The Jim Williams Files: The man, the Myth, the Legend of Jim Williams

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Dec 14

1:00 p.m.

Men's Basketball

vs Northern New Mexico

Dec 20

12:00 p.m.

Men's Basketball

at Utah State

Dec 30

7:00 p.m.

Men's Basketball

vs Nevada

Jan 3

6:00 p.m.

Men's Basketball

at Grand Canyon

Jan 6

7:00 p.m.

Men's Basketball

vs New Mexico

By: John Hirn

Since the end of WWII, no men's basketball coach has captured so much spirit, left behind as many stories or won as many games as the legendary Jim Williams. On a bi-weekly basis throughout the 2022-23 men's basketball season, we will look back on the career and many of the games he coached thanks to scrap books, photos and other documents donated to CSU by his daughter in 2019. Along with photos and other stories from the past, Ram fans will have a chance to relive the Jim Williams coaching era, a time when basketball reigned as the king of sports over the CSU campus.

James Jardine Williams was born on March 19, 1915, in Malad City, Idaho and attended the University of Idaho prior to his service in the infantry in New Guinea and the Philippines during WWII. Following the war, he received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Utah State University in 1947 and began coaching at Snow College, also in 1947.

While at Snow College, Williams won 129 games and lost 65, winning four division championships and two conference championships. In the 1953-54 basketball season, Williams guided his team to a second-place finish in the National Junior College Basketball Tournament, catching the eye of Colorado A&M Athletic Director Bob Davis, a Utah University graduate who still had many ties to athletics in that state.

Following the first relevant men's basketball season in school history when the Aggies won the 1954 Mountain States (AKA Skyline) Conference championship, Rams head coach Bill Strannigan took a job offer from Iowa State in May of 1954, leaving Colorado A&M without a head coach. Bob Davis wanted to keep the positive momentum of basketball going by hiring an up and coming 39-year-old Jim Williams.

Williams arrived on the CSU campus in the fall of 1954 to begin his work as the new basketball coach of the Aggies. During his 26 seasons as head coach of the Rams, Jim Williams wore many hats, his most famous as basketball coach. He was an assistant coach on the football team for a brief time in 1955 and as many Ram fans know, served as the school's athletic director from 1965 to 1968, overseeing the construction of Moby Arena and Hughes Stadium while remaining a top-notch coach of the Rams basketball team.

It is his 352-283 record, two conference titles, Sweet 16 NCAA appearance and numerous great players that has given him his legendary name at CSU. Affectionately known as "J.J." by many old-time Ram fans, Williams could argue with a referee better than any coach in school history. Some of his rants have gone down as legendary, some got him into hot water with the administration.

Williams was let go after one of those rants in 1980 but he had a seat on the sideline of every men's basketball game almost until he passed away on May 31, 2007. He brought to this school a level of basketball never seen or even realized and left as a legend in Fort Collins, the state of Colorado and throughout NCAA basketball. Over the course of the next four months, the "Jim Williams Files" stories will remind Rams Fans of his days at CSU and hopefully will bring to light his legendary status to the next generation of Rams fans.

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