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DALLAS, Texas - Per a team official, three-star wide receiver Tray Rabon (Dallas, Texas/Skyline) has switched his commitment from Kansas State to Grambling State.
Jason R. Garrett, the recruiting coordinator at Skyline, said Rabon and Kansas State parted ways shortly after the Texas Class 5A Division I state semifinal in mid-December. Rabon, a 6-foot-2, 195-pound receiver, will get a chance to show off his skills for a Grambling team that won the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) championship last season.
“Tray hadn’t heard from [Kansas State], and he basically was preparing for the worst,” Garrett said. “They said they were going a different direction, but Grambling saw some film on him. [Head coach Doug] Williams called and talked to me, Tray and [Skyline] Coach [Reginald] Samples. Now, it’s official.”
Grambling, Louisiana -- Doug Williams wasn't quite as confident as D.J. Williams when he saw his son change the final play call of Grambling's 30-24 victory Saturday at the line of scrimmage.
The Tigers had broken the huddle planning to run the ball, play conservatively and set up a Zoltan Riazzo field goal — until D.J. saw single coverage on receiver Mario Louis. The freshman quarterback said he knew Louis would come down with the ball, but the veteran coach was a bit more nervous.
"You stand on the sidelines and you saw him change the play, and I'm sayin', 'What are you doing?'" the coach said. "We always tell 'em all the time, 'Be football players.' We always talk about instincts. I'm gonna give credit to Mario and D.J. and the offensive line."
D.J. took the final two snaps against the Delta Devils after sophomore Frank Rivers completed 14 of his 23 passes for 211 yards and two touchdowns, both to Louis.
Grambling, LA - When nobody believed in Everson Walls, and that was often, he always believed in himself. "You're going to have to have the heart," he would tell himself. "You're going to have to come through for yourself."
Finally, after years of steady effort, the former Grambling State defensive back came to understand one of football's basic truths: "Whatever was going to happen for me," Walls said, "would have to happen because of what I did on the field."
During Walls 14 seasons, he was a four-time Pro Bowl selection and won a Super Bowl with the NY Giants.
That tireless ambition to overcome whatever obstacles lay in path paid off with league titles in college, pro bowls and a championship in the NFL and, this weekend, induction as part of the third class of the Grambling Legends Sports Hall of Fame. The sold-out ceremonies will be held Saturday at the Hobdy Assembly Center on the Grambling campus.
Monroe, LA - Larry Wright, the product of a single-parent home in the poorest part of southside Monroe, never let his humble beginnings slow him down. He'd help teams win basketball championships in high school and college — then titles in the NBA and overseas.
That fiery determination will be recognized with Wright's induction July 16 as part of the third class of the Grambling Legends Sports Hall of Fame.
"The best small guard we've ever had, pound for pound the best guard," Wright's coach, the late Frederick C. Hobdy, once said. "A great jumper, he gets an 'A' in every category."
Wright was a two-time Parade All-American at Richwood, where he won a Louisiana state Class 3A title in 1972 as a junior under...
Detroit, MI - Lions senior personnel executive James (Shack) Harris will be inducted into the Grambling Legends Sports Hall of Fame on July 16 in Grambling, La.
Harris, who played quarterback for legendary coach Eddie Robinson, helped Grambling win or share the Southwestern Athletic Conference title in 1965-68 and compiled a 31-9-1 record. In 1969, the Buffalo Bills drafted Harris in the eighth round. In 1974 with the Los Angeles Rams, Harris became the first African-American quarterback to start an NFL conference championship game.
Harris said he was inspired to dream big and play quarterback in 1963, when he watched Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his "I Have a Dream" speech on television. In a released statement, Harris said playing for Robinson at Grambling was "probably the greatest decision I ever made. Coach Robinson told me, in four years I would play quarterback in the NFL -- and I believed him. And I believed in Martin Luther King's words."
GRAMBLING, LA— Following the resignation of J. Lin Dawson, Grambling State University President Frank G. Pogue has asked Aaron James Assistant Professor of Kinesiology, Sport and Leisure Studies, to serve as Interim Athletic Director, effective immediately.
James, a 1974 graduate of Grambling and first round draft pick up of the Utah Jazz, has also served Grambling as assistant Women's Basketball Coach, Head Men's Basketball Coach, Assistant Director of Athletics and Athletic Liaison for the Office of Development.
“I would like to thank Dr. Pogue for his confidence in me and I feel that as a Gramblinite and a former athlete it's a great opportunity to head the department,” said James.
