Andy Robison was proud to accept his selection into the Blue Mountain League Baseball Hall of Fame on Wednesday night and thanked virtually everyone in the room at Green Pond Country Club.

But one special person who Robison thanked wasn’t there.

That was his father, Denny Robison, who carved out a remarkable career in his own right at several levels and was best known as a state-championship-winning baseball coach at Pennridge, and then went on to win more titles with the Quakertown Blazers of the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League.

Robison, who was among the first inductees into the Tri-County Hall of Fame and also a 1998 inductee into the Pennridge-Quakertown Sports Hall of Fame, died on Sept. 20. He was 83.

“My dad always had time for people, especially ballplayers, and he never forced things on people,” said Andy Robison, who was a key member of Pennridge’s state championship team in 1987, coached by his father. “If you were interested in learning and showed some interest in getting better, my dad always had time for you. He was always willing to work with you.”

Denny Robison was a 1960 Pennridge High graduate and was an all-Bux-Mont League selection in baseball and basketball, and then played at Moravian College, where he also was a four-year letterwinner in baseball and basketball. He was a team MVP in basketball.

He was an assistant basketball coach at Moravian and then became the baseball and basketball coach at Pennridge. He coached the Blazers in the ACBL for 24 years and won six league titles with the first coming in 1986 and the last coming in 2005.

But the high point without question was guiding Pennridge to the 1987 PIAA 3A title. At that time, 3A was the highest classification.

In that special spring, Robison’s Rams won the District 1 title and then defeated Parkland 4-1, Northeastern from District 3 by a 9-1 score, and routed Valley View from District 2 11-1 in 4.5 innings before taking on District 7 champ Bethel Park. Pennridge prevailed 6-5 in nine innings for the first and only state title in Pennridge history.

“What a group of kids this is,” said Robison that day at Shippensburg University’s Grove Field. “They just kept battling all year long. You just had to wonder how many times they could keep coming through. But they just kept coming back and wouldn’t be denied.”

Robison also kept coming back to the game he loved and the young athletes he wanted to develop into better people.

“I think Denny was always the same person,” his wife Barbara said. “I mean, he had a way he felt things should be. He didn’t make a big to-do about it. Whether it was with the kids he coached or the kids in our family, Denny wanted them to do what they thought, in their hearts, was right. He loved baseball. I can’t remember a time when, between the children or Denny, we weren’t going to some event. The great thing about him coaching the Blazers all of those years was that I got to go along and work the concession stand.”

Andy Robison said he remembered making a surprise visit home from West Chester, where he played collegiate baseball, before spending the last 38 years playing and then running in the Limeport Dodgers in the BML.

“I came home because I wasn’t hitting that well for a couple of days, and I wanted to go hit with him,” Andy Robison said. “And when I walked into the house, I could tell that working with me wasn’t what his plan was for that evening. But he never said no. He was always willing to help me whenever I needed it. And it wasn’t just me. He did that with a lot of people. He made time for everybody. He never needed the recognition for it either. He just wanted to help.”

Robison was happy he got to share the 1987 state gold with his father.

“Really, when you looked at our team that year and rated them caliber-wise, we probably had very little business being where we were,” he said. “But I think the chemistry of the team was so special. It was just one of those moments where everything came together. Not a lot of people can say that they won a state championship in baseball. I can always say I won one with my father.”

 

Originally Published: October 12, 2025 at 10:42 AM EDT