By Stampeders.com staff
Earlier this week, John Hufnagel was announced as one of three finalists for the 2014 Annis Stukus Trophy as the Canadian Football League’s coach of the year.
The first Stampeders coach to ever win the award, which was instituted in 1961, was Jerry Williams in 1967.
Williams, a Spokane, Wash., native, was a very remarkable man. In addition to being a football player —with the Washington State Cougars in college and with the Los Angeles Rams and Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL — and coach, Williams was a fighter pilot during WWII and earned a law degree.
In the late 1970s, he took a hiatus from football to become a rancher in Arizona and he was a cancer survivor as be won a battle with leukemia in 1990.
As a football coach, Williams was recognized as an innovator and he is credited with introducing the “nickel defence” which features the use of an extra defensive back in obvious passing situations.
Williams served as a player-assistant coach with the Eagles in 1954 before becoming head coach at the University of Montana in 1955. After two years in Missoula, he returned to the Eagles as an assistant and remained there until 1964 when he got a call from the Calgary Stampeders.
Williams served as an assistant to Bobby Dobbs for one season before being promoted to the head job in 1965 when Dobbs left to coach at the University of Texas-El Paso.
Williams posted a 40-23-1 in four seasons with the Stamps including 12-4 marks in 1965 and 1967. Calgary made the playoffs three times with Williams at the reins including a Grey Cup appearance — the Stamps’ first in 19 years — in 1968.
Williams left the Stamps following the 1968 season to become head coach of the Eagles. The move was controversial because he was still under contract to the Stamps and Calgary’s board of directors had denied the Eagles permission to speak to their head coach.
Williams countered that his contract gave him the right to opt out and expressed regret about the turmoil created by the situation.
“My relationships with general manager Rogers Lehew, the board of directors and the entire Stampeder organization have been the best that I have experienced in my 14 years of coaching,” said Williams at the time.
“If there are any bitter feelings at this present hour, I hope they will soon pass away.”
They did because Williams eventually returned to Calgary to work for the Stampeders.
However, things didn’t work out for Williams in Philadelphia as he posted a 7-22-2 record and was fired three games into the 1971 season.
He returned to the CFL in 1972 when he became head coach in Hamilton and led the Tiger-Cats to a Grey Cup in his first season. Williams was 30-29-1 over four seasons in Steeltown before walking away from the game, at least temporarily.
He interrupted his retirement in 1981 to return to the Stamps to serve as offensive coordinator. He served as interim head coach for the final four games of the season as he replaced the fired Ardell Wiegandt.
Williams left football for good following the 1981 season and returned to Arizona. He died on Dec. 31, 1998 at the age of 75.