Rich Robinson played in one of the most historic football games in Livingston County history and has the battle scars to prove it.
Strange as it might seem, neighboring rivals Brighton and Howell never clashed on the football field from 1939 to 1976, with their only meetings coming in 1937 and 1938.
“Apparently, there was so much gambling and fighting in the stands the two schools agreed not to play each other for a long time,” Robinson said.
Robinson was a junior at Howell when the rivalry was renewed on Sept. 9, 1977.
First, he became the answer to a trivia question. When he returned the opening kickoff, he was the first player to touch the ball in the rivalry in 39 years.
Then, after Brighton’s Dave Bednarz scored the first touchdown in the renewed rivalry late in the first quarter, Robinson returned another kickoff. That’s the one for which he has a permanent reminder.
“In the process, I got my ribs messed up,” the 1979 Howell graduate said. “The cartilage on the left side of my rib cage is still mangled because of a helmet I took to the rib cage.”
Howell wound up beating Brighton 14-7 in one of the more memorable games among the 965 (yes, he knows the total) played by the Highlanders since their program was started in 1895 by George Jewett, for whom the rivalry trophy between Michigan and Northwestern was named in 2021.
Robinson was not only part of Howell’s football history, but he’s fascinated by it, enough so that he’s working on a book that chronicles all of the program’s scores, coaches, star players and big moments.
It’s a daunting task, as newspaper coverage in the early years was hit or miss and most schools don’t do a thorough job of chronicling their history or records. Howell does it better than most, but there were still numerous gaps to fill. The Michigan-football.com Web site put together by John Hulsebus is an amazing resource that has the scores for every Michigan football team going back to 1950.
Robinson went through old Howell yearbooks and newspaper clippings to find scores all the way back to the program’s first two games in May 1895, both against Pinckney. Pinckney won both games, 20-14 and 20-0. Howell’s first victory came on Oct. 10, 1895 in another matchup with Pinckney, 26-0.
Robinson got the idea for the project after researching all the past Howell baseball coaches and putting their names in a program for the alumni game he organizes. Robinson began his career as a sports writer before working in Hollywood for 20 years and the last 15 in Washington, D.C.
“One of the frustrating things about this process is how little people were fastidious making sure all the all-county stuff was collected and all the records were collected,” Robinson said. “That’s what the driving force behind this was. I want to make sure we get this all down, because it’s worth saving. It’s kind of a passion project of mine. I kind of returned to my roots as a sports writer.”
Robinson has interviewed past coaches and past players, including Russell Smith, the last surviving member of Howell’s unbeaten 1955 team that allowed only seven points in nine games.
The book will broken into chapters, including one-page features on key players like Leo Rancour from the early 1930s and Dave Hibner from the 1970s, the chain gang and past coaches. A list of scores, cheerleaders and drum majors will read like encyclopedia entries.
Robinson expects the book to be ready in 2028.
“It would be nice to sell a lot of books and make money and all that stuff,” Robinson said. “I have no aspirations about that. The thing I want people to think is, ‘He did a great job with this.’ That’s the product I want to produce. It takes time. Archival research takes time.”
During his research, Robinson learned how Howell’s school nickname came about. Highlanders won a vote among the student body over the Chemung Chiefs on Nov. 12, 1931. There were 150 votes for Howell Highlanders, 41 for Chemung Chiefs and 98 for neither option.
“Chemung was a region of the town,” he said. “They did that because of the Scottish founders and Livingston County geographically has some of the highest elevation in this area. Before that, they would refer to the team as the yellow and green and at some point green and gold.”
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@livingstondaily.com. Follow him on X @BillKhan
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Former player working on comprehensive book on Howell football history
Reporting by Bill Khan, Livingston Daily / Livingston Daily
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Bill Khan, Livingston Daily | USA TODAY Network
