No One Should Forget Doug Williams - February, 2013 - ESPN
It was 25 years ago when Williams broke through to become the first black quarterback to start and win a Super Bowl with the Redskins. The NFL should recognize the moment, but it isn't. just when this week's Super Bowl celebration reaches its bourbon-fueled, Cajun-spiced peak, the football player with the most to celebrate will be leaving. On the 25th anniversary of the game in which he became the first and only black quarterback to win a Super Bowl, Doug Williams will drive back to the northern Louisiana community where he is the football coach at Grambling State University. "Getting up early Sunday morning, getting in the car with my wife, and just going," Williams said. During his brief visit to New Orleans this week, the genial pioneer did some charity work, a few radio shows, and met with old football friends who hugged him and thanked him. They always thank him. His guiding of the Washington Redskins to a 42-10 victory over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXII punctured a hole in the longtime invisible barrier that prevented blacks from playing positions of intelligence and leadership. Football's white coaching and management establishment viewed the Williams-led Redskins' comeback victory as undeniable proof that championship qualities cannot be quantified by skin color. Read More.
Doug Williams Embraces History - January, 2013 - ESPN
In a comfortable ranch home not far from Route 20, the Williams family gathered around the television.
Doug, his wife, Raunda, and son D.J. watched the pomp and circumstance unfold in Washington, D.C. It was Martin Luther King Day and Barack Obama was solemnly swearing on two bibles -- one, formerly owned by King himself, the other by Abraham Lincoln -- that he would faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States for another four years.
Two of the Williams girls, Laura, 7, and Lee, 4, covertly jousted with sharp elbows, their brown eyes gleaming with glee, if not understanding. Some day, they will grasp the significance of the moment. They will also learn that their father has a special place on this continuum.
"Absolutely," said Dr. Harry Edwards, a University of California-Berkley sociologist. "I think we have to understand the history of sports' contribution to the broader culture."
There is a direct line of ascent, Edwards said, from Jackie Robinson to Bill Russell, to Jim Brown to Curt Flood to Doug Williams to Barack Obama.
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Twenty-five years ago, he was breaking barriers. Now, Doug Williams coaches a new generation at Grambling, his alma mater.
It has been 25 years since Williams led the Washington Redskins to victory in Super Bowl XXII, becoming the first African-American quarterback to win the ultimate football game. And surprisingly, he remains the only one. Read More