Coach Williams Tells ‘Why I Love Central!’

In the spring of 1970, Robert Williams was teaching American history at all-black Chaneyville High School when his supervisor, Dr. Helen Brown, told him, Congratulations, you’re going to Central High School!

He was to be the first “crossover”  black coach assigned to all-white Central High School. Williams was so upset that he and his wife moved to Chicago that sum- mer, so he could continue to teach at an all-black school.

By August 1970, he was AWOL from the East Baton Rouge Parish school system. Two weeks into two-a-day football drills at Central High, he was in Chicago. His wife told him, “Robert, if you’re running away from integration, you’ll be running all your life!” 

Shortly afterwards, he received a call from Mr. Charles Kinsley, principal at Central High School. “Robert, I’d like to meet with you. Would you mind coming to my office?”

Robert Williams made it to the principal’s office at Central High, where Mr. Kinsley said, “Robert, I’d like you to be our head baseball coach at Central and assistant football coach. If you come on board, I’ll pay you for the two weeks you’ve missed.”

Williams thought about it, smiled, and said, “I’ll give it a try!”

A couple of days later, he pulled up in the parking lot near the high school gym to report for work. But, as he started to get out of his car, he immediately noticed a group of at least 25 men standing in front of the building.

They were big and menacing. 

He knew they were there to make sure he never coached at Central High School. 

He sat in his car a long time.

“Finally, I decided if they were going to whip me, I was ready to take the medicine.”

He stepped out of the car, and the entire group of men started walking straight at him…and they weren’t smiling.

They surrounded him. Then one man asked, “Are you Coach Williams?” Williams said yes.  The man smiled, stuck out his hand and said, “Welcome to Central High School!” Then the men were shaking his hand and laughing and embracing him.

“It was one of the most amazing moments in my life,” Williams said.

“Larry Glover introduced me to the football team. He told them to treat me with the utmost respect, and they did –– from that moment until now, 53 years later, Williams said.

“That was my introduction to Central High School!”

“Mr. Kinsley had apparently told them about my reservations about coming to Central, and they didn’t want me to feel that way.”

That season Coach Robert Williams had an outstanding baseball team at Central High. “I was so proud of those youngsters. They were a fine team.”

His only problem that year came after the school year was over.

In the Baton Rouge area, high school teams usually play together in the summer American Legion, but in 1970 American Legion ball hadn’t yet been integrated.

Archie McClure of Central attended all of the preseason American Legion coaches’ meetings on Coach Williams’ behalf. So the other coaches had no reason to suspect that the all-white Central team would be coached by a black man!

The night before the first game of the summer, the American Legion coaches had scheduled a planning meeting at the clubhouse at Howell Park in Baton Rouge.

Coach Williams showed up, only to be stopped at the door.

“May I help you?” the white man asked.

“I’m here for the coaches’ meeting,” Williams said.

“There must be some mistake,” the man said.

Eventually, he was let into the meeting, much to the chagrin of some of the white coaches in the room.

Suddenly, they decided to “rework” the schedule for opening day. The defending state champion –– Redemptorist –– would be playing Central tomorrow!

It was a mismatch, obviously designed to embarrass and discourge the young black coach.

But Rober Williams had a few ideas of his own.

Robert’s has a brother named Doug Williams –– the same Doug Williams who quarterbacked the Washington Redskins to the world championship in the 1988 Superbowl!

In 1970, Doug Williams was a 15-year-old kid and a pretty fair pitcher at Chaneyville High School. 

Robert got to thinking. Most American Legion teams were made up of players from one particular high school. But the rules actually allowed a team to use any player from a certain geographic area. 

Central’s district included Zachary, Chaneyville, and Pride.

The next day, when Central took the field against Redemptroist, the Wildcats included their usual all-white team –– with the addition of two black players from Chaneyville.

Young Doug Williams pitched that day and had a blistering fastball. Leo McClure, son of Archie McClure, was the catcher.

Central had a field day and rocked defending state champion Redemptorist right out of the park, crushing the Wolves 14-3!

After the game, the people of Central drove behind Robert Williams all theway to his home in Zachary –– just to make sure he made it home safely.

“After that, I really didn’t have any problems of a racial nature,” Williams said.

Among his players in those early years were some of Central’s best know leaders today, including Russell Starns, Rep. Bodi White, Clerk of Court Doug Welborn, Leo McClure, Parkview principal Ken Worsham, and the Rogillio boys.

Russell Starns remembers Robert Williams as “a great coach” and “a great man”. He was humble and poor, just like the rest of us in Central, but he gave us everything he had, and that was a lot!” 

Looking back on his days in Central, Robert Williams said, “The greatest reward came long after I left Central High School. The year was 1997. I was in the hospital being prepped for a heart operation. At a time like that you feel very much alone. I didn’t know if I would live or die.”

“As I was laying there on that table, a young lady looked down on me and said, ‘That’s Coach Williams!’ She told the doctors, ‘Whatever you do, take care of this man, because he’s the best!’”

“Everyday that young lady, Monica Nijoka from Central, would be by my side at 7 a.m. She was my guardian angel, and she was in charge of that hospital! I knew I would get only the best of care!”

After teaching and coaching for several years at Central High, Willicams was named a supervisor for the East Baton Rouge Parish system, where he eventrally retired. After retirement, he accepted a position as principal at a middle shcool in Centerville, Mississippi. He commuted everyday from his home in Zachary.

Then in 2007 when the Central school system was founded, he applied to be Supervisor of Student Services. “I wanted to come back to Central,” he said.

Supt. Mike Faulk was impressed and immediately offered him the position, before school board president Russell Starns even knew Williams had applied.

Robert Williams retired again about five years ago. Yet, his enthusiasm for the future of Central seems unbounded. 

“I love Central!” If I were a young man coming up today with a family, I’d move to Central. I’d do it for my children.”

“It was wonderful to be back in Central. I was just so happy to be part of the Central community in helping establish the new school district and being part of history!”

Everyone in Central who worked with Robert Williams has fond memories of him.  Archie McClure made a special effort to befriend Robert Williams in the 1970’s.  His son, Central baseball coach Leo McClure, says Robert Williams was a very special man. “They could not have sent a better man to Central than Robert Williams!”