University of Memphis Athletics
M Club Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 2008
Jeff Robinson was a two-year letterwinner at shortstop on a Tiger baseball team that ranked in the top 10 in the country and held the school single season mark with a .556 slugging percentage. That same Tiger team led the NCAA for an entire season in hitting and runs scored and fell just one game shy of the College World Series.
A native of Clute, Texas, Robinson came to the Tigers before the 1977 season. In his first season at Memphis, he broke three school records, setting new marks in at-bats (170), runs scored (50) and triples (6). He also led the team with 16 stolen bases on 18 attempts and had 133 assists from the shortstop position. He hit .335 in his junior season, ranking third on the team behind teammate and former M Club Hall of Fame inductee Alan Robinson, and Phil Smith. That team won a then-school record 34 games, scoring a record 316 runs in the process.
In his senior season, Robinson added the school record for walks (39), moving him to 42 walks for his career, a mark that still ranks in the Tiger top 10. His senior squad broke the school record again for wins in a season with 40 and advanced to the NCAA tournament after winning the Tigers' second Metro Conference Championship. Robinson was named to the NCAA All-Regional Team with teammates James Davis, Blair Gilbert, Dave Parks and Alan Robinson as the Tigers advanced all the way to the South Region championship game with wins over East Tennessee State and Auburn before dropping the second game against North Carolina in the double-elimination tournament to finish the season with a 40-9 mark.
Robinson, who remains in the single season and career top 10 in triples, graduated from then-Memphis State in 1980 with a degree in education.
