KOSCIUSKO - If there was a Hall of Fame for honesty, integrity, and bravery, then 2009 Mississippi Community and Junior College Sports Hall of Fame inductee H. D. "Cotton" Robertson would be a charter member.

Robertson's 60 years of life and nearly three decades of coaching are a monument to the character of one of the best persons to ever enter the coaching profession in the state of Mississippi.

Robertson's family accepted the honor during Tuesday night's annual hall of fame induction ceremony held at the Hilton in Jackson. Robertson and 14 others were inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame making it 90 members in the hall of fame. He joins the late Larry Therrell, Melvin Gibson, the late Ode Burrell, Charlie Howard and Hugh Pepper as Holmes' inductees over the last three years.

Hailing from Sallis, Homer D. Robertson was an all-conference guard at Sallis High School where he graduated in 1953. He attended Holmes Junior College in Goodman, completed his junior college degree, and then enrolled at Delta State.

Playing guard for the Statesmen, Cotton achieved the status and honor of being named a Williamson Little All-American Guard in 1956. The same year, he won the school's Most Outstanding Player Award. Coach Robertson graduated from Delta State in 1957.

Two years later, in 1959, Robertson began his 34-year coaching career that would take him to seven different schools as he accepted the head football coaching position at McAdams. His coaching odyssey would take him to St. Martin at Biloxi, Union, Rolling Fork, Pearl, Morton, and Durant. He guided the Rolling Fork football team to two unbeaten seasons and Delta Valley Conference Championships in 1966 and 1969. Robertson's Rolling Fork squads had a record during his coaching stint of 34 wins, 4 losses, and 3 ties.

It was at Durant High school, however, where Cotton Robertson would find his comfort level and greatest fame in high school coaching. He led the Durant Tigers for 20 seasons; and his gridiron teams won 75 percent of their games including a phenomenal streak of 33 wins in a row from 1976 through 1978. His Durant teams won three conference and eight divisional titles plus a North Half runner-up finish.

His Tigers compiled a record of 164 wins, 50 losses, and three ties. One of his brightest stars in the 1970s was Buford McGee, an All-American prep quarterback who would play at Ole Miss and in the NFL.

Coach Robertson, at the time of his death in 1996, was the state's public school football coach with the best win/loss record. Overall his teams had a mark of 230 wins, 123 losses, and eight ties. He received coach of the year honors from the Delta Valley Conference in 1966 and from the East Central Conference in 1975 and 1976. Robertson was an All-Star coach in the 1970 Mississippi High School All-Star football game. He returned to the Mississippi/Alabama game as head coach in 1995, and his Mississippi team demolished Alabama 38-9, the largest margin of victory in the history of the series at that time.

A member since his first coaching days in 1957, Robertson served the Mississippi Association of Coaches with great distinction. As a member of the board of directors and an officer, he gained high praise and respect from his peers. He was a man of his word; and if he told you he would do something, he would do it. His dependability was legendary. Robertson served as president of the MAC in 1996 even though his body was ravaged with cancer.

He met every commitment and obligation to his office of MAC president without complaint and exhibited great courage. He never missed any MAC event during his term as president and showed great courage and will power in a very difficult time of his life. Shortly after his duties as the MAC president concluded, Cotton Robertson lost his battle with cancer on July 29, 1996, at the age of 60.

Cotton Robertson is also honored in the Holmes Community College Sports Hall of Fame, the Delta State Hall of Fame and the Mississippi Association of Coaches Hall of Fame.