Dr. Pogue announced that a search committee will be named very soon to conduct a national search, assisted by an executive search firm for Dawson's replacement. This search committee will be chaired by Dr. Steve Favors, Assistant Athletic Director for Athletic Promotions, Marketing and Advancement.
The Grambling Legends Sports Hall of Fame will induct its third class of honorees during a gala ceremony to be held Saturday, July 16, at the Frederick C. Hobdy Assembly Center on the campus of Grambling State University.
This year’s honorees include former NFL Pro Bowl MVP James “Shack” Harris, former Super Bowl champions Gary “Big Hands” Johnson and Everson Walls, former NBA champion Larry Wright and Douglas Porter, already a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.
Tickets may be purchased through the PayPal link on the group’s Web site, at gramblinglegends.net, or by contacting Albert Dennis III by phone at (318) 261-0898 or by email at albertdennis3@bellsouth.net.
Biographical details on this year’s class of inductees follow:
FRANK GARNETT (baseball) – A New Orleans native, Garnett was a three-sport letterman and a state champion in both baseball and basketball at St. Augustine High. He then served as a team captain on the 1962-63 Grambling baseball teams, as the Tigers advanced to the national NAIA baseball tournament for the third of what would be four times between 1961-67. He was named all-conference in each of his four years on campus – once at first base, twice at third base and once a shortstop – and earned first-team All-America honors in 1963. Garnett, later a longtime Los Angeles area educator, then signed a baseball contract with the Washington Senators, and played seven seasons of minor league baseball.
JAMES “SHACK” HARRIS (football) – A senior personnel executive for the NFL’s Detroit Lions, the Monroe, Louisiana, native led Grambling to SWAC championships in each of his four years as quarterback and was named MVP of the 1967 Orange Blossom Classic. Drafted by the AFL’s Buffalo Bills, he would become the first black player to start a season at quarterback, the first to start a conference championship game and the first to be named MVP of the Pro Bowl over the course of a career that also included stops with the Rams and Chargers.
TASHA HOLLIS (women’s basketball) – A standout at Grambling from 1988-91, the Mobile, Alabama, native scored a total of 2,058 points. She boasted a career shot percentage of 58 percent, and a free-throw average of 64 percent. That included scoring in double figures 75 times in 85 games played. The Lady Tigers, under fellow Grambling Legends Sports Hall of Fame coach Pat Bibbs, claimed the SWAC regular-season and tournament titles in 1988-89. Hollis also notched double figures in rebounds in 69 career games, and had 140 blocked shots and 142 steals.
DELLES HOWELL (football) – Famously started at Grambling as a freshman cornerback, then in the NFL as a rookie. The Monroe, Louisiana, native starred on a trio of Southwestern Athletic Conference title teams for fellow Grambling Legends Hall of Fame coach Eddie Robinson, then for the New Orleans Saints and New York Jets in a six-season NFL career – collecting 17 career interceptions. He has found a second calling in the ministry, serving as pastor of New Light Baptist Church in northeastern Louisiana.
JAMES “HOUND” HUNTER (football) – Drafted 10th overall out of Grambling, where the two-time All-SWAC corner claimed a league championship in 1974, Hunter led the NFL’s Detroit Lions in interceptions in 1976-77 and in 1980, eventually logging 27 career picks. Hunter was runner-up for NFL defensive rookie of the year before a neck injury in the early 1980s shortened a promising pro career. He died of an apparent heart attack in 2010; Hunter was just 56.
GARY “BIG HANDS” JOHNSON (football) – A three-time All-SWAC defensive tackle, the Shreveport, Louisiana, helped Grambling to a trio of conference titles before becoming the first pick of the 1975 draft for San Diego, playing for the Chargers until a 1984 trade to San Francisco – where he won a Super Bowl. Johnson made the Pro Bowl in each of the 1980-83 campaign, setting a 17 ½ sack season record for San Diego that still stands. Johnson died in August 2010 at age 57, having never recovered from a stroke he suffered the previous July.
JAMES JONES (basketball) – Averaged 20 points and 8 rebounds a night over 104 career games, as fellow Grambling Legends Sports Hall of Fame coach Fred Hobdy led the Tigers to three SWAC championships, then was selected 13th overall by the Baltimore Bullets in the 1967 NBA Draft. He finished as one of the old ABA’s all-time leaders in every category, becoming just the second in league history to score more than 2,000 points in one season. Jones played seven years in the ABA and then three with the NBA’s Washington Bullets.
