Police officer, hockey coach who died leaves ‘huge legacy’
STAMFORD — Doug Robinson watched on as his high school hockey players skated onto the ice for an early morning practice, their eyes heavy, their motions sluggish with sleep. They needed a spark, he thought, a jolt to wake them up.
So, as the players got ready for their warm-ups, Robinson lit some firecrackers and tossed them on the ice behind the unsuspecting players.
“That woke everybody up,” John Santagata, Robinson's friend of 30-plus years and co-coach of the Stamford and Westhill high school co-op hockey team, said with a laugh.
It was this unique blend of playful antics and hard-nosed coaching that inspired players to both fight for Robinson while also enjoying the game they all loved.
“The kids had a lot of respect for him. He was tough when he had to be and kind when he had to be. And he was a little bit of a comedian — he always made the kids laugh a lot,” Santagata said.
Robinson, who died Wednesday night after a threeyear battle against stage 4 parotid gland cancer, left behind a Stamford hockey legacy that spanned generations.
In fact, the Stamford native, who recently turned 60, played a role in all three of the Stamford High School's state championships in hockey.
As a high-schooler, Robinson was a part of Stamford High School's first state championship in 1978. Decades later as an assistant coach, he led his beloved Black Knights to victory over then-crosstown rival Westhill, 4-0, in the Division II final in 2001. Then in 2015, the year Stamford and Westhill combined into a co-op team, Robinson and Santagata led the program to one last state championship victory.
“He leaves a huge legacy in this area,” Santagata said.
According to his obituary, Robinson was born in Stamford in 1962. He lived in Fairfield with his family.
When not on the ice with his players, Robinson could often be found at the Stamford Police Department, where he worked since March 1989.
Through the course of his career, Robinson worked as a community police officer, a drug enforcement officer, a hostage negotiator and an officer in the department's Youth Bureau. He racked up many awards and commendations over those years, while also building decadeslong relationships with some of his fellow officers.
Sgt. Wayne Scutari first met Robinson in the mid-1990s when the two joined the department's Special Services Division, which is now known as the Narcotics and Organized Crime squad.
Scutari said Robinson stood out because of his “hard-working” nature and “great interest in the job.”
“He was a go-to type of guy, a cop's cop. Whatever would benefit the squad, no questions asked, he would forge ahead and do whatever was needed,” Scutari said.
Current Assistant Police
Chief Silas Redd was also in the same Special Services squad with Robinson and Scutari. Over the course, of 60-hour-plus work weeks, Redd said he forged a strong bond with Robinson.
“We really developed a true, true friendship and relationship,” Redd said.
So great were the relationships that Robinson forged with his hockey and police communities that when his fight against cancer took a turn for the worst earlier this year, both communities hosted well-attended fundraisers to try and help.
The Stamford Police Department's fundraiser, which was organized in conjunction with the Knights of Columbus, of which Robinson was a member, featured donations from officers all around the state. While Redd didn't say how much was raised, he did say that it was a “sizable” amount.
“It is absolutely indicative of the type of person Doug Robinson was,” Redd said.
The hockey community's event, the Hockey Fights Cancer fundraiser, was similarly a testament to the bonds Robinson had forged throughout the years.
Though weakened from his three-year battle with
cancer, Robinson made an appearance at the event and stayed for most of the game. He watched on one last time as his sons James and Kevin played alongside generations of those who he'd worked with for decades.
Santagata said players Robinson had inspired throughout his 23-year coaching career turned out for the charity game between police officers and firefighters. Former players came from out of state for the game, others drove hours home from college just to see their former coach for the last time, Santagata said.
“It was a great feeling to see that as a coach,” Santagata said.
Calling hours will be from 4 to 8 p.m. on Monday at the Nicholas F. Cognetta Funeral Home & Crematory in Stamford. A funeral procession with a police escort will leave the funeral home on Tuesday at 9:20 a.m. for a Mass of Christian Burial at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Fairfield at 10 a.m. Interment will be private. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked donations be sent to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.