‘A coach at heart,’ Saint Augustine’s Williams quietly became a coaching icon

COACH GEORGE WILLIAMS
SAINT AUGUSTINE'S UNIVERSITY

RALEIGH, North Carolina  -- Thirty-two NCAA Division II team championships, more than 150 Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association titles and 200-plus coach of the year awards. But who’s counting? Certainly not George Williams.

Williams, the legendary Saint Augustine’s track and field coach, has built a dynasty at the small, historically black college in Raleigh, N.C., during his 37-year tenure at the helm of the program. 

It was something he certainly never dreamed of when he took over the program as a favor until the school found a permanent replacement for the outgoing track coach in 1976. At the time, he was working as an administrator in the school’s alumni office. 

A 1965 graduate of St. Augustine’s, Williams played basketball for the college and ran track as a way to keep in shape. But he knew nothing about coaching track and field athletes. 

“The first year, I think my team scored four points in the conference championship,” Williams said. “I had always been a part of a winning program in everything I had done and I decided to go talk to Dr. Leroy Walker, who was the track coach at North Carolina Central — a very successful track coach. I asked him about setting up programs and how he did things. He explained to me about biomechanics and techniques and gave me a book about biomechanics. I began to read that and tried his practice schedule.”

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