FRANK LEWIS (football) – Part of the Pittsburgh Steelers first two Super Bowl-winning squads, Lewis helped Grambling to a SWAC crown and then led the league in scoring over his final two seasons. A two-time all-conference wingback, he finished with 42 career touchdowns at Grambling, then had nearly 400 receptions and 40 touchdowns in the NFL. Later an all-pro with the Buffalo Bills, Lewis was the first player in league history to gain 100 yards in receiving in postseason games for two different clubs. He is employed in workforce development in south Louisiana.
ALEX PERO (baseball) – In 1962-63, Pero had a staggering 0.00 ERA to help Grambling to the national NAIA baseball tournament. Grambling led the nation in ERA that season, and the team would earn NAIA berths four times between 1961-67 under fellow Grambling Legends Sports Hall of Fame coach R.W.E. Jones. In 1965, Pero set a Division II mark for strikeouts per nine innings amongst 50-game starters that to this day remains second all time. He played for three seasons in the minor leagues. Pero passed in 2009 at age 65.
EVERSON WALLS (football) – An all-conference selection for the SWAC champion Tigers, Walls led the nation in interceptions in 1980 – setting a school record that still stands. He then played 14 NFL seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants and Cleveland Browns, leading the league in picks in both 1982 and 1985, earning All-Pro honors three times and a Super Bowl after the 1990 season with the Giants. The Texas native works as a businessman in Dallas.
VISIT: GIFTFORLIFEFOUNDATION ROBERT WOODS (track and field; football) – A two-sport star, Woods left Grambling in 1978 with a SWAC championship and all-conference honors as an undersized but unstoppable wingback for fellow Grambling Legends Sports Hall of Fame coach Eddie Robinson. He was the Bayou Classic MVP of 1977, then was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in ’78. Woods played two seasons in the NFL. Now executive director of a residential treatment center for adolescents in Houston, Texas, he has worked in the mental health field for more than 20 years.
LARRY WRIGHT (basketball) – Wright, of Richwood, Louisiana, helped Grambling to the 1976 league tournament championship and then led the Washington Bullets to an NBA title in 1978. A former head basketball coach for the Tigers, Wright was a two-time all-conference selection, a two time NCAA small college All-American and the SWAC player of the year in 1975-76. Later, Wright was a celebrated player overseas, earning MVP honors as Roma claimed its first-ever European title. He currently serves as an associate high school principal in northeastern Louisiana.
AL DENNIS JR. (pre-1960 honoree) – A New Orleans native and World War II veteran, the late Dennis was one of Grambling’s most celebrated early football captains. Playing from 1946-49, he was a two-time All-America blocker for future College Hall of Famer Paul “Tank” Younger. In 1968, he would become the first African-American to receive a master’s degree in health and physical education from Northwestern State University in Louisiana. He coached and taught for more than 45 years, notably at Brown High in Springhill, Louisiana.
DOUGLAS PORTER (contributor) – A former assistant at Grambling under Eddie Robinson, Porter was a head coach at FCS programs Mississippi Valley State (1961-65) and Howard (1974-78) and finally at Division II Fort Valley State (1979-94), earning induction into the College Football Hall of Fame (2008). He has remained a trusted advisor for every coach to have succeeded Robinson, and was instrumental in the efforts to construct a museum in Robinson’s honor on the Grambling campus.
Grambling State did both the expected and the unexpected in its Southwestern Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament opener Wednesday morning at Fair Grounds Field. The Tigers, the West’s No. 2 seed, shut out Mississippi Valley, 4-0, but did something they did not do in their run to last season’s tournament championship game -- commit an error.
“In the first game,” said GSU coach James Cooper, whose team will face either Texas Southern or Alcorn State today at 3 p.m.. “One of the best things a guy can do after he makes a mistake is to get another ball exactly like it to get his confidence (back).”
With the way Richard Bautista pitched, GSU (23-24) never lacked for confidence. The sophomore right-hander tossed a complete-game, six-hitter to improve to 7-2.
Shreveport, LA - Grambling baseball coach James Cooper knows first-hand just how good Shreveport has been to his school. After all, it was less than a year ago when Cooper's Tigers stormed through the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament to secure an NCAA regional berth.
The Tigers' chance at an encore begins today at 9 a.m. when they face Mississippi Valley State at Fair Grounds Field in the first game of the 2011 SWAC Tournament.
