Ed Williamson 
Full Name:  Henry Edward Williamson
     Born:  February 16, 1912, Atlanta, Ga.
     Died:  January 14, 1991, Tallahassee, Fla.

Seminole Relations:  Father of Bud Williamson

Legacy Bricks:  Legacy Walk Map Link
   1987 Coach HOF - Loc 28


FSU Career
Coaches & Administrators

                     C


Member of the FSU Hall of Fame
Elected into the FSU Hall of Fame in 1987
He was a true pioneer. In 1947, just weeks before Florida State began its football tradition, Ed Williams was asked to be head coach. He had little equipment and players who were largely strangers to him and to each other. His team did not even have a nickname. Williamson continued to teach full time and received no supplement for coaching. When he asked for money to scout his first opponent, Stetson, President Campbell asked, "Do you mean you want to spy on them?" In '47 Williamson's team went 0-5, but played three opponents on even terms. Some one had to begin and Ed Williamson did it with good humor, good sense and dignity. He has remained a staunch supporter of the program he whistled into existence 40 years ago.
Obituary for Ed Williamson.

From the Tallahassee Democrat, January 15, 1991, Page 27, by Gerald Ensley.

FSU's first football coach dies.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - 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. "He 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 first of those coaches to die.

Born in Atlanta, Henry Edward Williamson moved to Tallahassee when he was one. 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.

After fours years as a gunnery officer, Williamson returned to Tallahassee in 1946 as an assistant professor of physical education, and director of the intramural 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 a real low-key guy. He didn't put a lot of pressure on us. We went out and had fun."

In 1959, Williamson left FSU to take a job with the Florida Department of Education. In 1976, he retired from the state.

In retirement, Williamson was an avid golfer and fisherman, playing golf two or three times a week and frequently fishing from his boat docked on Lake Talquin.

Williamson also remained an avid sports fan. Though he had quit attending FSU football games in recent years because of the crowds, Williamson was a frequent spectator at FSU basketball games - and an ardent Seminole.

"He was very much down on the University of Florida," said his older brother, J.D. Williamson, 80, who played football for Leon and Florida. "When he was the first coach, he had arguments with Florida because they didn't want to play FSU. That got Ed down on Florida, and he never got over it."

On Jan. 3, Williamson checked into Tallahassee Memorial Regional Medical Center, complaining of chest pains. On Jan. 4, Williamson had surgery for a malignant tumor in his lungs. His brother said Williamson appeared alert the next day, but "shortly after that, he got worse."

In addition to his brother, Williamson is survived by his second wife, Laura, his son, Bud Williamson, two step-sons, Bob and Hugh Kennedy, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Williamson's first wife, Florence, died in the late 1970s; his only daughter, Mary Ed Steinmeyer, died last April.



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