Collie Nicholson, 85; Promoted Grambling State Football Team

Collie Nicholson, 85, the Grambling State University sports information director who helped make Coach Eddie Robinson’s football program internationally famous, died Wednesday at his home in Shreveport, La., after a long illness, said family friend and spokeswoman Jane Davis.

Nicholson, who was the first black combat correspondent for the Marine Corps during World War II, became sports information director at Grambling in 1948. He brought the art of promotion to the traditionally black school in northern Louisiana, which he had attended before the war.

Among Nicholson’s innovations over 30 years there was the “classic” game, in which Grambling traveled with its marching band to major American cities.

To orchestrate one such game at Yankee Stadium in the 1960s, Nicholson had to sell the concept to the Urban League and the Yankees.

Though Grambling suffered a rare loss, 7-6 to Morgan State, the game was a sellout and spawned a friendship between Nicholson, Robinson and Yankee owner George Steinbrenner.

Nicholson also arranged two Grambling games in Japan in the late 1970s and the now-traditional Bayou Classic against rival Southern University.