In May, 1971, a headline in the Knoxville News Sentinel promised a recruiting story for Tennessee basketball fans:

"Tennessee after Jr. College Player''

This wasn't just any junior college player. This was history.

The Vols got that player. Larry Robinson became the first African-American varsity basketball player to wear the orange and white.

Today, 80 percent of the scholarship men's basketball players in the SEC are black.

Those players, black or white, can't remember when it was otherwise. Their parents can, though.

The intentional understatement of the 1971 newspaper headline was typical of UT's low-key approach to athletic integration after the turbulent 1960s.

"I didn't live in a vacuum,'' Robinson said last week from his Knoxville office with The Berry Company. "I was aware of what the situation was.

"But coach (Ray) Mears never talked to me about it and I never talked to him about it.

"It was coach and player.''

Just as it was player and player.

Lloyd Richardson discovered he was Robinson's roommate when the 1971-72 school year began.

"It (race) just never entered the mix,'' said Richardson. "You showed up when you were supposed to show up and coach Mears or (assistant) coach (Stu) Aberdeen said, 'Lloyd, you're in there with Larry Robinson.'

"He was accepted whole-heartedly, and that's a credit to him. He was a joy to be around.''

When Robinson arrived on campus from Ferrum Junior College in Virginia, integration had been under way in SEC sports for several years.

Nat Northington of Kentucky became the first black to play SEC football in the fall of 1967.

That winter, Perry Wallace suited up for the Vanderbilt basketball team.

About the same time, UT's Mears signed a black high-school star from Detroit, Spencer Haywood.

Academics, however, detoured Haywood to junior college and in 1968 he helped the U.S. Olympic team win a gold medal. Haywood would eventually make history, but it would be for leaving the University of Detroit after his sophomore year to jump to the NBA, an unprecedented move at the time.

Mears made one other attempt at integration before signing Robinson.

Rupert Breedlove, a 6-foot-11 center from Knoxville, transferred into the program from Cincinnati with the intent of being eligible in 1970-71.

Breedlove, however, was gone from the team before ever playing a game.

After missing on previous attempts, Mears and his staff had a sure thing in Robinson.

His academics and his character were impeccable.

One of 15 children, Robinson was reared in a Christian home in Appomattox, Va. He excelled at football and basketball.

After playing two years of basketball at Ferrum, Robinson narrowed his recruiting choices to UT and Virginia, which already had integrated its team.

"I wanted to go farther south,'' Robinson said.

"You hear a lot of stuff on radio and TV. I wanted to see for myself.''

It didn't hurt that Mears found a spot on his staff for Robinson's coach at Ferrum, Marty Morris.

Tennessee had integrated its football program in 1968 so Robinson wouldn't be the only black athlete on campus.

Also, Wilbert Cherry, a non-scholarship player from Karns High School, played freshman basketball in 1970-71. He would appear in four games the following year as Robinson's teammate.

Bottom line, Robinson felt comfortable coming to Knoxville.

"I felt if I could be a good citizen, everything would be fine,'' Robinson said, "that I could help the societal situation.''

He was both a good citizen and a good player.

Mears put the 6-5, 190-pound Robinson at the high post (7-footer Len Kosmalski was the low post) and the Vols went 19-6, tying Kentucky for first place in the SEC.

Robinson averaged 10.2 points and a team-best 9.0 rebounds.

His senior year, Robinson was named captain. He averaged 11.7 points and 8.5 boards as the Vols finished second in the league.

He was such a good athlete UT coach Bill Battle offered a football scholarship. Robinson turned it down, but signed with the Dallas Cowboys and played on the taxi squad two years before deciding to start civilian life.

He and his wife moved back to Knoxville in 1980 and never left. Son Winston is finishing up his own career at St. Francis (Pa.) University. Daughter Shannen is studying at North Carolina to become an athletic trainer.

Looking back over the years to the days when black was a lonely color on the basketball court, Robinson doesn't dwell on any hardships, although there had to have been a few traveling around the South.

"Ole Miss was a little different,'' he said with a soft chuckle. "My approach was I did what I had to do and see you later.

"But I was primarily interested in the game. When I decided to come to Tennessee, as far as black or white or red or yellow, we were a team.''