David W. Healy
dhealy@ddtonline.com
For more than 26 years, Stephen Robinson has traveled all over the Delta to find and tell the sports story.
Wherever he travels, whether to a Delta State baseball game in Cleveland or a high school football game in Hollandale, Robinson’s friendly face and conversational voice have stood the test time.
Robinson said his favorite part of being a local sports anchor over the years has been watching youngsters develop into great athletes.
“I have loved to see high schoolers and even middle schoolers blossom, but it shows my age too.,” Robinson, 51, said with his trademark smile from his current studio at the Delta News on Washington Street. “A lot of kids now that I am covering, I have covered their parents. It has not gotten to the point yet where I have covered grandkids - (chuckle) - but at the rate it’s going, it is getting close.”
There have been times over these last two-plus decades where Robinson said he considered moving to a bigger market. While he said he is proud to see many of his former coworkers climb the media ladder, his love for the people in the Delta, especially his wife’s family, has made him stay.
He has always been comfortable here.
“I enjoy my job because it’s not like I am chasing the dollar or chasing the market size,” he said. “I enjoy the people that I work with and the people that I work for. I go to bed with a clear conscience. I wake up with a good conscience.”
For the first 22 years as a Delta sports anchor, Robinson worked for WXVT, which was located right across the street from O’Bannon High School. Three years ago WXVT merged with the Delta News, bringing Robinson and his colleagues to Washington Street.
Robinson was born and raised in Miami, Florida. He grew up loving players like Bob Griese and Mercury Morris on the Dolphins. He was also at the Orange Bowl for the Doug Flutie miracle.
The thought of living in Mississippi never occurred to him, but the thought of spending another winter in Hastings, Nebraska, where he had his first television job, made him move back South.
It was at WXVT where Robinson met his wife, Cassandra, in 1993.
Robinson recalls how the two fell in love.
“I came here not knowing anybody and I would always ask people at the station if they wanted to go out on a shoot with me,” Robinson said. “I would just say, Hey, anybody want to go out on a shoot with me? I just wanted conversation with anyone who wanted to go out on a sports story with me. She went with me and we started talking and the talk carried over into something deeper and we had a lot in common. She is a sweet girl.”
Cassandra still works with Robinson at the TV station. She works as a traffic director for the advertising department. Robinson is the parent of two grown daughters, Erinisha and Amber.
Over the years Robinson has seen almost too many great teams and players to remember.
“I have enjoyed covering the many championship runs,” Robinson said. “I saw Delta State win the national title in football back in 2000. I saw Delta State win the national title in baseball in 2004. I covered Mississippi Valley State twice in the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Then, of course, on the high school level, the championship runs of Rosedale and Simmons were a lot of fun. It has been a lot of fun watching Simmons three peat.”
Robinson has also enjoyed a front close see to the rise of many future professional athletes, including Cleveland’s Johnny O’Bryant (Milwaukee Bucks), Indianola’s Tyrone Washington (Houston Rockets) and Greenville’s Gerri Green (Indianapolis Colts).
Through the years, Robinson has told all his stories, both big and small, with a passion and a joy for both sports and his Delta neighbors. He said he has no plans on slowing down anytime.
“There is always something great to cover,” he said.
