It’s OK, you can call him ‘Duke’
OU lineman can ‘get real physical’ in basketball

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By Jenni Carlson
Published: October 11, 2008

Oklahoma left guard Duke Robinson is a mountain of a man. While his 6-foot-6, 325-pound frame helps him now, it hasn’t always been easy being the big kid.

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Jenni Carlson: How did you get the nickname Duke?

Duke Robinson: I had an uncle when he was little, they called him Duke. I guess I just kind of fell into it behind him. His name isn’t Duke anymore. It’s Woo now.

JC: Woo?

DR: Yeah. I really don’t know. (Laughs.)

JC: When you first got here, you tried to go with your given name, George. What happened?

DR: When I first got here, everybody called me Duke Robinson. I was like, "No, my name is George Robinson. Duke is a nickname.” But after a while, so many people called me that, I was so used to everybody calling me Duke, it just kind of fell into place.

JC: You OK with that?

DR: I’m OK with it. My dad isn’t OK with it, though.

JC: Your dad?

DR: I’m the second. He doesn’t call me Duke. He calls me Junior.

JC: Tell me about when you started playing football.

DR: I started a little bit my freshman year in high school, but I wanted to be a basketball player.

JC: So, you really didn’t play football until high school?

DR: I was always too big to play little league.

JC: They said, "You’re gonna hurt these guys”?

DR: It would’ve been terrible. But that kind of gave me an edge throughout my whole life — "They wouldn’t let me play when I was little. OK, I’ll show y’all.”

JC: Did you think early on you might have a future in football?

DR: Not really. I wanted to play basketball until my junior year of high school. Then my coach sat me down and told me I couldn’t straddle the fence anymore. I needed to lead the team.

JC: Do you play basketball anymore?

DR: I banged on Big Phil (Loadholt).

JC: Beat him?

DR: Oh, yeah. It was a big-guy game. Me, him and Brandon Walker playing a game of 21. I won.

JC: You strike me as a power player.

DR: I can take ‘em to the perimeter. Head fake ... take it to the hole, bang ‘em. I can get real physical down in the paint.

Want to know about Robinson’s signature dreadlocks? Check out my blog at NewsOK.com.


 

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Can you imagine what it would feel like to be a center in basketball and see Duke driving the lane toward you?
MartzMimic, Oklahoma City - Oct 11, 2008 at 7:31 am

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