"Shreveport has been good to the university," Cooper said. "We had the Port City Classic when the football team came and played (Louisiana) Tech last fall and we were able to win a championship here last year. We feel it's going to be a home game since we're right down the road." The Tigers (22-23) enter this year's tournament in a much different frame of mind than in 2010.
An East Baton Rouge Parish jury awarded former Grambling State University head football coach Melvin Spears Jr. nearly $600,000 on Friday after finding the school breached his contract when it fired him in late 2006.
Spears, who guided Grambling to the Southwestern Athletic Conference and black college national titles in 2005, was named head football coach at Alcorn State University earlier this year.
“It’s a great opportunity to be vindicated. I’m elated,’’ Spears, 51, said of the verdict by a jury of nine men and three women.
The panel voted unanimously to award Spears $449,500 for breach of employment contract and tacked on $11,000 in penalty wages and $139,000 in attorneys’ fees.
Baton Rouge, LA — Former Grambling State head football coach Melvin Spears Jr. was awarded nearly $600,000 by a jury that ruled the school breached his contract when he was fired in 2006.
Spears had a five-year contract when the university believed it could fire him with cause after the third season due to an NCAA investigation. However, the NCAA didn't find any major violations.
Spears, who was 20-14 at Grambling State and led the Tigers to Southwestern Athletic Conference and black college national titles in 2005, was named head coach at Alcorn State, also a SWAC school, earlier this year.
Grambling head baseball coach James Cooper had a lot of holes to fill heading into this season as his team began the defense of its 2010 SWAC Tournament championship.
The Tigers had to replace their entire outfield, both corner infielders, a second baseman and a catcher. Only three of the top players from the championship run — shortstop Chris Wolfe and starting pitchers Adrian Turner and Richie Bautista — were back in 2011.
Yet the Tigers are playing better now than they were at this point last season, holding on to second place in the SWAC Western Division standings. GSU is 10-5 (17-17 overall) in league play, and has the same number of losses as first-place Southern (13-5).
In 2010, the Grambling State baseball team seemingly came out of nowhere when it caught fire late in the season, captured the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament championship, and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
This season, the Tigers have been in the thick of the SWAC race all along.
Grambling (16-15 overall, 10-5 SWAC) now sits in second place in the SWAC Western Division standings, one game behind first-place Southern (19-12, 11-4). The Tigers visit Alabama State today for a doubleheader starting at noon in Montgomery, Ala.
MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- Alabama State University has a busy Saturday of athletic events planned, which will include the annual Black and Gold football game set for 2 p.m. at Hornet Stadium.
The Hornets held their final of 14 spring practices prior to the game, which will feature a defensive unit returning several key players and a defensive coordinator back for another year. The defense ranked second in the SWAC in fewest points allowed and third in total defense.
The offense is learning a new scheme, which is being installed by first-year offensive coordinator Fred Kaiss.
Philadelphia, PA - He's only an internet search away, but Doug Williams laughs that some of his Grambling State football players may not know a lot about what he has accomplished within the storied program or during his NFL career.
"Those young guys, sometimes they don't keep up with stuff. They might not," he said, chuckling. "They don't have to embrace me. I think it's important they embrace Grambling - the legacy and the history of Grambling."
There's no escaping that Williams has been a big part of the program that legendary coach Eddie Robinson built, first as a player from 1973-77 and then as Robinson's successor during a six-year coaching tenure from 1998-2003.
ASU Coach Lewis Jackson and the Hornets are rolling to the Big Dance
GARLAND, Texas - Tremayne Moorer scored 14 points and Tramaine Butler added 13, lifting Alabama State to a 65-48 victory over Grambling on Saturday night to win the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship and a trip to the NCAA tournament.
The Hornets are sure to be a low seed considering they are only 17-17. At least they have momentum going for them — they were 6-16 at the start of February, but head into the tournament on an 11-1 run. This victory avenged their only loss in their recent spurt, a one-pointer on the road in the regular-season finale.
Grambling (12-21) reached the SWAC tournament finals for the first time on a big roll of its own, winning nine of 11. The sixth-seeded Tigers led 28-26 at halftime, then fell apart.
The red-hot Grambling basketball team's fire finally burned out in the second half of the SWAC tournament championship game. The Tigers led Alabama State by two points at halftime, but were badly out-played in the second half and lost 65-48 at the Special Events Center in Garland, Texas.
