By T. Scott Boatright
They were friends and teammates playing for legendary Grambling State University coach Eddie Robinson in the early to mid 1970s.
And now Lee Fobbs and Stephen Davis, who both turned in significant coaching careers themselves, have rejoined Coach Rob on the sidelines in the sky after the deaths of both, Fobbs on Friday and Dennis on Saturday.
“The thing it reminded me of was 2010 when (former GSU and NFL standouts) James Hunter and (Gary) ‘Big Hands’ Johnson passed a couple of days from each other,” said GSU and NFL legend Doug Williams, who joined the Tiger football team just after Fobbs and Dennis had graduated. “When you think about Steve and Lee, and what they meant to the history of Grambling football, it’s something. It’s one of those things we have no control over, but as Coach Robinson used to say, there’s two more Tigers in the sky right now.
“Coach Rob is gathering his guys back together, and he’s got a pretty good team so far. We know things will happen, things that nobody is ready for, but when two guys — two friends — like that go within a day of each other, that’s pretty significant. That’s a tough one.”
During his time at Grambling State, Fobbs, one of a stable of solid running backs the Tigers had, and he earned all SWAC and All-America honors as a senior under the Robinson and GSU offensive assistant coaches Melvin Lee and Doug Porter.
Al Dennis, who later became Grambling’s athletics director, was an offensive lineman playing for Grambling in those days.
“I knew both of them were sick, but I didn’t expect for anything like this to happen,” Al Dennis said. “Steve and I were roommates at Grambling. Steve was special in that he started as a freshman. To go to Grambling and start as a freshman was unheard of back then.
“Lee had gone to what was then called Northeast Louisiana (now ULM), but then transferred here and was part of a great group of running backs, but they all played and they all played well. I think he might have scored two or three touchdowns against the University of Hawaii. All of those running backs could play, but I guess you credit Coach Rob, Coach Lee and Coach Porter for finding a way to make it work and get everybody to hang in there. We had some great running backs like (Rodney) Tureaud back then, too.
Fobbs was an eighth-round draft choice of the Buffalo Bills in 1973. He played professional football for the Canadian Football League’s Ottawa Rough Riders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He also played for the Detroit Wheels and Birmingham Stallions in the United State Football League.
After his professional career, he returned to Grambling where he was a graduate assistant for Robinson while working on his master’s degree in Sports Administration.
Later, Fobbs became part of a Who’s Who group of some of the first Black assistant coaches at the NCAA Division I level at schools like Tulane, Alabama, Texas A&M, LSU, Minnesota, Kansas and ULM along with Southern and Grambling.
Fobbs was also the head coach at North Carolina A&T from 2006-08. He later retired from GSU in 2019 after serving on the staff of his son, former GSU head coach Broderick Fobbs, teaming with his son to lead Grambling to a 2016 HBCU National Title.
Dennis came to Grambling as a quarterback but with another young Tigers at the time, Matthew Reed, quickly taking over the starting role, Dennis asked Robinson to move him to defensive back.
On the defensive side of the ball, Dennis joined a group of other young freshmen in the secondary, and the group grew into a stellar unit, helping Grambling win a pair of SWAC titles as well as a National Black College Championship in his final season.
Steve Dennis recorded a Grambling record 27 career interceptions en route to three All-SWAC selections (one first team) and two All-American honors.
He then moved on to play 10 years in the Canadian Football League as a Toronto Argonaut and Saskatchewan Roughrider from 1975-85.
After his playing career, Steve Dennis returned to his hometown of Shreveport, becoming a longtime coach at Green Oaks High School.
One of his former Lions there, Ryan Williams, paid tribute to his former coach in a post on Facebook.
“Today I lost more than a coach, I lost a mentor, my fraternity brother, a protector, and father figure,” Ryan Williams wrote in that post. “My high school football coach from Green Oaks High School was one hell of a man the kind you don’t get twice in one lifetime. He was hard on us, but always fair. His expectations were high because he saw more in us than we sometimes saw in ourselves. He pushed me toward Grambling State University, pushed education, and pushed manhood not just in football. That same man also wrote my letter to join Kappa Alpha Psi, Inc. believing in me at pivotal moments of my life.
“Coach Stephen Dennis mentored countless young men on Cooper Road. He fed us. Gave us rides home. Checked on us. Loved us loudly and quietly. Even long after school, we stayed connected through phone calls and text messages when I was in the Air Force, and through conversations at the barbershop. He never stopped being ‘Coach’ He always knew how to pull the best out of us even when we weren’t at our best.”
Former GSU and NBA standout as well as former Grambling head basketball coach and athletics director Aaron James was friends with both Dennis and Fobbs in college.
“We hung out together a lot,” James said. “Everybody got along at that time. We didn’t have a lot of students, so basically all the athletes knew each other. For them to both die back to back like what happened was amazing — unbelievable.
“Lee was a pretty running back. He ran smooth and stepped high and he had quickness. Steve was a smart cornerback. Steve was right there as good as Everson Walls. Neither really had great speed, but they both had great range. They both played a lot the same way as the other.”
GSU Hall of Fame baseball coach Wilbert Ellis called it a big loss for the university.
“They were both deserving Grambling legends,” Ellis said. “Both later served as great ambassadors for Grambling as football coaches. It’s just a big loss for everyone, they’re families, and the Grambling State family, too. It’s a big loss, and for them to die a day apart like they did, it’s hard to put into words. It’s a big loss.
“I’m just glad got to finish his career coaching alongside his son. I know he loved that and I know Broderick loved that. I know how much that meant to both of them.”
