Tallahassee Democrat from Tallahassee, Florida • Page 27

i nnrni Tallahassee Jan. 15, 1991 5 Basketball, 3 Recreation, 4 Classified ads, 5 U's first ffoofiball coach dies PORTS FS By Gerald Ensley Democrat staff writer Bill McGrotha Born in Atlanta, Henry Edward Williamson moved to Tallahassee when he was 1. A 160-pound end, he played football for Leon High and the University of Florida (1931-32). He then coached football at several North Florida high schools, before joining the Navy in 1942. program, at FSU.

With the arrival of men students at the former all-women's college following World War II, FSU president Doak Campbell authorized the creation of an intercollegiate athletic program, and charged Williamson with, hiring a football coach. When Williamson's top three choices were rejected by administrators on the grounds that they didn't have a Ph.D. Williamson was asked to take the post. Williamson reluctantly accepted, with the stipulation that he would coach only one year. Williamson and his lone assistant, Jack Haskin, then assembled a program almost out of thin air, rounding up players, equipment, a schedule and practice field in the space of three months.

"Ed coached the linemen; I coached the backs," said Haskin, who also founded the FSU circus. "The boys did very well, although Bobby Bowden has done a little better." In 1948, Don Veller, a former star at Indiana, was hired as head coach, and Williamson returned to his teaching duties. "He knew his football," said Jack Tully, another lineman on that first FSU team. "But his life was not into coaching. He was real low-key guy.

He didn't put a lot of pressure on us. We went out and had fun." Please see COACH, 5D The first head football coach in Florida State history, Ed Williamson, died early Monday morning of cancer. Williamson, 78, coached FSU only in its inaugural season of 1947. The Seminoles were 0-5 that season, losing three of those games by narrow margins. "He kept us as inspired as he could," said Chris Kalfas, a lineman on the first FSU team.

had some real handicaps to overcome. But for a beginning coach, Ed did a real fine job." FSU has had only eight head football coaches in its 44 seasons of football. Williamson is the fust of those coaches to die. Williamson After four years as a gunnery officer, Williamson returned to Tallahassee in 1946 as an assistant professor of physical education, and director of the intramural Seminoles top Hatters 'a -ws By Steve Ellis Democrat staff writer Rattlers roll by ggies -4 By David Lee Simmons Democrat staff writer Could it be that, after losing four starters to graduation, Florida may actually have one of its most balanced teams in years? That is what may be emerging from the early part of this conference schedule, which included a team effort in Monday night's 80-73 win over North Carolina before 3,419 at the Gaither Athletic Center. Kelvin Daniels scored 22 points, Reggie Finney had 19 and Kenny Davis put in 15 points with 8 rebounds and 12 assists as the Rattlers improved to 5-6 overall and 3-1 in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

But that only begins to explain FAMU's win over North Carolina (6-6, 2-3), once the pride of the MEAC as the seven-time champion. So many different players provided "role performances" that show emerging depth for the Rattlers. Like Thomas Dow, the no-touch forward who still scored 8 points but also had 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 blocked shots. Or Darrell Williams coming off the bench for 8 points on 4-of-5 shooting and keeping Aggie guard Glenn Taggart from doing any more than his 21 points. Or Al Lawson coming off the bench and pumping in two quick 3-pointers in the first half to nudge an otherwise cold FAMU offense.

Or even Joey McGear, the awkward, 6-foot-8 backup center who gave Daniels five needed minutes of rest in the first half without hurting the team. "I think they have a little moje flexibility," said Aggie coach Don Corbett. "They kept bringing in different shooters on us." I Finney, however, stayed in the whole time, hitting on 8 of 17 shots with 5 rebounds, 4 assists and. 4 steals in only his second game back from academic eligibility. His other academic-ineligibility soul-mate, DeLon Turner, who missed Please see FAMU, 5D ORLANDO The road heading out of Tallahassee was as bumpy as ever for Florida State, but it finally led to another win away from home for the Seminoles.

