BATON ROUGE (AP) _ Pallbearers carried the dark wooden casket of longtime Grambling State football coach Eddie Robinson up the granite steps of Louisiana's capitol building as more than 50 of his former players looked on Monday.

The ex-players, ranging in age from 30 to 85 and clad in dark suits and white gloves, formed lines on either side as the casket was carried up the steps to the somber strains of ``Just a Closer Walk with Thee'' played by the Grambling State University band.

It was the beginning of a grand tribute to Robinson, who was a feed mill worker making 25 cents an hour in Baton Rouge when he heard about the vacancy in the coaching position at Grambling, a small black college in the rural, piney hills of northern Louisiana.

That was more than six decades ago. It was a time when Robinson and fellow blacks lived in segregation, forbidden to patronize restaurants that catered exclusively to whites or to sit anywhere on a public bus but in the back.

When Robinson died last week at 88, state officials immediately made plans for his casket to be placed for a time at the Capitol, an honour more often bestowed upon political leaders such as Huey Long, the former governor and U.S. senator whose days in power coincided with Robinson's youth.

All former Grambling players were invited to a players-only service at the Capitol. The casket was placed in the building's cavernous Memorial Hall for public viewing.

A Louisiana state police honour guard placed American, Louisiana and Grambling State flags behind the open coffin. Memorabilia, trophies and awards from Robinson's career filled the hall, which separates the Capitol's House and Senate chambers.

``It's a celebration,'' said Robinson's grandson, Eddie Robinson III. ``It's a celebration of his life, his legacy. We're in good spirits.''

Doris Robinson, Robinson's wife of 67 years, cried and smiled as the old players walked past, hugging many of them.

``I'm doing OK,'' she said. ``I already miss him so much, but I can't keep breaking down.''

Robinson's body will be brought to Grambling for a wake Tuesday evening and burial Wednesday.

W.C. Gordon, a former Jackson State coach and Southwestern Athletic Conference rival, called Robinson the ``Martin Luther King of football.''

``I don't think you can describe him any better than that,'' said Doug Williams, the former Grambling and NFL quarterback who has been invited to speak during a memorial service. ``There were so many young black men, in a time when segregation was strong, that coach steered in the right direction so they could go out in America and make way for their family.

``He preached being able to thrive in America _ to go out and be whatever to be what you want to be.''

Robinson retired in 1997 with 57 years of coaching and 408 victories to his name.