Central High Grad, Golden Hurricane Lineman Makes an Impact on the Field, in the Kitchen

By Mike Moguin
GTR Sports Writer

Shemarr Robinson has been a big factor at defensive tackle during his career at Tulsa.
A 6-3, 312-pound senior, Robinson, a former Central standout, had a season-high seven tackles against Navy on Oct. 12.
“It feels good to represent the talent in your backyard,” Robinson said.
His favorite TU moments so far were making a sack against Tulane his freshman year and having a career-high eight tackles, including one for a loss of two yards, against Arkansas State last season.
When he is not playing football, Robinson tends to a hobby in the kitchen.
He began cooking at the age of six.
“When I lived in Mississippi, my mom worked at a school called Olive Branch Elementary in Olive Branch, Mississippi. She would bring stuff back from the cafeteria. First thing I ever cooked was some chicken strips. I just fried some chicken and I thought ‘that’s kind of fun,’” Robinson said.
“Ever since then, I’ve been cooking,” he added.
Robinson is originally from St. Louis. He moved with his family to Mississippi at the age of six, returned to the Gateway City in the fifth grade, then came to Tulsa before his freshman year in high school.
When he reached 11 years of age, Robinson cooked his first full Thanksgiving dinner.
“It was really fun,” he said. “My mom taught me how to cook. But my grandpa is really like the cook of the family. He was in Vietnam, so he knows a lot of different recipes, a lot of different seasonings to put in food. He basically just put all the stuff in the kitchen for me and was like, ‘It’s yours. You can make a Thanksgiving meal,’ and ever since then, I haven’t really missed an opportunity to cook.”
Things worked out well for Robinson the first two times he cooked. But the third time came with incident.
“I spilled a little grease out and I was kind of scared. I was scared for a couple of years after that,” he said.
Eventually, he got past that.
Robinson said that preparing a Thanksgiving can take days.
“You got to season the turkey up and make sure it’s tender enough to put in the oven, if you put it in the oven. I’ve been deep-frying my turkeys the past couple of years,” he said. “You got to make sure it’s ready. You got to prep it. You got to season it. It’s definitely a process that takes days.”
This Thanksgiving, he’ll likely be preparing another dinner.
His favorite dish? Peach cobbler.
“The thing about Peach cobbler is you can make it different every time and the range of flavors you can have on peach cobblers is amazing,” Robinson said. “It’s like how you make chicken a lot of different ways, you can make peach cobbler a lot of different ways. You can make some pie crust, you can throw some biscuits on there every now and then. You can vanilla extract on the peaches. You can throw some extra cinnamon in there. There is just a lot you can do.
“It is a very diverse dessert. Sometimes, you can eat it with ice cream. Sometimes, you can eat it with cake,” he said.
Don’t think Robinson will make meals for his teammates.
“Nope,” he said with laughter. “Because they would try to steal my recipes and I don’t give my recipes out.”
Recently, Robinson has been making some oriental food.
“But fried chicken, sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese and cabbage is probably my favorite combination.”
Perhaps a career in the restaurant business is in store?
“Maybe when I’m old and retired I might give it a shot,” he said. “But, as of now, I just cook for a pastime.
“Whenever I need some food. I can make my own,” he said.