway, thank you for the empathy. That was long ago. I just look back on life and have questions that would have interesting answers were they available...nothing of huge importance...just perspectives and backgrounds and such. IMO historical interest "in general" doesn't carry as much weight in the USA as other places...except for Mormons. Somehow there is over arching thought that new info is better than old info and that simply isn't true unless it truly more accurately replaces it...which many times doesn't.
I was able to hear some stories about John Dillinger in his home town (verified by others that I didn't know until a few years after Purdue graduation) as well of some of his athletics (basketball, baseball and track) and such, along with his parent's shoe and grocery store. A principal was with him when he was 55 and won a $5 bet that he could stand beside a bar and jump up on it...which he did. He scissor jumped 5'10" a few decades before. A year or two ago I was at a Butler game with sister, brother-in-law and their two granddaughters that were cheerleaders and two men came up to talk to my brother-in-law that also played at Butler. I shook their hands as I introduced myself and one said he knew who I was and that his father ran track against my father (small world).