The second half opened with GSU leading 28-26, and Alabama State quickly tied the game at 30-30 after a jump shot from Shareif Adamu. A Tramaine Butler layup gave the Hornets the lead, and from that point the lead only continued to grow.
Garland, Tx. –Alabama State defeated Grambling State 65-48 at the Special Events Center in the 2011 Farmers Insurance Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament Championship. The victory gave Lewis Jackson his second conference tournament crown in his six years as head coach and the school's fourth.
ASU led 10-4 at the 15 minute mark of the first half. GSU responded with a pair of layups each from Justin Patton and Donald Qualls tying the game at 10 apiece. Qualls scored 35 points the night prior in the semi-finals against Jackson State. He finished with only 12 points on the night to lead Grambling.
Grambling's first lead came off of a Peter Robinson jump hook to make the score 22-20, with just under seven minutes to play before halftime. Four free throws later from Qualls and all of a sudden GSU led 26-20. The biggest deficit the hornets would see all tournament long.
GARLAND — With its season hanging in the balance, Prairie View A&M turned to freshman guard Siarra Soliz. The Southwestern Athletic Conference’s freshman of the year didn’t disappoint.
Soliz made a clutch basket and drew a key charge in the closing seconds of Friday’s SWAC semifinal against Grambling State at the Special Events Center, helping the second-seeded Panthers hang on for a 47-41 victory that sent them to the league championship game for the first time since 2009.
Prairie View (20-11) will face top seed Southern, a 78-53 winner over fifth-seeded Mississippi Valley State, at 5 p.m. today.
GARLAND, Texas - Prairie View A&M advanced to the championship round of the SWAC Tournament for the fourth time in five seasons as the Lady Panthers knocked off Grambling State 47-41 in the semifinal round on Friday at the Special Events Center in Garland, Texas.
After senior guard Dominique Smith hit the game's opening basket, the Lady Panthers found themselves down quickly as GSU opened with a 7-0 surge for a 7-2 margin nearly five minutes in. The Lady Panthers regained the lead three minutes later as senior Whitney Williams, sophomore Sharde Henry and freshman Siarra Soliz hit baskets en route to a 9-7 advantage.
With the lead back in their possession, the Lady Panthers turned up the intensity on both ends of the court as they held Grambling State to only seven points over a span of 11 minutes. Offensively, Prairie View A&M continued to roll as Dominique Smith and Robin Jones hit a pair of baskets which extended their lead to double digits at 24-14 with 4:14 remaining.
The Grambling State Tigers just aren't quite ready to call it a season.
As the calendar was turning from January to February, the Grambling season appeared to be lost. Their record was 3-17, with a 1-8 mark in SWAC play. Somewhere, a switch was flipped. The Tigers won seven of their final nine contests, entered the SWAC tournament as the #6-seed, and promptly knocked off #3-seed Mississippi Valley State.
So Grambling wasn't going to let a measly 10-point halftime deficit against #2-seed Jackson State slow them down. They stormed back to score 41 second-half points, force overtime at a 66-all tie, and kept right on rolling to an 81-75 win in Friday's SWAC semi-final.
GARLAND, TEXAS — They milled around the hotel lobby, some slouching on couches, others leaning against walls and a few walking around aimlessly - their faces in a blank stare, pointing at the ground.
Moments ago, the Jackson State basketball team had its season end in a most revolting fashion: The No. 2-seeded Tigers blew a late double-digit lead. They committed a flurry of late fouls and turnovers. They allowed a missed free throw to be put back to force overtime.
And they lost to No. 6-seeded Grambling 81-75 in overtime Friday in the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals - a wild game not to be erased from their memory banks for some time.
GRAMBLING, La. — Grambling State University was thought to have pulled off some sort of coup by luring back Doug Williams for a second stint as the Tigers' head football coach.
After all, how often does a school lose a coach the caliber of Rod Broadway, after signing day, and manage to take a monumental leap forward?
Hardly ever, as you could tell by the visible and audible jubilation pouring from Grambling alums, athletes and supporters — many who made lengthy journeys to mark the occasion Wednesday.
Doug Williams sat intently as Grambling president Frank Pogue and athletics director Lin Dawson talked about him, but as the Tigers' new head football coach stood, held his black and gold baseball cap and began to address the room, he couldn't help but crack a wide smile.
"Wow," he said. "We are Grambling."
About 200 people tried to pile into a room with about 100 chairs for the press conference Wednesday morning at the Eddie Robinson Museum to officially announce the old news that Robinson was returning for a second stint as the head coach.
