On This Day: Jimmy Robinson’s Giants Stadium moment, remembered 50 years later

Fifty years after the New York Giants opened Giants Stadium, Jimmy Robinson still marks the date every year. October 10 is the day he gets a call, and the caller is his son, Jim Robinson Jr., with a simple prompt: remember what happened back then. In a “On This Day” reflection, the team tied the anniversary to Robinson’s scoring moment in the stadium’s opener, turning a half-century-old play into a family ritual that still feels immediate.

Robinson’s connection to the franchise is anchored to that specific game in Giants Stadium’s early days. According to the Giants’ official remembrance, Robinson scored in the opening event at the stadium, a detail the team highlights to underscore how firsts can take on a longer life than the box score they belong to. For fans, that kind of moment matters because it is tied to the physical arrival of an era, not just a single win or loss.

The Giants’ account also frames the event as something more than history stored in a record book. Each year, Robinson and his son revisit the same thread, the call serving as a reminder that sports milestones are also personal milestones. The anniversary is described as a tradition, with Jim Robinson Jr. reaching out specifically to talk about what happened “50 years today,” keeping the context alive across generations.

Giants Stadium itself looms large in that context because stadium openers represent more than venue upgrades. They are built around expectation, new sights and sounds, and the promise of a fresh start for a fan base. When the Giants point back to October 10 and to Robinson’s scoring in that opener, they are essentially highlighting the first narrative layer of that project, the earliest evidence that the new setting would deliver on the franchise’s hope for the future.

As with many “On This Day” features, the lasting value is not only the event being recalled, but the way it is recalled. The Giants use the anniversary to connect team lore to a living witness, Robinson, and to a link to the next generation, his son. That combination, a documented moment plus a personal memory, can make old football feel current again, especially for longtime supporters who remember when the stadium was new and for younger ones encountering the story for the first time.

Looking ahead, the anniversary tradition offers a natural lens for how the Giants themselves preserve their past. Players who contributed to stadium eras can become recurring touchstones in team media, especially around landmark dates. For fans, the practical question is straightforward: what other early Giants Stadium stories will the team keep reintroducing, and which names will be paired with specific moments in future anniversary features?