By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

LAPLACE — Terry Robiskie has lived away from Louisiana for 35 years. But he was certainly never forgotten.

That much was made clear recently when the former Second Ward High School and LSU standout was recently inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.

“The phone call gave me a great feeling,” said Robiskie. “They call you and say you’ve been inducted … The biggest thing is to be from here and to know that the people here remember me even though I’ve been gone since 1977, it’s just a wonderful feeling.”

Robiskie, 57, currently lives in Atlanta with his wife, Cynthia. He has three sons, Andrew, Kyle and Brian, the latter currently a wide receiver that plays for the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars.

Currently serving as a wide receivers coach for the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, Robiskie has represented Edgard and the entire River Region well throughout a very successful coaching career that has spanned three decades.

But before that coaching career began, Robiskie put together a prep and collegiate playing career that no Hall of Fame voter in Louisiana could ever forget.

People speak of the great football tradition in Edgard, of West St. John/Second Ward High School. Robiskie, a native of Lucy who was raised in Edgard, was one of its pioneers. At quarterback, he accounted for 90 career prep touchdowns over three years (62 rushing, 28 passing). He averaged an eye-popping 12 yards per carry while accounting for 6,470 yards of total offense.

His final season at Second Ward saw him earn Class A Outstanding Offensive Player honors in 1972, and he was named VFW Prep Athlete of the Year in 1973. His final season at the school saw him rush for 1,471 yards and 22 touchdowns while passing for 958 yards and 11 touchdowns. He once scored three touchdowns of 80 yards or more in one game (97, 84 and 80), earning him mention in Sports Illustrated.

The love of the game came naturally for Robiskie.

“We started young, playing in the backyard. This was before Pop Warner,” said Robiskie. “You’d play tackle, hit and be hit. And if you got knocked down, you toughed it out. You couldn’t cry because then you wouldn’t get picked the next day.”

He was inspired by his heroes, heroes who were not patrolling NFL fields on Sunday, but heroes who took the field Friday nights in Edgard.

“I wanted to be as good as the guys playing under the Friday night lights,” he said. “I idolized my cousin, Walter Robiskie. My uncle was the quarterback … They were just outstanding. I saw everyone cheering for them and I wanted to be just like them.

“I’d wake up the next day and set my goal, to be as good as those guys. That was the great thing about growing up in Edgard. You had so many greats in any sport.”

Robiskie fondly recalled playing for coach Rudolph Dinvaut at Second Ward.

“I was very fortunate in that coach Dinvaut allowed me to call my own plays,” he said. “’Go out and call that play you like,’ he’d tell me. I’d get on one knee in the huddle and draw it up in the dirt.

“I tell people that we had the greatest audible system in the history of football. I grew up with these guys. If I wanted to change a play, I’d just call out the guy’s name. If I wanted to run behind the left guard, I’d call out his name, Kevin.”

His dominance did not end at the prep level, as Robiskie went on to become one of the most productive running backs in LSU history.

“Coach Dinvaut never persuaded me one way or another. He just wanted me to end up in the best place for me,” said Robiskie. “But he made me think about life after football. Where do I envision myself making a living after football? And if I want it to be in Louisiana, then I might think about attending LSU.

“It’s funny because back then, I had no desire to live anywhere else. Then I married a city girl from San Francisco … After chasing her all over the place, I ended up living everywhere but Louisiana.”

He was the first running back to ever top 1,000 yards in a season, setting a mark of 1,117 in 1976 and earning Southeastern Conference MVP honors. He finished as LSU’s all-time leading rusher at the time with 2,517 yards.

Robiskie was drafted by the Oakland Raiders in 1977 and played five seasons with the Raiders and then the Miami Dolphins.

“The Raiders drafted me just after winning the Super Bowl. I thought it was unbelievable, to be playing for the Super Bowl champs,” he said. “I had a blast. Going to work for John Madden, Al Davis and Tom Flores helped make me into the man I am today.”

His relationship with Davis, the late owner of the Raiders, that proved perhaps most pivotal.

“I wasn’t a great NFL player, but a good one. He always told me that he felt I was a great person,” said Robiskie. “The day he released me, he said he was sorry that he had to do it, but that he felt our paths would cross again. He said he believed I could be a pretty good coach in the NFL.”

Davis’ prophecy came true once Robiskie’s playing days were over. He hired Robiskie to the then-Los Angeles Raider staff in 1982 as assistant running backs coach.

“When they moved from Oakland to Los Angeles, he gave me a call,” Robiskie said. He said a number of his veteran coaches wouldn’t be making the move, so he asked if I was interested. It was a great opportunity.”

He spent 12 years with the team, working his way up the ranks to become the Raiders offensive coordinator where he’d serve from 1989-1993. He coached with the Washington Redskins, Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins before landing in Atlanta; Robiskie has twice been named interim head coach for teams, in Washington and Cleveland.

Under his tutelage, Atlanta wide receiver Roddy White has become one of the NFL’s leading receivers, making the Pro Bowl in all four years that Robiskie has coached him. Robiskie’s new challenge is to take Julio Jones, the team’s highly touted 2011 first round draft pick out of Alabama, and mold him into the same caliber of player.

Or, if Robiskie has his say, an even better one.

“If I can get him to reach his full potential, he could be one of the best to ever play the game. That’s my goal,” he said. “And if that happens, we’ve got a chance to win Super Bowls here.”