As a promising young athlete, Jeremy Robinson was on the basketball court in Kirk Park whenever he could be. Growing up on the city’s South Side, Robinson said he made certain life choices that carved his path to become the first black commissioner of Syracuse’s Department of Public Works.

The basketball court gave Robinson an outlet and direction toward success in a neighborhood he said was largely impoverished in the 1990s. A graduate of Nottingham High School, Robinson captained the basketball and football teams and received a full football scholarship to the Division 1 University of Massachusetts Amherst — where he earned an All-American title and graduated with a dual major in psychology and sociology.

Randy Wright, who coached Robinson on Nottingham’s basketball team in 1995, said he wasn’t like a typical athlete. High school athletes are often stigmatized as not being good students, Wright said, but Robinson was the total opposite. As a coach, Wright saw some students go down a wrong path, but he said Robinson was on a path to success. When Wright heard in December that Mayor Ben Walsh named Robinson as commissioner of the Department of Public Works, he wasn’t surprised.

“He was a big part of our success, a very important piece of the puzzle at Nottingham,” Wright said. “He was always a leader.”

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Robinson returned to Syracuse five years after earning his degree, when a professional football career didn’t pan out. He worked for the Salvation Army Booth House Shelter for runaway and homeless teens and later became a supervisor at Chrysler. Robinson said he didn’t think about working in politics or in the public sphere until he put his name in for DPW commissioner.

“Great moments are born from great opportunities,” Robinson said. “… Mayor Walsh has given me a great opportunity, so why won’t I make a great moment out of it, be a great commissioner for the city that I love?”

Robinson was a witness to tough times in his city. Some children in his neighborhood dealt drugs and partook in other illegal activities, he said, but once people knew he was on track to be an athlete, the neighborhood started looking out for him. Wright said Robinson had to be mentally tough to not let his negative surroundings get in the way of his path.

“Everyone is looking out for each other,” Robinson said. “Back when I grew up, getting in trouble, doing something you ain’t suppose to be doing in the streets, your friend’s mom is like, ‘Boy, stop doing that.’ I owe being who I am not just to my parents, but to the city of Syracuse and the South Side in general.”

After his appointment to the Department of Public Works, Robinson received a letter from Chris Ball, his high school chemistry teacher. Inspired by Robinson’s recent career success, Ball said Robinson, above all others, made him feel like he belonged in the classroom. He said Robinson was an incredibly busy student-athlete but always got everything done with a positive attitude.

“It made me realize how important he was to my success because unless you feel good about what you’re doing, you’re probably not going to enjoy it or last long,” Ball said.

The news of Robinson’s appointment was also well-received by Lazarus Sims, Syracuse’s commissioner of parks and recreation and one of Robinson’s role models. Sims, also a South Side native and former Syracuse University basketball star, developed a relationship with Robinson through sports and Kirk Park.

“We grew up in a neighborhood with drug dealers, drug users, bad people. We chose to go the route we went, to be something better than the avenues we had, and it takes a strong person to do that — a strong person to say no and play football or basketball,” Sims said. “The role model for him was seeing someone from his neighborhood do good and be good but come back and continue to do good.”

Syracuse native Jeremy Robinson captained his highschool’s football team and is now the first black commissioner for the Department of Public Works.
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Robinson’s first official start date as commissioner was Jan. 2, but he went to work and introduced himself the Friday before. He wanted to meet everyone before he started working.

That sense of leadership developed while Robinson was a high school captain and solidified in his football career at Amherst. A week after the team lost the first game of Robinson’s sophomore year to the University of Delaware, Robinson stood up during a conditioning run and told the team losing wasn’t going to be tolerated — the team was there to win.

“He’s a man of accountability, and he made sure everyone was accountable for their responsibilities on the field,” said Mimnaugh Hill, Robinson’s former teammate, who recalled the story about Robinson speaking up during practice. “Jeremy was a great teammate and also a man of principle.”

The team went on that season to win the 1998 national championship.

Nearly 20 years later, Robinson returned to Kirk Park. It’d been a month since he was named commissioner, and the park had changed since he was 18. Robinson said he thanks the park for getting him through his adolescent years, when most people he knew “didn’t make it.” He also thanks the city for being the place where his children were born and are growing up.

Said Robinson: “If the city was a person, I would want to look her in the face and say thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Published on February 4, 2018 at 9:21 pm

Contact Myelle: malansat@syr.edu