Georgia Tech Athletics Donor Profile: Sid Williams

Writer, lecturer, world traveler, and founder of Life University, Dr. Sid Williams is one of Georgia Tech's best-known graduates and one of its most ardent and loyal supporters. From the beginning, he recalls, it was a "match made in heaven." Growing up in Atlanta as an only child, some of the earliest sounds the young Sid Williams heard were his season-ticket-holder parents cheering for the Yellow Jackets.

That love relationship with Tech was further cemented when, as a part of the Boy Scout program, Williams served as an usher at Grant Field. With those early images of heroic feats on the gridiron etched firmly in his memory, the tall, slim Williams bucked the odds at Tech High School and became a star in his own right. Excelling in both athletics and scholastics, his superlative high school achievements were only a hint of things to come.

After earning all-city and all-GIAA state honors in football and winning records as captain of the track, football and rifle teams, Williams had his choice of over 20 athletic scholarships. Passing over prestigious offers from major universities including both Army and Navy, he clung to his first love, Georgia Tech, which was then coached by the legendary Bobby Dodd.

Throughout the history of his football career, the combination of a slim frame and do-or-die plays often put Williams on the sideline with injuries. That same determination, however, brought him quickly back into the action. Starting out at Tech as a 4th-string end, Williams did not have a very bright future. However, after volunteering to play defense in every scrimmage session, his talents soon caught Coach Dodd's eye. Williams was promoted to the varsity at the Monday morning practice the week of the first 1949 game.

Dr. Williams recalls with pride the ceremonial speech that Coach Roy McArthur tearfully gave to his B-Team players, holding up Williams' promotion to the varsity as an example for them to follow if they wanted to be successful at Georgia Tech football and later in life.

In 1949, Williams played in every Tech football game, knocking heads with much bigger, heavier players at least half of every game. His performance won him a starting position as defensive left end in 1950 and 1951, which put him on the field for nearly every defensive play including the 1952 Orange Bowl game against Baylor University.

Williams continued to ignore his injuries, and even after a jolting hit in 1951 during the University of Florida game severely injured his back, he continued to play as usual--despite the pain. When Coach Dodd ordered a re-examination, the doctors discovered that Williams had received hairline fractures in three vertebrae in the mid thoracic region. The doctors advised Coach Dodd that Williams could play because the fractures had already healed but his injuries would continue to be painful. Coach Dodd spoke up quickly: "If you'd keep on playing, Sid, that would please me real good."

"That's the way he talked," explains Williams. So, even though it was painful to walk or run, Williams continued to play. "Like most of the players, I would have walked through fire for him," Williams recalls.

The 1951 season was one of the greatest in Tech history. The team went 11-0-1 with a perfect 7-0 record in the SEC, the only blemish being a 14-14 tie with Duke University.

"In 1951, Tech limited eight opponents to 194.8 yards," Williams recalls. Coach Bobby Dodd called the showing "a tribute to the heart and finesse of our little defensive team." Dodd continued as he named them all, every man: "Pete Ferris, Lamar Wheat, Ray Beck, Orville Vereen, Bill Thaden, Sid Williams, George Morris, Larry Morris, Jakie Rudolph, Bobby Moorehead, Chuck Brannon."

Dodd explained further: "The team has been on its toes. Our defensive team is just not that good physically. That the boys have done so well is a fine commentary to their determination and intelligence."

Coach Dodd saved some of his highest praise for the 167-pound Williams in 1951 by declaring in a 3-column article by Edwin Pope in the Atlanta Journal: "For his size, Sid Williams is the best end in America. Sid is very clever, can move well and hits as hard as any defensive end I have ever seen. There is something else about Sid and his preparation for the games; he is UP for everybody. There is no way to overestimate his defensive value to our team."

The highlight of Tech's phenomenal 1951 season came when Pepper Rodgers kicked the field goal that gave Tech a narrow win over Baylor in the Orange Bowl. Still wearing his Orange Bowl ring, Dr. Williams fondly recalls the event. "As soon as Pepper saw the ball going between the goal posts, he gave the referee's hands-up signal for a perfect score, and the crowd went wild. It was a great moment for Pepper Rodgers and for all of us at Georgia Tech."

After graduating with a B.S. Degree in Industrial Management, Williams married his college sweetheart, Nell Kimbrough, and the two became a team in both marriage and career. Inspired by the success of chiropractic care in correcting his own football-related spinal injuries, the couple immediately set off for Davenport, Iowa where they enrolled at the Palmer Chiropractic College for four more years of education.

With the same determination that he had demonstrated on the playing field, Doctors Sid and Nell Williams founded Life Chiropractic College in Marietta, Georgia in 1974. By 1990, the prestigious Life University with 4,500 students was home to the largest chiropractic college in the world.

As Dr. Williams traveled throughout the world to promote the chiropractic profession and provide desperately needed healthcare facilities in many developing nations, his earlier exploits on the gridiron often opened doors for him. He fondly recalls that officials of the South African Chiropractic Association once honored him by arranging for a three-piece band to play "Rambling' Wreck from Georgia Tech" as he approached the platform to give his address. "It was amazing," he said. "The entire South African assembly was standing, clapping, and singing Georgia Tech's world-famous fight song."

Throughout the years, Drs. Sid and Nell Williams have contributed to Georgia Tech and its athletic programs in numerous ways. Longtime Life Members of the Alexander-Tharpe Fund, the Williamses have not missed a home football game in nearly fifty years. It is with great pride that they sit in roughly the same spot where Williams's parents had season tickets, often sitting with their own son, Dr. J. Sid Williams, who is not only a Tech graduate, but a graduate of Life University as well. They have traveled to virtually every bowl game over the years, and whenever the team plays in Florida, they usually host a mini-reunion of the 51-52 football teams at their bayside home on St. Armand's Key in Sarasota. Equally enthusiastic about the men's basketball team, the Williamses can be found sitting courtside at nearly every game.

At Life University, Williams hired Coach Roger Kaiser, Tech's legendary basketball player, to build an athletic department from scratch and to personally coach the basketball team. With this dual leadership, Life University quickly caught the attention of the national media by winning over thirty national athletic championships, including three N.A.I.A. national basketball titles.

Looking back at his decades of odds-beating achievements, Williams surmised that one of his greatest blessings was being able to play varsity football at Georgia Tech for three years. "This really changed my life," he said. "I survived a lot of academic stress as well as physical pain, but I learned so much from the mystique of Tech, from the faculty, from my teammates, and from Coach Dodd's leadership. These are the biggest reasons why I continue to love Georgia Tech so much."

Dr. Sid Williams was inducted into Georgia Tech's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999, and he proudly wears his Hall of Fame ring on his right hand.