Thursday, July 27, 2000

Williams’ journey ends in Abilene
New ACU coach has competed on three continents in illustrious career
By Al Pickett

Freddie Williams’ first words after being introduced at a Wednesday press conference as the new head track and field coach at Abilene Christian University were, “It’s been a great journey.”

Indeed, it has been an odyssey that has taken Williams around the world, first bringing him to Abilene 16 years ago and then returning him to his alma mater this week to become the first black head coach in ACU history.

Williams arrived in Abilene for the first time on Jan. 6, 1984.

“I will never forget that date,” he said.

Williams grew up in Cape Town, South Africa, in the midst of apartheid in that country.

He escaped with his wife and then 2-year-old daughter to come to the United States to run track.

“I can not pay back what this school has meant to me and my family,” Williams said, “but I can show appreciation to what this program has meant to me. The school has been awesome to me. It gave me a free education, and I got to see the world. I’m grateful to the American people for accepting us for who we are.”

Williams said several top college track programs in the United States recruited him out of high school in South Africa.

“I was being recruited by Villanova, but then Jumbo Elliott (the long-time Villanova coach) died,” Williams said. “ACU came along two weeks later and offered me a scholarship.”

Although he had never been to Abilene before arriving here on the fateful day in 1984, he already knew about the ACU track tradition that has produced 45 national championships and numerous Olympians.

“I learned about ACU through a missionary,” he said. “He gave me a 20th Century Christian magazine, and it had Bobby Morrow on the front cover with his Olympic medals.”

Morrow, a former sprinter from ACU, won three gold medals at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia.

Williams and Morrow share more than just their alma mater. They are also the only two Wildcats to win multiple NCAA Division I national championships. Williams was the NCAA Division I champion in the 800 meters (outdoors) and the 1,000 meters (indoors) in 1986. In those days, the NCAA Division II champion was invited to compete in the Division I national meet.

Williams’ journey didn’t end with his graduation from ACU in 1989, however.

He wanted the opportunity to run in the Olympics, but his native South Africa was banned from the Olympics because of its apartheid policies.

So he applied and was eventually granted Canadian citizenship. Williams, his wife Daphne and daughters Lesley-Ann and Megan, have lived in Canada for the last 10 years.

In 1992 Williams was the Canadian team captain at the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, placing 25th in the 800. The following year he took sixth in the 800 at the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, running a 1:45.43 that still stands as the Canadian record.

Williams has spent seven years coaching at the high school and club level in Canada, and he admits he always thought about coaching back in Abilene.

“When the job opened last year, my math professor called and told me about it. So I called Stan (Lambert, ACU’s director of athletics),” Williams said. “He said he had offered it to Jon (Murray, who has served as the interim coach for the last year). I wanted to respect that, and Jon has done a great job.”

When the job re-opened this spring, Williams said alumni again called to tell him it was open. He still hadn’t considered applying for the job when he returned last month for the “Sports Dynasty of the Century” reunion at ACU.

“But people like Earl Young and Moses McCook and others kept asking me when I was going to put my name in the hat,” Williams said.

So Williams interviewed with Lambert and ACU vice president Dr. Gary McGaleb that weekend at the reunion.

“But they said they were still looking at other candidates,” Williams said.

Lambert called him back last weekend and asked him to return for a second interview. He arrived in Abilene Monday night and was offered the job Tuesday.

He accepted immediately, taking over the most successful track and field program in the country and completing a journey that probably even Williams could not have envisioned when he first arrived in Abilene on Jan. 6, 1984.

Contact sports editor Al Pickett at 676-6772 or picketta@abinews.com. We are on the Web at sports.texnews.com.