COB BASRA, Iraq – Who is Coach J Robinson?

Robinson has had an illustrious career as an Army Ranger during the Vietnam War, an Olympic wrestler and one of the greatest coaches in University of Minnesota history.

Robinson demonstrated his bravery by telling a roomful of military policemen how he listens to Britney Spears and Lady Gaga to get motivated.

Robinson is also caring. He flew to Iraq recently to motivate the troops and when he learned the government wasn’t going to pay his way, he was perfectly willing to fly halfway around world on his own dime.

All to offer a simple “Thank you.”

“When the chaplain called and asked if I could come, I thought it was the least I could do,” said Robinson, who was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2005. “I was sitting at home, and you know what that’s like. It’s pretty good. Sometimes you don’t realize that until you leave.”

Robinson visited troops all over Contingency Operating Base Basra, at each stop encouraging Soldiers and telling them to embrace their deployment as a learning experience.

Jones accepts position as U.S. freestyle head coach

University of Pennsylania Sports Information

PHILADELPHIA — The University of Pennsylvania’s head wrestling coach Zeke Jones has announced his resignation to accept a position as the head coach of the United States freestyle national team.

With Jones’ resignation, Penn has also announced that assistant coach Rob Eiter has been appointed interim head coach of the program.

“Penn has been a tremendous place for me and my family,” Jones said. “It has been a great place to work and live. Penn is one of the best places for a student-athlete to achieve success academically and athletically and working with men as gifted as the ones at Penn has been a blessing.”

“This is a great opportunity for Zeke and we wish him the best with U.S.A. Wrestling,” Penn’s Director of Athletics Steve Bilsky said. “At the same time, we feel very fortunate to have someone with Rob’s ability and credentials to step up to the head coaching position.”

Penn begins its 2008-09 wrestling season on November 22 with a pair of dual matches against Princeton (noon) and Michigan (2 p.m.) at The Palestra.

BY DAN McCOOL

In college athletic department offices across America, the coach behind the door belongs to a group that averages nearly $70,000 in base salary each year.

Down many of those hallways, though, other coaches cash bigger paychecks than their colleagues in the Olympic sport of wrestling.

A Des Moines Register open-records request for salaries of Division I wrestling head coaches shows that the average base salary at 51 of the 61 public programs in the U.S. that responded – about $69,550 – places those coaches somewhere between the average nurse and a psychologist.

Wrestling coaches, who arguably practice a bit of both of those other professions, say they stay at the side of the mat because of a deep commitment to the sport – not a shot at deep pockets. Others, however, contend that the college athletic pay scale tips too far toward revenue-producing giants such as football and men’s basketball.

“Wrestling has been under-funded, under-promoted and under-everything you can say about a program throughout the country,” said former Iowa State coach Bobby Douglas, now an assistant athletic director at the school. “From a size perspective, the sports that are getting compensated all have athletes that are over 6 feet and 200 pounds.