J Robinson was one of the most interesting, innovative and influential figures in wrestling history. I appreciated so many things about J — his background and story, how accessible and candid he was with the media, what he stood for, the thousands of lives he helped shape through his intensive camps, his outside-the-box ideas, and the quotes I can still hear him saying: “I’m not very smart, but I can take what other people do and make it work for me.” “If nothing changes, nothing changes.” “You’re either part of the problem or part of the solution.” One-on-one interviews with J often morphed into philosophical conversations. He challenged you to think. Sometimes I felt J would take a contrarian stance on something he didn’t even believe in, either to make you consider another point of view, to gauge the strength of your conviction on the matter, or maybe just because he appreciated a good debate. "Sometimes the problem I have is shutting my mind off," J told me in 2007 for a story I wrote about him when I was writing for ESPN (PDF below). "It continually spews out ideas and thoughts. There are a hundred projects I'd try if I had the resources." J crammed a lot of life into 79 years. He was an Army Ranger who served in Vietnam, a 1972 Olympian, Dan Gable’s right-hand man during the construction of the Iowa dynasty and the guy who turned Minnesota into a perennial power with teams known for toughness and discipline. J was also a guy who — at the age of 55 and after 28 knee surgeries — climbed 14,162-foot Mount Shasta to win a bet with his assistants after the Gophers won their first NCAA title in 2001, and a guy who years earlier went to Oregon with plans of rounding up a couple wild mustangs and wound up renting a semi to haul home 36 horses and two buffalo. "With the horse deal, I asked everybody about it and they said, 'No, don't do it. You don't have anywhere to put them,'' he said. "I listened to people and after a while, I said, 'Here's something I've always wanted to do.' I went and did it and it was one of the most fun experiences of my life." Kyle Klingman and I had the chance to spend a few hours with J one summer afternoon in 2019. True to form, J was incredibly generous with his time, telling stories and reflecting on the lessons he learned — and instilled in others — over nearly five decades in college wrestling. A few of those soundbites are captured in the clips below.