A native of
Fort Worth, Texas, Robinson was a graduate of
Baylor University in Waco Texas. Afterward, he studied at Southwestern Seminary,
Temple University and the
New College,
University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and obtained a doctorate in theology. Robinson was an All-American basketball player, 1946–1948, while at Baylor University. Awarded the Jack Dempsey outstanding athlete award in 1947, he won a gold medal as an outstanding guard on the 1948 Olympic basketball team in London. During the Olympics he was among a group of athletes who went to Buckingham Palace and were formally presented to the
King, the
Queen and the then
Queen Mother. Subsequently the
BBC broadcast his recollections of the event which included informal meetings with the Princesses Margaret and Elizabeth and later an extended informal conversation with the King during which Robinson corrected the King's misapprehension as to the relative statures of California and Texas. A recording is still extant. ==Career==