Doug Williams

Sport: Football

Induction Year: 1993

University: Grambling

Induction Year: 1993

By O.K. Davis
Ruston Leader

On Jan. 1, 1988, Doug Williams wiped out four records on the way to leading the Washington Redskins to a 41-10 thumping of the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXII.

He put new championship game standards in the National Football League statistical manual for most yards passing (340), most yards passing in a single quarter (228), most touchdown passes (4), and longest completion 80 yards).

So, obviously, that would have to be the highlight of Williams’ career. Wrong.

“The greatest thing that ever happened to me during the time I was still playing,” he recalled, “didn’t come on the field. It was on Mother’s Day, 1978, May 3, to be exact. I walked across the stage to get my college diploma. I got a standing ovation.”

Williams chuckled at the recollection. “I don’t know whether they were standing because they were congratulating me on getting my degree or whether they couldn’t believe I had finally gotten it.”

Whatever, Doug Williams won’t soon forget that momentous occasion, particularly with his mother (Laura “Shot” Williams) looking on approvingly from the audience. For the casual observer who keeps up with famous athletic personalities and their accomplishments, the answer comes as a head-turner. To be sure,

William’s long list of achievements could fill up a sports writer’s legal pad and more.

On June 26 in Natchitoches, another honor will be added with him induction into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.

“There’s no place like home and to be honored by your home state is the ultimate an athlete can receive,” he said. “When I was told I was going to be one of the inductees, it struck me so much off guard that I really didn’t know how to react. I began thinking about all of the great athletes and individuals who have made it into our state’s Hall of Fame.”

Doug Williams is one of those great athletes who was a shoo-in for the honor the minute he became eligible. He was voted in by the Hall of Fame’s 25-member selection of the committee on the very first ballot. And for very good reasons. At Grambling State University, he established 11 school records in either total offense or passing and was chosen twice to the All-Southwestern Athletic Conference squad. As a senior in 1977, he was named to the first unit of the Associated Press All-American team, selected as the Louisiana collegiate “Athlete of the Year” and finished No. 4 in the Heisman Trophy race.

He was the very first black quarterback ever named to the first unit of the AP squad, to finish as No. 4 in the race for the Heisman and then to be selected in the first round of the NFL draft (by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1978).

“We had just gotten through playing Temple in Tokyo on Dec. 11,” recalled Williams about the 1977 season. “Our team gathered in the locker room and Coach Robinson (Eddie) got up and told the entire team about how the Heisman Trophy balloting had come out. I didn’t know and nobody else on the team knew.
“He then said that I finished fourth. But he also added that, as far as he was concerned, Grambling State had the Heisman Trophy winner right on their own team. That’s something I’ll never forget. Coach Robinson saying that meant as much to me as winning the Heisman.”

With Williams as a starter, Grambling went 35-5 and won two SWAC crowns.

“He was a quiet leader,” recalled Ron Singleton, a tight end for the Tigers from 1974-77 and now an insurance salesman in New Orleans. “Doug wasn’t one of these rah-rah guys, but you knew he was in charge. He was very stable, very focused and a great competitor.”

And sometimes so competitive to the point of being head strong.

“I can recall a few times when Doug changed a few plays Coach “Rob” had called,” laughs Singleton. “But they worked. Thank goodness.”

Williams, an all-district performer at Cheneyville High, had a strong arm and the instincts to make good things happn in Grambling’s wing-T offense.

“The two best games I ever saw him have came in his senior year,” remembered Carlos Pennywell, a former All-SWAC wide receiver and one of Wilson’s top targets. “Against Temple when he played them in Tokyo, Doug couldn’t miss. Everything he threw seemed to go for a completion. And in a game against Jackson State at their stadium, he completed something like 18 to 20 passes by halftime. They had the number one defense in 1-AA for the entire nation, but we scored something like 40 points on them.”

By the time his senior season had ended, William’s stock in the NFL draft had risen as rapidly as his pass yardage total. He was one of the “must have” prospects. The Buccaneers got him and, with their expansion label, immediately put him to work. It was an oftentimes stormy five-year career in Tampa Bay, even when Williams was leading the franchise into its first-ever playoff appearance.

Unappreciative fans and stalemate contract negotiations made the 6-4, 220-pounder often wish he was back in bayou country, carefree and away from the “fish bowl” atmosphere of a professional athlete.

“He was worried about how he was going to be accepted,” recalled Robinson, one of William’s closest confidantes. “Doug is a very caring, concerned person who wants to do the right thing. It hurt him when fans would boo him even after he might have had a good game.”

Williams bolted to the fledging United States Football League (USFL) in 1984 and played two seasons with the Oklahoma Outlaws. When that league folded, the Redskins signed him in 1986. Two years later, he had beaten out Jay Schroeder for the starting role and was the toast of the pro football world when he guided the ‘Skins to that Super Bowl victory. But even that win had its trying moments, particularly in press conferences leading up to the San Diego-hosted extravaganza.

The “first black quarterback in the Super Bowl” angle was hashed and rehashed to the point of being ridiculous. During one media gathering a few days before the Game, one reporter actually asked Williams, “How long have you been a black quarterback?”

But the quarterback that ex-GSU teammate Singleton said “never came unnerved under pressure” shucked off the constant attention and calmly went out and did his job. He was chosen as the game’s “Most Valuable Player” after putting on the best single-quarter performance by a quarterback in Super Bowl history.
His playing career in the pros came to an end in 1989. During a 12-year stay in the NFL, he had completed 1,240 of 2,407 passes for 16,998 yards and 10 touchdowns. Add on his two-year stint in the USFL and his composite totals feature more than 25,000 yards and nearly 150 touchdowns. He had 13 games of 300 or more yards passing and two games of 400-plus yards. And all achieved with enough adversity to create a modern day Horatio Alger script.

There were the injuries, the death of his first wife, the black quarterback label, the tumulus times in Tampa Bay and Washington.

“I look back on some of the things that I’ve gone through,” said Williams, “and I wonder how I survived. But you know something? I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. It’s made me appreciate the things that I have accomplished even more.”