Famed track coach George Williams helps athletes prep for Paris Olympics, reflects on departure from St. Augustine's University
Posted November 29, 2023 7:10 p.m. EST
Updated April 29, 2024 4:16 p.m. EDT
Raleigh, N.C. — Former St. Augustine's University coach George Williams has coached hundreds of national and Olympic champions during his long career.
Even though the university fired Williams in July 2020, the 81-year-old continues to coach athletes at different stages of their lives.
“I don’t have bitter feelings for nothing,” Williams said. “I didn’t have bitter feelings when I left.
“It’s something that will hurt you or pinch you a little bit, but it’s not a feeling. It’s something you have to get over.”
In March 2020, Williams was told he would have to take a 50% pay cut and move into a new position in the athletic department or leave a school whose gymnasium bears his name. He turned down that offer and was handed a termination letter from a place he considers home.
“It hurts,” Williams said. “It’s always going to hurt until somebody gets together and says, ‘Hey, Coach Williams, we apologize for all this mess. It wasn’t really us who are here now. It was someone who was no longer here.’”
Williams said he does not think his departure from St. Augustine's will tarnish his legacy.
“It has nothing to do with my legacy,” he said.
He says he's settled the lawsuit he filed after that dismissal.
“I think I need an apology … from somebody,” Williams said.
In July 2020, Williams and three other high-ranking employees at St. Augustine's University in Raleigh filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the school. They claimed they were retaliated against for raising concerns about how the school was being run.
Williams' attorney, Nicholas J. Sanservino Jr., last week said his client was "abandoned" by his alma mater.
Regardless, Williams said he’s enjoying his life.
Williams said former St. Augustine's football coach Howard Feggins reached out to him after he was fired this past October. Williams didn’t respond, saying he was not part of the university anymore.
In 47 years of coaching track and field, George Williams had 280 individual national champions, 39 national championship teams and hundreds of Olympic medal winners.
Ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Williams is helping several athletes prepare.