When Thomas Wolfe penned, "You Can't Go Home Again," it's obvious Doug Williams didn't get the memo. Maybe he skipped that class when he was a student at Grambling State University.
But today, the Grambling community is quite happy Doug Williams doesn't know you can't go home again. And if he did indeed dash out on literature, it hasn't shown up on his permanent record.
Doug Williams acknowledges that coaching his son in his second stint at Grambling State may be a challenge, but it has to be easier than navigating what he calls the NFL's good ol' boys "fraternity."
Williams resigned over the weekend as general manager of the Virginia Destroyers of the UFL in order to return to Grambling State and criticized front-office opportunities for minorities in the NFL. He spent six seasons in the Tampa Bay Bucs' scouting department (from 2004 until last May) and hoped to become an NFL GM.
"The good ol' boy network is alive and well,'' Williams said in an interview with tampabay.com. "But it's changed from the good ol' boy network to the fraternity. I always find a way to overcome and just keep going forward. I look at it this way, you've got guys sitting in the front office that never coached.
TAMPA, FL - As he looked out at the faces of his football players gathered in the Tampa Bay Tech auditorium early Wednesday afternoon, C.C. Culpepper couldn't hold back the tears.
Culpepper was overcome with emotion as he revealed he was leaving TBT as head coach to accept a job as defensive backs and special teams coach at Grambling State University.
"If it wasn't for your hard work, practicing and playing, listening to me scream and cuss, I would not have this opportunity," Culpepper told his players. "It's the young men of Tampa Bay Tech who have given me this chance."
And despite how much work he put into TBT to change it from a perennial loser to one that reached the region semifinals the past three seasons, Culpepper said coaching at Grambling was just an opportunity that doesn't come around often.
The most prosperous era in Tampa Bay Tech football history concluded earlier today, when Titans coach C.C. Culpepper informed his players he is stepping down to join Doug Williams' staff at Grambling State University.
TBT principal Scott Brooks confirmed Culpepper, also a highly respected business teacher at the school, informed him first thing this morning he was resigning. He's the fourth Hillsborough County coach to step down -- either voluntarily or by force -- this offseason.
"When Doug Williams calls and asks you, I'm not sure how you tell him no," Brooks said.
Grambling's 2010 season will be a tough one to follow. After finishing the regular season with an 18-30 overall record, the Tigers became scorching hot in the postseason.
They swept through the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament, outscoring the opposition 47-10 over four games to capture the program's first conference title in 25 years.
The Tigers have had a lot of turnover in their roster since then, but they still enter the 2011 season with ...
Grambling State baseball coach James Cooper can be forgiven for looking back a little bit.
Nine months ago, Cooper and his Tigers authored one of the greatest weekends in recent GSU baseball history — sweeping through the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament at Shreveport's Fair Grounds Field to earn an NCAA regional berth.
"We've actually tried to pick up where we left off," said Cooper, whose team opens the season against...
Doug Williams is leaving his position as general manager of the UFL's Virginia Destroyers to become coach of Grambling for the second time.
Williams previously succeeded Eddie Robinson in 1998 and compiled a 53-17 record in six seasons with three Southwestern Athletic Conference championships.
Part of the lure of returning to the job is the opportunity to coach his son, D.J. Williams, who signed with the school earlier this month.
Doug Williams succeeded legendary coach Eddie Robinson at Grambling in 1997. After leaving for other football ventures, Williams, the Super Bowl winning quarterback, is returning home.
This time, he’ll coach his son with the Tigers. Williams told ProFootballTalk.com that he is leaving his post as general manager of the Virginia Destroyers in the UFL.
“I was looking forward to working with the Destroyers, but this is a great opportunity for me and it is very rare that a father gets to coach his son at the college football level,” Williams told ProFootballTalk.com. “I went to school there, I coached there, and now I have a great opportunity to coach there again.
General Manager Doug Williams' presence was stable through the Virginia Destroyers’ birth pains, which have included defections of coaches and team presidents.
No longer. Williams, once a Super Bowl-winning quarterback for the Washington Redskins, is out the door of the struggling United Football League team, too.
Williams was hired today as head coach at Grambling State University in Louisiana, where he played and also served as head coach from 1998 to 2003. He will be formally re-introduced Wednesday.
DALLAS, Texas - Per a team official, three-star wide receiver Tray Rabon (Dallas, Texas/Skyline) has switched his commitment from Kansas State to Grambling State. 