They overcame some familiar potholes on the road, including poor shooting, to defeat pesky Stetson 69-64 Monday night in the Orlando Arena. It was just the second victory in five road trips for the FSU basketball team as the Seminoles improved to 8-5. Stetson dropped to 5-9. "It was an exact carbon of what we thought it would be," FSU coach Pat Kennedy said. "We knew it would be tough.

They've always traditionally gotten on us early." Stetson was up by as many as 10 points. The difference, at least in the first half, was the free-throw line. FSU was just 3 of 9 at the line while Stetson made 9 of 11 free-throw tries. "The free-throw shooting was big for them and obviously hurt us, and we were very hesitant on offense at the beginning," said Kennedy. His team shot just 31 percent in the first half, and only 39.7 for the game.

Much of the credit for FSU's comeback from a 6-point deficit in the second half goes to Chuck Graham and Andre Reid. It was Graham who hit a 3-pointer to narrow Stetson's lead to 41-39. He accounted for 8 points in a two-minute stretch that put FSU ahead 57-51 with 5y2 minutes remaining. Graham finished with a team-high 15 points. Charlie Ward added 14 points and had 9 assists, a team-high this season.

As for Reid, he played 21 minutes, his most as a Seminole. The freshman scored 7 points and had 6 rebounds. "Andre Reid was the guy who came in played great for us," Kennedy said. A switch to a man-to-defense was also big in silencing Stetson's perimeter threats. "With Chuck, Aubry (Boyd) and Charlie Ward in there, we thought we could extend our pressure on their perimeter (shooters) and that was very important," Kennedy said.

Stetson was hurt when Lorenzo Williams got into foul trouble just seven minutes into the second half. Williams' fourth foul drew the ire of Stetson coach Glenn Wilkes. He drew a technical that turned into a three-point play for FSU. "I think the ball came down to that one call on Williams," said Wilkes. "I had to take him of the game and he was cleaning up on the boards at that point." Williams fouled out with 5y2 minutes remaining with Stetson trailing 57-51.

For the night, FSU shot just 57 percent from the floor. Only once have the Seminoles made over 60 percent of their free throws on the road this season. It was FSU's third consecutive win after taking two conference games at home. "This is not a big road win. That will probably have to wait until a Metro game," Kennedy said.

FSU loses a coach who started it all Ed Williamson never planned to be Florida State's first head football coach, never really wanted to be. He had worked diligently trying to find somebody else, but the school was insisting upon candidates with doctorates and not so many in 1947 were tying up phones trying to persuade somebody to allow them to coach a non-existent football team. Finally, Dr. Broward Culpepper, then dean of men at FSU and later chancellor of the university system, asked Williamson, an old pal from University of Florida days, if he would be the coach. "I reminded him that I had only high-school coaching experience," said Williamson years later.

"With that said, I told him I would take the job. "For one year. No more." What an unbelievable year it was an adventure, an enterprise far more productive of priceless tales than memorable football. The stories grew, nurtured so by first-teamers at an annual reunion, always highlighted by the old coach's humor-spliced address to his old players. The players will gather again, but it cannot be the same.

Ed Williamson, 78, died early Monday, blindsided suddenly by cancer. A gentleman in the traditional sense, he was indeed a gentle man who could be tough. Williamson never seemed old, playing golf so often and with such ardor. "He just kind of quietly seemed always to be standing tall, and forever smiling," said one of his former players, reaching for words. What I most remember is a delightful wry-and-dry way with words.

"I was born in Atlanta," he said, "but as soon as I found out where I was, I moved to Tallahassee." He was, as a matter of fact, a year old when the family moved here, following the death of his father. His mother died when he was 12. But a boy who grew up pretty much as an orphan became a father figure to many. He would coach high-school football at Lake City, St. Augustine, Hastings and Newberry after playing end for Florida.

In World War II, he was a Navy gunnery officer on the dread Murmansk Run to Russia. While on terminal leave from the Navy, he joined FSU's physical-education department, and soon played a prominent hand in the organization of a men's sports program at a school that, prior to 1946, had been an all-female one. He once recalled a fledgling men's swimming team required to wear bathing caps in competition, because that was the pool rule for women who had previously had the facility to themselves. "It was a successful season," said Williamson of that first men's swim team. "Nobody drowned." His first football squad was a fairly astonishing lot, many players war veterans like himself.

Originally, 125 players came out, but soon dwindled of their own initiative. Williamson recalled actually cutting only one. "He came out to practice smoking a big black cigar," said the coach. Three months prior to an Oct. 18 game here against Stetson in 1947, this team had no name, no players, no coach, no equipment, no stadium.

And it almost beat Stetson, losing 14-6. FSU came quite close its next time, too, losing a rain-plagued game at Cumberland 6-0, and you could fill a book with stories told of that one. Players drew straws some did to see who would make the trip. "Coach wanted to be fair," recalled Jack Tully. "I don't think we had more than 35 players, total, on that trip all on that old piece of bus, along with the equipment.

"Coach said there wasn't much difference in players beyond the first 22, and they would draw straws." Williamson remembered the rain, and officials who called back three FSU touchdowns. "We had officials that were honest," he said, thoughtfuly, "but not knowledgeable." He described a punt in that rain. "It hit, and just spun around down there in a pool of water," he said. With too-high expectations following the first two games, Williamson's team sort of spun around it- self the rest of a 5-game season. And, with characteristic grace, the coach stepped down, as he had said.

'M 1 I 3 fvr 1 Phil SearsDemocrat Florida Thomas Dow skies to slam one home to the delight of the crowd and teammate Reggie Finney during the Rattlers' win Monday night Technical gets FSU fired up By Jeannie Roberts Democrat staff writer The Lady Cardinals kept possession, too, and momentum was theirs, but only momentarily. Louisville tied the game, but the league-leading Lady Seminoles (9-2, 3-0) never relinquished the lead after that. "We had to do something, it was ridiculous out there," Meadors said. "I didn't say anything out of line; I just said it was getting ridiculous." But Meadors was also quick to admit that the foul did what it was supposed to turn the game around for her team. "I didn't do it for that reason, but it was time to do something," she said.

"I didn't know what it was going to do, but it ended up Please see FSU, 5D Marynell Meadors employed a rarely used but well-timed weapon from her coaching bag of tricks on Monday night, which led Florida State to an 83-70 Metro Conference victory over Louisville at Tully Gym: The Technical Foul. Barely five minutes into the second half, and after a six-point Florida State lead had dwindled to three, Meadors took exception to a traveling call against Chris Davis and approached the officials with a few choice words. One quick technical later, Louisville's Tuonisia Turner sank one of two free throws to cut the lead to two. Seminoles get Georgian to commit V- 'V. i i i By Steve Ellis Democrat staff writer planned to visit Georgia Tech.

In addition to Kevin Carter, Florida has signed several junior-college players and picked up commitments from two high school players last week. Neither center Kevin Johnson (Vero Beach) nor linebacker Anthony Riggins (Fort Pierce Central) will be found on all-state honor lists. There's a reason for Riggins, he missed much of his senior season with a back injury. Florida also received a commitment from defensive lineman Jessie Mitchell (Key West) this week. Mitchell, 6-3, 245 pounds, is an all-state performer.

The Miami Hurricanes are starting to get some commitments, although one might not be so secure. According to his Colonial High coach, Juan Please see COMMIT, 5D Florida State has picked up its first public commitment of the recruiting season. Lewis Tyre, named to the Atlanta Constitution's Class AAA all-state team, said Monday he will attend FSU. The 6-foot-4, 250-pound offensive tackle had FSU, Georgia and Georgia Tech as his final three choices. He is from Baxley, Ga.

the same town that gave the Seminoles running back Dexter Carter, now with the San Francisco 49ers, and current defensive lineman Carl Simpson. Tyre is a full qualifier. "The program is generally better than the ones I visited or was going to visit," Tyre said. He already had visited Georgia and had Associated Press Joe Montana, shown here in the 49ers' win Saturday, won AP's Athlete of the Year award Monday. For more, see 2D.

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